Houston Strategies

A quick pass-along, for those who might be interested in supporting the challenge.

Hi Tory -

I'm writing because DonorsChoose.org, the country’s most innovative online charity, is kicking off a huge back-to-school campaign for Texas public school students. It's the first time we've done this, and I hope Houston Strategies readers will be a part of it.

It's a simple concept, but it works brilliantly: teachers post requests on DonorsChoose.org for materials and experiences their kids need to learn, but that schools can’t pay for. Then, anyone can browse the projects and choose which ones to fund directly.

Will you help by picking out a few proposals that speak to you and challenging your readers to fund them as part of our "Blogger Challenge"?

Maybe you’re into technology, and you want public school students to have access to computers. Maybe you want to get more books, music and art into our schools. You might simply want to help enrich the lives of these students, the majority of whom live below the poverty line.

Whatever the reason, I hope you'll help before September 30^th, when the campaign ends.

You can check out local projects and create your own challenge at www.BloggersChoose.org. It only takes a few minutes.

You can also help our campaign here in Texas by posting a banner and blogging about the Back to School campaign. And don't forget to include a link to http://www.donorschoose.org/Texas.

Please let me know if you have any questions, and thanks so much!

Joanna Bould

On behalf of DonorsChoose

P.S. We’ve gotten great support from the blogosphere: bloggers have raised over $60,000 for classroom projects so far (we've also gotten great press in the traditional media). We hope that you’ll join bloggers throughout Texas in helping Texas classrooms!

P.P.S. DonorsChoose has expanded into the Gulf Coast to reach out to schools affected by Hurricane Katrina. If you want to add them to your challenge, you can see a list of classroom needs in hurricane-affected areas here.