Donors Choose

Some people like to give to a charity in honor of a friend, by way of a present for someone who doesn't really need a material gift.

DonorsChoose allows you to give the money to charity, but let your honoree choose who it goes to. And they concentrate on small projects -- e.g. a classroom of autistic kids in Nevada who need $587 worth of photo and other resources to help them learn to communicate. (Nevada has crappy social services.) So whoever you're giving the gift of a charitable gift to can choose where he'd like the gift to go -- and have a pretty good sense of exactly how it helped.

Karma Upgrade Anyone?

At Donors Choose, teachers place free ads for what their classroom needs. For example, one North Carolina teacher had the interesting idea to have all his students write their answers to a question on a dryerase board, so he can at a flash see how many students understand what he just taught. Instead of, say, calling on one student while the others pass notes. The flash boards will cost $357 he doesn't have (55% of his students are from low income families), so he is asking for donations.

This is a cool site. It shortcircuits charity administration fees, school paperwork, and geography. And some of the ideas are experimental, not to say (r)evolutionary. Check it out if you've got a bit of money to spare, or just want to do good.

Offer not available in stores. Or to non-US citizens, alas.