Obviously this is a time when there are some major needs in the world where you are inclined to send your money. We don't want to overwhelm you with pleas for donations. But SFist Cares will continue on weekly because far away, or close to home, there are hard-working and valuable organizations that need your help.

When SFist was a little kid - in our short pants and pigtails - we loved school. All the fun projects and neat things to learn and do. But we were pretty lucky, as we had good school districts and teachers and they had the resources they needed to give us these opportunities.

Wait for it... yeah, there are kids who don't have that. And we're not even necessarily talking about really terrible schools where kids dodge bullets to get the math class. Lots of school have had their budgets cut and money redirected to other, say, wacky Presidential initiatives, that teachers are just making do with the basics.

DonorsChoose helps bridge this gap. Teachers submit specific proposals for projects they'd like to undertake. They describe why they think students would benefit and what they would be learning. The staff of DonorsChoose reviews each proposal, confirms that the teacher and class exist and that the project can be completed with the money requested. They also attempt to negotiate discounts with suppliers so the money spent is exactly what would be required for the project and there won't be any unexpected "Oh, we have the money for the box of stuff but no money to ship it here."