The projects that we were funding with the giving cards from DonorsChoose.org ranged from school libraries to ESL classes. With the last card redeemed earlier this month, Julie Lacouture, director of the west region DonorsChoose.org, sent us a report identifying our team’s impact on education across the nation.

An excerpt:

The Rubicon Project Giving Cards were used to fund 74 different teacher projects on DonorsChoose.org. The majority of these projects came from High Poverty Schools (schools where 40% or more of students qualify for free or reduced school lunch).
• 80% were high poverty schools
• 9 % were high need schools
• 3% were minimal poverty

According to teacher estimates, these projects will provide over 15,000 hours of classroom instruction and impact 6,470 students from kindergarten through high school.
Breakdown of Grade Levels
28% pre kindergarten through 2nd grade
33% 3rd grade through 5th grade
12% middle school
25% high school

Many employees of the Rubicon Project donated in addition to their GivingCard. We were touched by this generosity. Thanks to Rubicon Project employees, $4,885.51 in donations were made to schools across the US.

Additionally, employee donations to projects were matched by over 400 individuals from across the country, resulting in $29,544 of materials and supplies delivered to schools across the country. Well done!

It was a pleasure working with Julie and the team here was really impressed by this organization’s simple but effective mission: to provide students in need with resources that our public schools often lack. See how you can help improve a classroom by going to DonorsChoose.org

While I’m sure the local pubs celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in appropriate Irish Car Bomb-style, we went back to the roots of this feast day and hosted an in-house potluck that gave Thanksgiving a run for its turkey. Everyone brought in so much food that dinner wasn’t an option for most. Throughout the day, we snacked on the chocolate-covered strawberries that Lisa brought in while some team members focused on hunting down the coveted recipes of their favorite dish. There’s been some parlaying for the secret behind the pork vindaloo and Daisy’s Barbacoa didn’t make it past the afternoon—it was the most popular dish of the day!

But as much as we enjoyed stuffing our faces to our stomach’s content, we were even happier to raise funds through this potluck for The Midnight Mission, a human services organization in Los Angeles that focuses on Skid Row. During these economic times, even this long-running rescue program is suffering from a drastic decline in donations. So we decided to opt out of catering for a day and pass on the money we saved to The Midnight Mission. We set up a collection box next to our feast yesterday, and wrangled up a generous donation for the organization—and all we had to do was spend a few extra minutes in our own kitchen! We look forward to joining the The Midnight Mission in a few weeks, when we will volunteer a few hours serving lunch to the homeless and spend some time in someone else’s kitchen for a great cause. For more information on The Midnight Mission, check out www.midnightmission.org.

When I ran out of time to shop for my friend’s present during the holidays, I picked up a $20 gift card to Starbucks for him. He thanked me for it, even though I remembered a few days later that he hates coffee.

I admit that gift cards can sometimes be a thoughtless gesture, a less-than-impressive display of the time you have spent on a person. But when I received a $50 card from the Rubicon Project in December, I was impressed by both the message and intent of this gift. This giving card to DonorsChoose.org, a website that invites teachers in poverty-stricken areas to submit proposals for classroom materials and equipment, gave me the opportunity to improve the education system across the country. All I had to do was pick a project from the DonorsChoose website, and then my company would put $50 towards that cause.

I gave half my giving card to a first grade classroom in San Jose that was beginning a Reader’sTheater to help students practice their fluency. The other half I spent on an adult education course that helped immigrants, refugees, and permanent residents practice English.

Other team members opted to pool their resources in order to fully fund a project: Mallory and Craig helped a school finish their library. My two projects are still a few hundred dollars short of their goal but I have faith. You can help these project get off the ground by going to www.DonorsChoose.org and getting your company involved.