Because I know some people in these parts like numbers, I thought I’d give you a few stats for the Sb/DonorsChoose bloggers challenges currently underway.
At last count, we’ve gotten $12,325.59 (not counting the $10,000 match from SEED) from 152 generous donors — that’s an average of $81.09 per donor. (Potential donors, don’t be put off — as little as $10 can make a big difference when you’re combining forces with other donors!)
You’ve heard by now that the Pharyngula challenge already wrapped up. Those unholy, soulless, pirate zombies dug deep and ended up funding 313% of PZ’s goal.
However, there are some metrics by which the Pharynguloid are not the most awesome people (or zombies) participating in the drive. For example, donors to the Stranger Fruit challenge top the charts on pledge size, with an average pledge of $132.64 per donor.
And, when we work out the awesomeness of our readers normalizing for traffic, we end up with top 5 lists that may surprise you:
Category Archives: Philanthropy
News from Pledge Central.
I swear I’m putting up a couple posts today that have nothing to do with the ScienceBlogs/DonorsChoose drive to fund science and math classrooms. However, there have been some developments since the last update, and I thought you ought to know about them.
- Although PZ Myers and his minions met the goal of the Pharyngula challenge days ago, it shambles on like a zombie, now at more than 250% of the challenge goal. Way to go, unholy army of the undead!
- ScienceBlogs readers have so far donated $10,307.86 to the drive. Among other things, this means we’ve secured the entire $10,000 that SEED put up in matching funds! So, the classrooms get $20,307.86 from us (so far). Way to bleed our hosts of funds!
- Sandra Porter of Discovering Biology in a Digital World has joined the fun with a challenge of her own. And, she has generously contributed some prizes: an Exploring DNA Structure CD-ROM, a Kissing DNA T-shirt, a Green Fluorescent Protein mug, and a pack of 10 Twirling Telomere magnets. (The updated list of fabulous prizes, in its entirety, below the fold.)
UPDATE: I’m sad to report that DonorsChoose is not set up to receive funds from outside the U.S. Believe me, if it was up to us we’d take your money (funny-colored though it might be). We appreciate your generosity, and we’ll make sure to work out a way to include our non-U.S. readers if/when we do something like this again.
Excellent start, people! Have a gander at the challenges that are still open, and let’s see if we can help some more kids get the kind of experiences with math and science that they deserve.
- A Blog Around the Clock
- Adventures in Ethics and Science
- Aetiology
- Afarensis
- Cognitive Daily
- Discovering Biology in a Digital World
- Evolgen
- Gene Expression
- Good Math, Bad Math
- Island of Doubt
- Mike the Mad Biologist
- Neurotopia
- Questionable Authority
- Scientific Activist
- Stranger Fruit
- Terra Sigillata
- Uncertain Principles
- World’s Fair
Two days in: DonorsChoose progress report.
We kicked off the ScienceBlogs/DonorsChoose drive just over 50 hours ago. Since then:
- ScienceBlogs readers have made donations totaling $8498.73
- SEED is matching that $8498.73, and will match up to another $1501.27.
- Doing the math, your donations plus SEED matches means at least $16, 997.46 will go to help teachers and students. But, we’re going until July 1, so I know we can do better than that!
- Dave and Greta at Cognitive Daily are sweetening the pot even more — they’ll kick in their own money to add another 10% to any amount you donate to their challenge. (Don’t forget, that gets matched by SEED, too!)
- The Pharyngula challenge hit — and exceeded — its goal. (Nothing exceeds like excess.) At this point, I leave it to PZ to advise his minions about which of the other bloggers’ challenges they ought to support.
- Publish my haiku.
Help teachers help their students.
Hey, I can do both! - So far, exactly 17 readers who have made donations have forwarded their email confirmations from DonorsChoose to sb.donorschoose.bonanza@gmail.com to enter the drawing for fabulous prizes at the end of the drive. We have way more than 17 prizes to give away. Just thought you should know.
- Speaking of the fabulous prizes, I must give a shout-out to editor extraordinaire Mark Taber who got us 10 copies of SAMS Teach Yourself Blogging in a Snap to offer as prizes gratis! Knowing the author, I was psyched that we’d be able to get the book at the “author’s copies” price for the drawing, but Mark decided free was better.
Keep up the good work, folks!
DonorsChoose update: now with matching funds from SEED!
Since we kicked off the drive yesterday morning:
- ScienceBlogs readers have made donations totaling $3784.30
- Our beneveolent overlords at SEED have put up as much as $10,000 to match reader donations*. That means that so far, SEED is kicking in $3784.30 to match what you all have donated. And, if readers can collectively donate another $6125.70, SEED is committed to matching that as well.
- So far, exactly 13 readers who have made donations have forwarded their email confirmations from DonorsChoose to sb.donorschoose.bonanza@gmail.com to enter the drawing for fabulous prizes at the end of the drive. We have way more than 13 prizes to give away. Just thought you should know.
- In the bragging-rights battle between biology and cognitive science blogs … well, it’s not even close. The participating biology blogs have so far raised $2315.26 (or $289.41 per participating blog), while the cognitive science blogs have raised $146.81 (or $73.40 per participating blog). Come on, you brainiacs, give the biologists what for!
In case you’d like another look at the array of fabulous prizes, I’ve reproduced the list below the fold.
New data on awesome generosity of Sb readers.
Just a quick update on the progress of the ScienceBlogs/DonorsChoose raise-money-to-help-science-classrooms-a-thon:
- At last check (as I’m composing this post), across all the Sb blogs participating in the challenge, readers have donated more than $3000. That’s a strong start, readers!
- The bloggers at The World’s Fair are going to try to get you to donate to their challenge by promising, for a donation of $10 or more, to publish a science haiku of your composition in The Science Creative Quarterly. Is that fair?
- If you would like to help a particular geographical region, it’s worth combing through the participating bloggers’ challenges. For example, Mike Dunford of The Questionable Authority has set up a challenge aimed at helping classrooms in the Bronx. And I’m just betting that Coturnix’s challenge and Abel PharmBoy’s challenge include some worthy North Carolina proposals!
- Do cognitive science blogs have better readers, or do biology blogs? We’ll have to watch the progress of the challenges from the cog sci camp and the biology beach-head to find out for sure! If you’ve got a horse in that particular race, it’s time to represent.
- If you give, you might just get! Don’t forget to forward your confirmation email from DonorsChoose to sb.donorschoose.bonanza@gmail.com if you would like to enter the drawing for the fabulous prizes!
You folks are the best!
(The full list of participating bloggers, and links to their challenges, after the jump.)
Readers and ScienceBloggers help school-kids.
The ScienceBlogs/DonorsChoose raise-money-to-help-science-classrooms-a-thon!
Those of us who blog here at ScienceBlogs think science is cool, important, and worth understanding. If you’re reading the blogs here, chances are you feel the same way.
A lot of us fell in love with science because of early experiences in school — teachers who made science intriguing, exciting, maybe a little bit dangerous. But tightening budgets are making it harder and harder for public school teachers to provide the books, equipment, and field trips to make science come alive for kids.
DonorsChoose.org gives us a way to help teachers get the job done. A bunch of us at ScienceBlogs have set up Bloggers Challenges which will let us (and that includes you) contribute to worthy school projects in need of financial assistance. We’ll be able to track our progress right on the DonorsChoose site. And — because we like a little friendly competition — we’ll be updating you periodically as to which blogger’s readers are getting his or her challenge closest to its goal.
You don’t need to give a barrel of money to help the kids — as little as $10 can help. You’re joining forces with a bunch of other people, and all together, your small contributions can make a big difference.
Who’s In:
Here are the ScienceBlogs bloggers who are participating with Bloggers Challenges:
A Blog Around the Clock (challenge here)
Adventures in Ethics and Science (challenge here)
Aetiology (challenge here)
Afarensis (challenge here)
Cognitive Daily (challenge here)
Evolgen (challenge here)
Gene Expression (challenge here)
Good Math, Bad Math (challenge here)
Island of Doubt (challenge here)
Mike the Mad Biologist (challenge here)
Neurotopia, version 2.0 (challenge here)
Pharyngula (challenge here)
Pure Pedantry (challenge here)
The Questionable Authority (challenge here)
The Scientific Activist (challenge here)
Stranger Fruit (challenge here)
Terra Sigillata (challenge here)
Uncertain Principles (challenge here)
The World’s Fair (challenge here)
How It Works