We did it, for the third year in a row, this blog has won the tech blog category of the donors choose blogger challenge. Most importantly, we raised a total of $37,504 for teachers' projects in public schools. That number includes a $19,680 match from HP. Backing that out, this community contributed a total of $17,824 this year.
Here's our three year history:
It is interesting to me that the total amount raised by this community has been relatively constant over the past three years but this year we really took up the level of participation.
That may be a result of the meetup I am doing this coming week on wednesday evening. The deal is anyone who gave to the donors choose campaign via my giving page is invited, irrespective of the size of the donation.
There are 115 people rsvp'd for the meetup which is almost equal to the increase in donors this year over last year. That tells me that the meetup strategy worked. I am looking forward to meeting all of you on wednesday evening.
I'd also like to point out that donors choose raised a total of $630,938 in the blogger/social media challenge. That number includes the $200,000 match from HP. Even without the match, Donors Choose was able to increase the giving from $270,000 to $430,000. Some of the big new categories were Twitter, led by Livia Stone's $18,422 and Craig Newmark's page which tallied $12,091.
But nobody can touch Sarah Bunting's Tomato Nation, which has dominated this whole campaign the past three years. This year, the Tomato Nation community pulled in $314,158. I believe Sarah will be at the meetup on wednesday. I'm dying to meet her as she has proven that blog communities can do amazing things.
In conclusion, I want to thank everyone for putting up with my non stop promoting of the donors choose bloggers challenge this month, and I especially want to thank everyone who contributed. It's a great cause and I'll bet that many of you will make additional donations when you see how amazing the follow up/thank you process is. Donors Choose is a fantastic public service and I'm really proud to be involved with it.
