I came across Donors Choose over at Consumerist Commentary who is working with pfblog.org to help promote select projects. While the specific campaign sponsored by pfblogs is aimed at financial literacy, there are tons of different types of projects to fund. I absolutely love the concept and will be adding it as a regular part of this blog. I have many friends who are either currently teachers or have been teachers in the past. They have one the most difficult and important jobs out there and reap relatively little in terms of financial rewards. And on top of that, they often have to purchase school supplies out their own pocket, and only the first $250 is deductible. I know plenty of teachers who spend much more than $250 of their own money on making sure their kids have the proper tools to learn (sometimes this is simply having pencils and notebooks). To add insult to injury, apparently Congress has yet to vote to extend the law that allows for this deduction.

My plan is every month to issue a challenge to which I will personally contribute a minimum of $25 towards. I’ve started this month with one project in my home state of Massachusetts, and challenge of $100. The project is to secure funds for the purchase of musical instruments for young children. While I’m hardly musically inclined myself, I firmly believe that music (and the arts in general) are an important part of education that too often is the first to get cut. Hopefully if these challenges are successful, I will sponsor challenges with many different projects.

I also want to take some time and acknowledge some of my inspiration besides Flexo at Consumerism Commentary. Nickel of Five Cent Nick impressed me with a very generous offer to match $1000 from readers who gave to the Conservation Fund. In general, I was inspired by all the blogs that participated in Blog Action Day. I was reminded not all of us personal finance bloggers are just bunch of skinflints who only care about our networth. Also, I’ve been plowing through the life of Chuck Feeney whho is certainly an inspiration to give back. Click on the graphic on the left to contribute to the challenge. Going forward I will be adding a challenge graphic as standard part of the blog.