It would be more interesting to see --
* number of unique visitors per blog from the U.S. (this challenge is unlikely to inspire donors from other countries)
* average income of visitors to each blog (yeah, I know this is not available info, but if your readers have less money to spend...)
Yes, I'm going to donate, I did last year too; but I'd like to get a project to 100% funded and the only one I can afford this year is "roller coaster physics". I'm not buying the rationale for that one and it's impact is only for this year's class. I'd like to fund a project that provides basic equipment useful for multiple school years. So, I'm still mulling it over, but maybe my rambling here can give you some ideas for choosing different types of projects next year.
I have to agree with Cathy's comments, especially as it concerns the number of unique visitors to CogDaily who are actually American. I'm Canadian, but received all of my post-secondary education in the U.S.; and therefore, am sympathetic towards both countries. I'd make a donation in the future, but at least one of the following two things would have to happen: (1) it would be nice to see project choices that are at least 50% non U.S. (or proportional to the number of people visiting CogDaily who aren't American) and (2) the paper work to submit a donation doesn't require you to fill in information that assumes the person donating is American.
Good points. You'll actually have data later today about the percentage of visitors to CogDaily who are American. I'm pretty sure our readership isn't much different from other blogs in ScienceBlogs, though.
We'd be interested in supporting an international charity in addition to Donors Choose -- any suggestions?
Keep in mind that if a project you donate to doesn't get fully funded, you have the option of choosing another project instead, letting donors choose apply your money to a project they deem similar, or letting your money go towards the operational costs of donors choose. So don't let a fear that your money won't do any good stop you from donating!
Oy, if I wasn't paid crappy post-doc wages by the NIH, wages that don't scale with New York City's cost of living, I'd be able to contribute. (I do contribute about 1% of my take-home pay to charity, which is all I can afford at the moment.) It must be rich engineering blogs that are doing their part, not us poor people in the social sciences...
But this foundation is actually just one member of the American-based international charity agency, Global Impact, which has several other charity members identified here:
According to the website, members of Global Impact have to satisfy several criteria which seem to ensure that the donated money goes where the charity member says it's going. If this online donation is an annual event sponsored by scibloggers, it might be interesting for scibloggers sponsoring this event on their particular sites, to conglomerate into one charity (e.g., call it "SciBlog Donations") and submit an application to join Global Impact as a member charity. At the least, that might enhance the belief of commenters who might donate to the indicated charities, that the money is going where it is supposed to go.
It would be more interesting to see --
* number of unique visitors per blog from the U.S. (this challenge is unlikely to inspire donors from other countries)
* average income of visitors to each blog (yeah, I know this is not available info, but if your readers have less money to spend...)
Yes, I'm going to donate, I did last year too; but I'd like to get a project to 100% funded and the only one I can afford this year is "roller coaster physics". I'm not buying the rationale for that one and it's impact is only for this year's class. I'd like to fund a project that provides basic equipment useful for multiple school years. So, I'm still mulling it over, but maybe my rambling here can give you some ideas for choosing different types of projects next year.
I have to agree with Cathy's comments, especially as it concerns the number of unique visitors to CogDaily who are actually American. I'm Canadian, but received all of my post-secondary education in the U.S.; and therefore, am sympathetic towards both countries. I'd make a donation in the future, but at least one of the following two things would have to happen: (1) it would be nice to see project choices that are at least 50% non U.S. (or proportional to the number of people visiting CogDaily who aren't American) and (2) the paper work to submit a donation doesn't require you to fill in information that assumes the person donating is American.
Good points. You'll actually have data later today about the percentage of visitors to CogDaily who are American. I'm pretty sure our readership isn't much different from other blogs in ScienceBlogs, though.
We'd be interested in supporting an international charity in addition to Donors Choose -- any suggestions?
Cathy,
We're happy to add additional projects to the list. Any suggestions?
Keep in mind that if a project you donate to doesn't get fully funded, you have the option of choosing another project instead, letting donors choose apply your money to a project they deem similar, or letting your money go towards the operational costs of donors choose. So don't let a fear that your money won't do any good stop you from donating!
Oy, if I wasn't paid crappy post-doc wages by the NIH, wages that don't scale with New York City's cost of living, I'd be able to contribute. (I do contribute about 1% of my take-home pay to charity, which is all I can afford at the moment.) It must be rich engineering blogs that are doing their part, not us poor people in the social sciences...
If I had to choose, I would be somewhat partial to the Save the Children Foundation...
http://www.savethechildren.net/alliance/index.html
But this foundation is actually just one member of the American-based international charity agency, Global Impact, which has several other charity members identified here:
https://secure.charity.org/site/c.gtJUJfMQIqE/b.2462591/k.2BCA/Donate_N…
According to the website, members of Global Impact have to satisfy several criteria which seem to ensure that the donated money goes where the charity member says it's going. If this online donation is an annual event sponsored by scibloggers, it might be interesting for scibloggers sponsoring this event on their particular sites, to conglomerate into one charity (e.g., call it "SciBlog Donations") and submit an application to join Global Impact as a member charity. At the least, that might enhance the belief of commenters who might donate to the indicated charities, that the money is going where it is supposed to go.