I want to begin by saying thank you once again to everyone who helped make this possible.
If you read my post last week, you saw that both of my wife's initial Donors Choose projects were funded thanks to a matching initiative that DonorsChoose.org ran last week to commemorate their 1,000,000th funded project.
Thanks to generous liquid donations by several Steemians, I was able to make a donation to complete the first project and secure the funding for the wobble stools! You can read the full details and see the transaction confirmations here. We are still waiting on the wobble stools to arrive, but for now, here's a picture of the books that arrived to my wife's school this week:
After waiting one week for a few posts to pay out, I'm proud to announce the final totals that were raised thanks to the generosity of users across the platform.
- Funding Education with the Blockchain, Volume 1: Books and Wobble Stools!- @ethandsmith: 41.292 STEEM
- Let's Fund An Education Project with Steem- @alvinauh: 15.88 STEEM
- Funding Education with the Blockchain, Update Post #1: We Funded Project #1!!!!- @ethandsmith: 8.792 STEEM
Adding a 1 STEEM donation from @jeanlucsr, the grand total was 65.964 STEEM, which was rounded up to 66! After using @blocktrades to convert the 66 STEEM to Litecoin and selling the Litecoin on Coinbase, we ended up with $271.53, and I added the $12.22 leftover from the first fiat conversion for a grand total of $283.75!
Knowing this amount, we planned to create another Donors Choose project, however, since I wanted to be able to use all of the funds generated by this initiative on her specific classroom needs, we decided to simply purchase the items ourselves from Amazon in order to avoid several fees that Donors Choose imposes for processing and a 15% donation suggestion in order to help them fund future projects. Projects on Donors Choose cannot be fully funded unless they meet the entire goal, including the fees and extra donations.
While this does not leave as solid of a trail to prove the donation, we will be filming a video of us unboxing the materials once they arrive in order to show that the funds did indeed go toward the resources for her classroom, which include three more wobble stools and several more books. (full list below)
Here's the transaction history:
- STEEM Transfer to blocktrades
- Conversion to LTC
- Sold LTC on Coinbase
- Ordered the items on Amazon (I pitched in the $15 for sales tax):
- Items are on their way! We will be sharing an unboxing video with you when they arrive!
This means that throughout the entire initiative, we raised $425.39 for my wife's classroom on the STEEM blockchain!
That's absolutely incredible. I want to say thank you to everyone who took the time to upvote, resteem, or comment on any of the three posts listed above. Thank you again to those who gave liquid donations. I wish I could send personal letters of thanks to all of you, no matter how big or small your contribution. Please know that you have made a huge difference in the lives of 24 students in the United States.
If you'd like to hear my wife and my personal words of thanks, listen to the first minute of my latest podcast. We are so incredibly grateful for how the community came together to help us with this project.
Moving Forward
Since this project was so successful, I am going to blog about other projects that I can support through Donors Choose for other schools in my area. Keep an eye on my blog for the next volume of Funding Education with the Blockchain. I can't wait to use Steemit to support many more education projects in the future. If you have any questions about this process or would like to make a contribution to support future initiatives, just comment on this post, or find me on Discord (ethandsmith#7991) or Steemit.chat (ethandsmith).
Thank you all again so much for your support! I can't wait to share photos and videos with you of the resources when we receive them!
I saw hidden figures there. One of my favs ;) @ethandsmith anyways kudos for what you're doing, I'm an educator too so this means a lot to the whole wide world educators <3
Hidden Figures is a fantastic book, and I thought the movie was well-done also. Good to know that there are other educators supporting this initiative. Thank you so much for stopping by!
I was happy to contribute - in my own small way via an upvote - to your cause when I saw the first post. I was in agreement with what you intended to use the funds for, and felt it was a great idea as well.
When I heard about the quick success it did bring a smile to my face. Steemit and crypto are such a great way to help. This is an example of that. And now the total you managed to raise is considerable - enough to make a real difference.
Again I am very happy to have seen this initiative, and to be able to have helped in some way. All the best for future fundraising efforts. Thanks for detailing the results here, and keeping everything above board (although from my end you have my trust).
Your support has been a blessing, so thank you so much once again!
I think transparency is important with any initiative like this, so establishing trust is a great way to continue with further efforts. I should be launching another post this week about raising funds for other projects, so keep an eye out for them!
Let's see ... 60+ bucks in "processing fees and suggested donations" ... or 60+ bucks to buy the kids what we meant them to have all along. Yeah, I'll take that trade-off.
(I also love those charities that wind up with 90% "administrative costs" ... and "here, here's a dime for your flood-ravaged home ... and maybe a little food.")
Oh, I am in a mood today. For your sake, I'm avoiding Discord. For a while at least. Your luck may not hold.
I'm not entirely sure what the 15% suggested donation goes toward. Perhaps it is administrative costs, but I also know they will fund projects that are missing small amounts if they are near their deadlines, so I know some of the money goes toward that.
Anyhow, I'm glad everyone so far seems to think it was a good idea to purchase the items ourselves.
I'll keep an eye out for you on Discord. Thanks for your support and all of your hard work!
(As in, "I'm peeking around the corner before I dare step into the hall.")
As for my hard work ... you know you're more than welcome. Getting good stuff done makes it worth waking up every day.
🙌 . 🙌 . 🙌
Congrats again on this really cool initiative!
Thanks for the mention, you didn't have to, but I do appreciate it.
Love that you added the list. Could you ask your wife which book the kids liked best, so I can get one for my daughter as well 😊
#❤
I was happy to mention you because your donation is very much appreciated!
I think it would be very difficult for my wife to pick just one of the books. She has read most of them herself, and she loves them. We'll often go to the bookstore and sit and read all of the new children's books because there are so many great ones. I will ask her for a recommendation, though, and get back to you!
Thank you again for your support!
Cool. Would love to hear the recommendation. In Suriname there really isn't that much of a book culture. We always joke that its cheaper to buy your uncle a bottle of rum than to buy a book..:)
So, I'll probably buy some of the books in a US bookstore next month.
Glad I could support the project!
Honestly, I am glad that you sacrificed some transparency to save on the 15% fees of the site and used that for more money towards the kids and the classroom.
Can't wait for the unboxing videos.
I'm glad you see it this way. I was hoping that everyone would understand. This way, every single penny of the money was used for the project, and we didn't have to rely on other donations to the project for it to come to completion. Also, the materials are on their way much more quickly than they normally would be!
Thank you for your support, and I, too, am looking forward to making the unboxing videos!
That is so great! I'm glad her classroom will benefit from your work on Steemit! :) I know the kids were excited to get the first round of books. Is she surprising them or telling them in advance that they are coming? I do not tell my kids anything that is "about" to happen. Mainly I don't want to hear the whining and complaining if something changes or there is a delay, but also surprises are pretty fun - especially seeing it through a kids' eyes. :) I was wondering if there was a fee through donorschoose, so it is good that you went straight to amazon! It's the same with gofundme - a fee - but I guess they have to make money somehow.
She unboxed the first books with them since they were shipped to the school. Her special ed co-teacher got it on video. It's pretty funny and I wish I could share it here. However, she didn't tell them about the wobble stools, only that there's another big surprise coming soon. I can't wait to see how they react to them.
Since we ordered the latest things via Amazon, they'll be coming to our house directly, so we'll be able to unbox them to show everyone here on Steemit! I know her class will be surprised to see more things come.
The 15% fee isn't really a bad thing. They use it to help fund other projects that are slightly below their goals and such. However, it didn't really work out for us since I wanted to be able to use the exact amount generated by the blockchain for the resources. I'm sure she'll continue to use Donors Choose, and I'm looking forward to supporting more projects on there in the future.
Thanks for your continued support!
They are going to be so excited about the stools. I'm guessing they will have to take turns? Just the hyperactive kids get to have them at first? ;) That is good that she will be using donors choose again. It sounds like a helpful site! I can imagine there are lots of great projects and ideas on there! She should just take an audio version of the kids reaction to the wobble stools. I bet they are going to be super excited. :)
I'm actually not sure how she plans to implement their use in the classroom. I'm sure they will get to take turns sitting on them, and she'll do her best to prioritize the children who can make better use of them instead of simply using them because they're fun.
Donors Choose has funded several projects for her in her first two years of teaching, so I anticipate she will continue to use it in the future. I also hope that Steemit will continue to thrive and we can help fund plenty more initiatives in the future.
I'll see what I can do about the audio recording. That might just work. Thanks for the suggestion!
Well, first hi from some long time not being here.
Second, i love to see you are still active ;-).
And also love that you still make efforts to do well.
I hope that i will have more time to check here too and to help if i can.
I'm missing the times being here but who knows when and what.
Cheers and good wishes
Glad to see you stopped by to check out this effort!
I hope you can support future posts like these. Thank you so much!
I am new to Steemit (joined in 2016) but never did anything but am now getting a handle on things. To that end, I am amazed at the ideas and projects that people are using Steemit for and I find it humbling in the extreme.
Then I came across your post and see what you are doing with it and the value that you and your wife are adding to the teaching and the education of our future adults. Kudos to you and your wife.
Hey @westcoast! Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by this post and check out our efforts. My plan is to continue these initiatives for more education-related projects, so I hope you'll stay tuned for those in the future.
I hope you're enjoying your time on Steemit. I also joined in late 2016, but didn't get started until July of 2017. It's been a great part of my life so far, so I think you'll enjoy the community once you get established. Please let me know if you have any questions about anything at all. I'm happy to help!
Thanks so much. From what I can see this is a very giving community and it's nice to be a part of it.
So impressive, great work guys!
Thank you for your support! It definitely is great work, and we're looking forward to many other opportunities!
The power of steemit and it's people in it's glory and i hope things like that to keep happening!
We certainly hope that things like this will keep happening as well. Thank you for your support!
Many Congrats on the successful funding :)
Hope you have another great one ahead !
I hope so, too. Thank you for stopping by to support this initiative!
wonderful and congratulations too on this major milestone achievement : ) spread the love and light of knowledge everywhere :)
god bless you :)
Thank you so much! It means a lot that you've come to support this post, and I hope you'll be supporting future initiatives!
Superb !!!! This looks really exciting of what to come !
Yes, indeed! I'm looking forward to future initiatives, so thank you for your support!