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Philanthropy Moment; or, we're back!

October 6th, 2011 at 04:22 pm

Philanthropy for reals: Yesterday Starbucks stores and kiosks in our county handed out $10 gift cards good for funding

Text is DonorsChoose.org and Link is
DonorsChoose.org school projects. My son's school is a "high poverty" one, and I saw five projects yesterday for which our school teachers requested funding. The art supplies request was funded within hours probably because it was the first project mentioned in the PTSA e-mail and because everyone's child takes art, therefore it's immediate bang-for-the-buck; the special education middle schoolers and preschoolers, especially the latter, are still looking for funding. We funded the special ed projects, because there's never enough one can do for special ed.

We took two $10 cards, as there was supposedly a limit of one card per donor. Then I found that two females took about a dozen cards between them to fund projects. The end justifies the means, I guess. We also visited the Scholastic Book Fair and donated $19.68 worth of books and taxes to our son's class.

Today I give $10 to the local food bank.
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Server outage: Now I am wondering if SavingAdvice.com shares server space with Bank of America.

I will say this for Bank of America: it doesn't send us stupid mailers like "Open an account with $10000 and we'll give you a $150 bonus!" because everyone who hasn't banked with Chase has ten thousand smackers kicking around, right? "Oh I could go to a credit union I guess, but why not take out all the money in my mattress right now and head to JP Morgan Chase? It's obviously a successful company with integrity!"

And everyone who banks with Citibank has $4500 extra in their wallet or hidden in some home safe waiting for the now present moment when Citibank ratchets its fee-free checking account minimums to $6000.

This is why I don't bank with banks: I simply do not have the clairvoyance that bank account holders are expected to have: I'm supposed to know in advance how much to save and when to put it into an account to avoid fees when new terms and conditions kick in. Sorry, not gifted in that department.

6 Responses to “Philanthropy Moment; or, we're back!”

  1. baselle Says:
    1317920863

    I got one of those cards also and I haven't used it yet. I'd be happy to throw mine into your school system.

  2. PauletteGoddard Says:
    1317921601

    Thank you! I've sent an e-mail to the account you've supplied.
    Hubby says that the steep increase in account balance minimums is to trap the inert bank account holders into accepting fees on their previously fee-free accounts.

  3. My English Castle Says:
    1317950672

    My dad was a credit union guy, our mortgage is with one, and I'm turning into a CU fan too.

    Paulette--I've been so wretched with my exercise drought. I must start again.

  4. LuckyRobin Says:
    1317954571

    I've always used credit unions and I got my husband out of banks when we first started dating. They are just not worth the exorbitant charges.

  5. PauletteGoddard Says:
    1317964148

    My English Castle -- me too. I did walk for two miles today, but not very winded! If my husband takes the car to work tomorrow I might end up walking 3+ miles as I do a sign-waving gig for the candidate.

  6. PauletteGoddard Says:
    1317964302

    @LuckyRobin: we were slow to credit unions. Bank of America sped us toward one in the mid2000s. My husband made three in-person visits because he kept getting billed for insufficient balances after he thought he'd closed his accounts!

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