Well, we're almost a week into the month of October, and the DonorsChoose.org Blogger Challenge is underway and picking up steam. You can read about the Challenge here, visit our very own Giving Page, get your FAQ on, and peruse our ever-growing list o' prizes.

But here is where I try to INSPIRE you all to give as generously as you can, which I realize isn't easy to do in these turgid economic times. Maybe a top 10 is in order? Beautiful.

From the home office in South San Francisco, hugging the picturesque San Francisco Bay and just a stone's throw from lovely Candlestick Park, here are the TOP 10 REASONS YOU SHOULD GIVE TO DONORSCHOOSE AS PART OF THE BLOGGER CHALLENGE.

10. PRIZES, PRIZES, PRIZES: Think of this like a raffle of sorts. Instead of buying a $10 raffle ticket, you're chipping in $10 (or any amount you choose, really) to a school that could really, really use it, and you can then enter our prize giveaway where you might get a $500 piece of software (cough, cough MICROSOFT OFFICE '08) for your trouble.

9. HELP A FELLOW MAC|LIFE READER! "Mr. D.," a second-grade teacher in Los Angeles, heard me talk about the Challenge on our latest podcast, and he wrote to say he LOVES DonorsChoose, and has submitted his own proposals in the past and had them funded. He's got three unfunded proposals on the site right now—a couple of Flip Ultra cameras for his kids to use, some special books for his students who struggle with reading, and some fun buzzers he can use to play Jeopardy with the class to review for tests. We've added them all to our Giving Page, so please check them out! (And don't hesistate to email me at susie at maclife dot com if you have suggestions for other proposals we should fund.)

8. MAC PRIDE, BABY: MacLife.com is currently way, way down on the leaderboard of Tech Blogs. Don't want to see AllThingsD's or Engadget's readers out-give you? Dig deep, my friends.

7. EVEN MORE PRIZES: I just heard, just now while I was writing this blog post, that we're getting more prizes donated by our amazing advertisers and generous tech companies from all over. Scosche is sending us some sweet earbuds and an iPod/iPhone charger for your car—very generous of them; Scosche stuff rules. Booq is providing some fancy Mamba Sling bags, as stylish as they are well-made and functional. We appreciate the support!

6. YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING ARE OUTSTANDING: As of this writing, we've got at least a few dozen prizes lined up, and you know how many donors we have so far? Two. Two donors. And one of those is your faithful scribe here, and the other just happens to be one of my coworkers. And neither of us is entering the contest, so we can save the prizes for you. Therefore, enter! The odds are in your favor! (But to enter, you have to donate. Read the FAQ for more.)

5. I AM SERIOUSLY BEING CRUSHED BY PRIZES HERE, PEOPLE: I was just handed some MORE. Gorgeous laptop covers by Isis Dei, and protective hard cases from Speck Products and Axio. If you have a laptop, you should donate to the Challenge and you could win it a fancy outfit.

4. CHILDREN ARE AWESOME: And their teachers are doing some really cool stuff with them thanks to these projects. Read DonorsChoose's blog for some inspiring examples.

3. MICROSOFT FREAKING OFFICE: We recently gave away not one, not two, but FIVE copies of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac, Special Media Edition, to the winners of one of our famous back-page Win contests. This software suite costs a cool $500 in your friendly neighborhood retail location, so giving away five of them was quite a thrill for us. And I felt kind of bad emailing the good folks at Microsoft to beg another copy to use as a prize for the Blogger Challenge. But the angelic Microsoft Mac Business Unit peeps not only said "Sure!" but they might toss in some hardware (mice, keyboards, etc.) as well. Stay tuned for more prize updates as we receive them, but already I must say...WOW.

2. YOU WILL BE IN A GREAT MOOD: for the rest of the day after you toss in a few bucks to help the children. Giving is wonderful for the soul; it really is.

1. EVERY DOLLAR COUNTS: I know it's rough out there right now. My rent just went up again, I can't afford plane tickets to visit my parents for Christmas, and it seems like everything (except RAM and hard drives) is getting more expensive all the time. Who can afford to save the world, am I right? See, that's the beauty of a project like this Blogger Challenge: We're working together. Sure, my donation isn't huge, but when we all chip in, we can accomplish a lot.

Thoughts? Feedback? Questions? Joining hands for a rousing chorus of "We Are the World"? Hit up the comments. Then hit up our Giving Page, and let's rock the Blogger Challenge together.