It's time for the DonorsChoose Challenge! Last year, our Giving Page raised nearly $900, affecting 560-plus students. That's incredible! I know this year we can break $1,000. That's less than the cost of a MacBook!

DonorsChoose.org is an incredible website, letting public school teachers submit project proposals -- anything they need that their schools can't afford to buy for them. If any of you know a teacher, you probably know that this lack of adequate supplies can be a HUGE problem, especially now, with budget cuts affecting schools around the country.

Typically a teacher's choice is to shell out their own hard-earned dollars for these extras or simply go without, but DonorsChoose adds a third option -- asking others for help. Donors (that's you!) choose a project to fund -- part or all of it -- and when the project is complete, the teachers get their stuff, the kids get an awesome educational experience, and the donors get adorable thank-you notes and photos from the happy classrooms. It's been one of my favorite sites, and charities of choice, for years.

Each October, DonorsChoose.org runs a Social Media Challenge, letting bloggers and websites and whatnot set up a Giving Page of project proposals to sponsor. Their readers (again, that's you!) donate to the projects, and DonorsChoose tallies the totals on this leaderboard, for bragging rights and warm, fuzzy feelings, and that sweet sense of self-satisfaction that unites us as users of the Macintosh. (Hee!)

But there's more in it for you besides a chance to be generous, a tax deduction, and the awesome thank-you notes you'll get. I'm holding five drawings, one every week in the month of October, for fabulous prize packages. All you have to do to enter is donate $1 or more to a project on our Giving Page, then forward me the email receipt (susie at maclife dot com). I will email back to let you know you're entered (and tell you how AWESOME you are for donating), and your name goes in the drawing for that week. See the updated FAQ (which holds the official rules) for more details.

WEEK 1 PRIZE: Snow Leopard Family Pack! A $49 value, the Family Pack will put Apple's newest, raddest OS on up to 5 Macs (Intel only) in your household. Remember, this is a short week, so enter by this Saturday to be eligible! The official deadline is 11:59pm PDT on Saturday, October 3, 2009.

I've updated our FAQ for the 2009 Challenge, and our new Giving Page is live. Any questions? Just email me. Now go forth and give!