Stephen Colbert doesn’t shave his head for just anybody. But sometimes that’s what it takes to get attention for a worthy cause.

This week, Comedy Central’s Colbert Report is broadcasting from Baghdad’s Camp Victory in support of U.S. troops serving in Iraq. In a show of solidarity, he’s now sporting a high-and-tight haircut. But he’s also putting the spotlight on a different part of the military –- the children who make great sacrifices of their own while their parents serve our country.

That’s where my organization, DonorsChoose.org, comes in. Together we hope to give these kids a leg up. I founded DonorsChoose.org nine years ago after witnessing the scarcity of materials in our country’s public schools, I never could have imagined the extent to which American citizen philanthropists have responded. In that time, we’ve raised over $34 million for public school classroom projects around the country.

As part of our “Support Our Troops” campaign, launched in partnership with Colbert, DonorsChoose.org is running a friendly competition among the Armed Forces –- Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard — to see which branch’s supporters can have the biggest impact on classrooms. As of today, we have raised more than $130,000, and the Army is barely hanging on to the lead (check out the leaderboard as the tension builds in real-time).

Literally hundreds of projects have been submitted by teachers at military-serving schools across the country. Just a couple to inspire you:

1. Say Sí to the Army!
2. From A to Bravo Zulu!
3. Military Students Travel the World – Through Books!
4. General Lee’s Black Bears

I’d also like to give a shout out to Yahoo! for creating the Colbert Avatars. Now you can dress yourself as Stephen Colbert and accessorize with things like an eagle, bear, Colbert Nation hat, Che Colbert tshirt, fireplace, and a desk, and help us spread the word about the Support Our Troops campaign.

The good news is you don’t have to shave your head to help. Just please go donate to one of the many classroom projects waiting for funding. And if you need further inspiration, check out the video clips from this week’s Colbert Report.

Charles Best
Founder and CEO, DonorsChoose.org

Sarah’s going to Washington! (No, not that Sarah… well, we’ll see after the polls close tomorrow night.) Sarah Bunting, the blog maven behind Tomato Nation, has once again won the DonorsChoose Blogger Challenge and is making good on her promise to tour various Washington, D.C., monuments dressed as a tomato. But what will she wear to lunch with Jerry Yang?

Quick recap: For the second year in a row, Yahoo! has offered a grand prize for the blogger who mobilized the most readers to donate to DonorsChoose, the charity that lets you directly fulfill wishlists for public school teachers. Last year, Jerry offered to take the champion to lunch. This year, we upped the ante and also threw in a field trip for the victorious blogger’s favorite school, worth up to $5,000.

Tomato Nation mobilized 1,162 donors, raising $111,352 and reaching 19,577 kids. She blew away the competition, showing just how powerful blog microcosms can be — especially in the midst of an it-might-be-or-it-might-not-be-no-one-wants-to-call-it-a-recession. In addition to exceeding her own personal goal of $100,000 (for which she promised to tour our nation’s capitol in said bulbous red costume), Bunting is likely now agonizing over which public school will be enjoying Yahoo!’s field trip bonanza.

Let me leave you with these inspiring words from Tomato Nation, explaining just what kind of difference it all made to public school kiddos:

It’s not about the crayons or the turtles or the overhead projectors; they need those things, but mostly they need to know people give a damn. At least a little suck into every life must fall, but the worst part of any suck is thinking that no one cares, that you’ll have to live with it on your own. One of the sweetest phrases in English, after “I love you” and “open bar,” is “damn, that does suck,” coupled with a pat on the shoulder. It lets you keep going.

That did suck. Now it doesn’t. Y’all gave six figures of damn… [sic] so that enough kids to repopulate my entire hometown could get supplies they needed, and would not lose hope.

We can’t wait to host our favorite tomato to lunch here in Sunnyvale. Jerry’s napkin is all tucked in.

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor

Photo from abchao

A year ago, Jerry Yang put his appetite on the line in the name of America’s public schools and offered to have lunch with the blogger who could mobilize the most readers to donate to the DonorsChoose 2007 Blogger Challenge. (DonorsChoose lets you play Santa by fulfilling wishlists from individual public school teachers.)

We’re upping the ante. This year’s challenge is on and the victorious blogger’s favorite school will head off on a field trip valued at up to $5,000. That’s right. Five G’s. Last time I checked, that would be enough to bus, feed, and admit my son’s entire elementary school to the fabulous new California Academy of Sciences.

To support your favorite blogger (and there are more than 150 participating so far), head over here and fund things like kits for studying bugs, musical white boards, digital cameras, books about Appalachian culture, and classical CDs. You’ll find heavy-hitters like TechCrunch, Engadget, Craigslist’s Craig Newmark, Fred Wilson, Kara Swisher, Robert Scoble, and of course, Sarah Bunting of TomatoNation, whose readers raised more than $100,000 last year. This year, if readers fund all of the classroom projects on her giving page, Sarah will do a full-fledged tour of Washington, D.C. monuments dressed as a tomato. White House and all. Well, I’m sure she’ll at least make it to the fence.

Here’s the stuff our lawyers want us to add. We’ll trust DonorsChoose to let us know which blogger succeeded in getting the most people to donate. The blogger will then choose a school that gets a field trip. We’ll pay for it, but they will need to arrange logistics with the school. The maximum for the field trip is $5,000, and we’ll be able to pay up to three vendors (e.g. the museum, transportation, and food).

With that out of the way, it’s time to vote with your wallet — whether you’re inspired by a traveling vegetable, getting a personal thank you note scribbled in crayon, or just plain making a kid’s day.

UPDATE: This just in! Having enjoyed the spirited competition it elicited last year, Jerry has once again agreed to offer a grand prize of lunch with the blogger who inspired the most readers to donate to the challenge. He’s hungry, so bring it on!

Nicki Dugan
Blog Editor