Donor funds every teacher's wish listed on website. $1.3M

[Liberal_in_LA]

Pleasant surprise for DonorsChoose.org, schools
Jill Tucker, Chronicle Staff Writer

San Francisco Chronicle September 1, 2010 04:00 AM Copyright San Francisco Chronicle. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Out of the blue, in the middle of a recession, the phone rang.

What would it cost, the caller asked the founder of DonorsChoose.org, to fund every California teacher's wish list posted on the Web site?

The founder, Charles Best, thought perhaps the female caller would hang up when he tossed out his best guess: "Something over $1 million," he told her.

Twelve hours later, the woman, Hilda Yao, executive director of the Claire Giannini Fund, sent Best an e-mail.

It said, in short, OK.

A day later, Yao mailed a check of more than $1.3 million to cover the entire California wish list, 2,233 projects in all, with an extra $100,000 tossed in to help pay for other teacher needs across the country.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/01/MN2D1F6FF7.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0yJCq4e00

[Orrex]

1. Very cool!

Congratulations to Ms. Yao for this terrific donation!

[meegbear]

2. Ms. Yao, the meegbear Poverty Relief Fund could use a donantion ...

please be as generous as you can.

[hootinholler]

3. So could the HootinHoller one too. n/t

[Chulanowa]

4. Get this woman a medal. n/t

[gratuitous]

5. I cheer for the donation

I weep that it took so little to cover every last wish from the teachers while we're subjected to endless recitations of why we can't spend more money on schools and education. You want homeland security? Raise an educated populace.

[Catherina]

6. The fund in question is tied to Bank of America's founder

The fund Yao directs was created in 1998 to honor Claire Giannini Hoffman, the daughter of the founder of Bank of America. Donations have focused on education as well as other issues, including a $3 million gift to the nation's school libraries from 2002 to 2004, Yao said.

Yao's mother, Dorothy Yao, the fund's former trustee, and Claire Giannini both believed education was a penetrating and enduring way to transform lives, she said.

"It makes me feel like I'm doing something to remember two remarkable women in the way they would like to be remembered," she said. "I'm happier than even some of the teachers."

http://www.cafemom.com/journals/read/1619310/any_teachers_or_schools_in_need_out_there_check_this_out_PIOG

This is why I don't hate wealthy people just for having wealth. I hate the for profit system but there are still good, decent people with money who SHARE and CARE. Hurrah for Ms Yao and what a way to honor Claire.

[YankmeCrankme]

7. Yes, it is nice that there are individual wealthy people who do donate monies

The problem is they should not have to donate to education. That is what our taxes should be funding fully. You can't really run an education system through donations. Honestly, a lot of wealthy people increased their wealth through tax reductions that partially came out of education funding.

It was a nice gesture, though.

[Catherina]

8. No they shouldn't. I totally agree and that's where I fault the system and the systemic greed

that the system encourages.

My point is that there are still good people and should the day come when the American people roll out the guillotine, I hope people like this won't get lumped in with the uncaring others.

[msanthrope]

9. Claire Giannini Hoffman was the first female to sit on the BofA board,

and Sears, I think.

Nice to see her legacy live on.

[flvegan]

10. ...and with one charitable check, Ms. Yao

has not only done a wonderful thing for the educators and kids of California, but she's also shamed the government responsible for it.