I recently came across a small piece in an old New Yorker magazine
(November 2003, I think) about a website where teachers in need of
funds could post requests for mini-grants. Anyone can browse these
requests and send money to the teacher to help him/her realize their
project. The projects range from needing art supplies, to creating a
library. The example used in the New Yorker piece was a teacher in
Brooklyn who needed money to buy roomier quarters for the classroom
pet - a hermit crab. I would like to know the name and web address of
the website. Thank you.

Hi Barriogirl,
   
The organization is called "DonorsChoose" - http://www.donorschoose.org
  
Amy Wallace was the name of the teacher, and the hermit crab was called "Clifford".
  
  
From from the article "Tough Shell":
  
"Three years ago, Charles Best, a twenty-four-year-old social-studies
teacher in the Bronx, started an organization called DonorsChoose, to
help colleagues like Wallace. Teachers write up grant proposals and
post them on www.donorschoose.org, and then parents and other
interested citizens can surf among the possibilities and decide
whether they?d prefer to fund, say, ?Hot Chocolate, Pajamas, and
Stories Keep Us Warm!? or ?Classroom Library for Gay or Questioning
Teens."
  
You can read the article in full here:
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/?031124ta_talk_friend
  
  
Hope that helps!
  
  
  
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