At Crux Research, we are proud of the pro bono work we do for non-profit organizations as well as our charitable donations. That said, we try not call great attention to them. The true nature of giving back is that its motivation comes from the heart. There is an excellent passage in the Book of Matthew (part of the Sermon on the Mount) that we strive to live by:

 “Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven … when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.”

At the risk being hypocritical and violating that spirit, we’d like to call attention to something we recently facilitated. Around the holidays each year, we were in a habit of sending holiday cards and a small gift (a coffee mug) to our clients and friends. This is perhaps as exciting as receiving a tie on Father’s Day. So, last year, we decided to work with DonorsChoose.org. Donors Choose allows teachers (often from areas of high poverty) to post classroom project requests. Donors can browse these requests and give to the ones that inspire them.

For the holidays this year, we sent gift cards for Donors Choose instead of our usual coffee mugs.

Our clients redeemed them to support many projects – almost 100 projects in total. Some projects our clients helped support included:

• Helping school in southern California buy 14 guitars for an after-school music program intended to keep kids out of gangs.
• Enabling a Nebraska classroom  to obtain Chromebooks to help students collect scientific experiment data.
• Supporting a high poverty school in Washington State that requested pencils and art supplies for day-to-day learning.
• Providing support for a Tennessee classroom that requested anti-bullying curriculum.
• Helping a NYC-area school purchase a xylophone to use during class and concerts.
• Helping a New Orleans classroom buy a printer to print out work and copy activities.

Bravo to our clients for doing their part. If you have never been to DonorsChoose.org we’d recommend you pay a visit. It doesn’t take long to get inspired to give to a needy classroom!