Unlike most publications covering American public education, Dropout Nation has been able to operate without seeking outside support. Thanks to the stunningly strong growth of readership, and the need to expand its capacity for serving you, sources of advertising and outside funding are now being developed. But for now, your favorite news and commentary source will remain an advertising- and foundation funds-free zone.

Given the good fortunes of this publication, Dropout Nation‘s editors and contributors only ask you to contribute your retweets, your word-of-mouth, and your eyeballs to this enterprise. At the same time, we ask you not to donate your time and energy to the organizations that are doing great work to help all of our children succeed in school and in life.

These are just a few of the groups you should support this Holiday season”

  • This week, the Connecticut Parents Union launches its Parents Express Bus tour as part of the second annual ‘Tis the Season to Be Reading literacy project. Between this Wednesday, Dec. 14 and Friday, Dec. 16, the bus will travel to cities such as Waterbury, Bridgeport, and Hartford to provide families and their children the information they need to overhaul their schools and get kids on the path to college and career. To help CPU continue this Parents Express bus and expand this effort to the entire state, reach Gwen Samuel.
  • In Hartford, Dr. Steve Perry’s Capital Prep Magnet School is looking to help its high school graduates get the money they need to get into — and stay in — college after graduation. In January, it will hold its annual fundraiser hosted by the legendary Bill Cosby. Read Sterling Brilliant, either at (860) 695-9876 or by e-mail, for more information.
  • For the past few years, the Grassroots Education Project in Washington, D.C. has worked with fifth-graders at Harriett Tubman Elementary in the city’s Columbia Heights section to help them improve their literacy. They have also helped beautify the school with service projects every January during Martin Luther King Day and in September, just before the start of the new school year. Learn more about what the group is doing and lend a hand.
  • Also in D.C., at John Easton Elementary in the city’s Cleveland Heights section, the Reading Boosters program is working with first graders to get them on track to reading proficiency. To volunteer or help in other ways, contact Jeanie Mah at msjcmyu1@gmail.com.
  • And contribute to First Book DC so that kids can improve their literacy. And to any First Book branch nationwide.
  • For those around the nation’s capital who want to help families address their immediate needs, there is Ransom Miller III’s Project Giveback. This Thanksgiving, the organization fed more than 1,000 families in D.C., Virginia, and Maryland, giving those families a respite from struggle. Learn more about the organization and contribute what you can.
  • In Detroit, LaToniya A. Jones and her team at P.O.W.E.R. the Youth are helping young men and women become mathematically literate. Help out this important organization today.
  • Nationally, Phillip Jackson’s Black Star Project is working to help all young black men and women succeed. This includes everything from tutoring sessions throughout Chicago to its annual Million Father March. Join the Black Star Project today.
  • And don’t forget Black Alliance for Educational Options, which has spent the past 11 years helping poor black families and children escape from the worst American public education offers by expanding high-quality charter schools, advocating for school choice options, and addressing the effects of the nation’s education crisis on young black men. Join BAEO today or chat up its staff on how you can provide donor support.
  • Oh, let me not forget Catharine Bellanger, the able Jerelyn Rodriguez and the rest of the folks at Students For Education Reform, which is helping to nurture a new generation of reformers ready to transform American public education. Donate to them today.

There are other organizations that also need help. Feel free to mention them — and information on how to contribute and help out in the comments section. And, most importantly, give. Because our children need it.

(Full disclosure, Dropout Nation Editor RiShawn Biddle is a member of the Connecticut Parents Union’s advisory board. A separate firm run by Biddle is working with BAEO on a consulting basis. Dropout Nation receives no funding from the firm.)