DonorsChoose.org is an awesome charity that allows you to contribute directly to public school teachers and programs. And now an awesome proposal at the site is requested funding to teach Gene Yang's "American Born Chinese" to public school students in Tonawanda, New York. Here's an excerpt from the proposal:

Although my students live in a city, the student body is primarily Caucasian. Recently, there has been an influx of new students moving to the district from other parts of the United States or other countries all together (i.e. Chechnya, Bosnia, Kenya, Vietnam). The Caucasian students don't understand the cultures of the new students, and often times this ignorance causes them to discriminate against these other kids and mistreat them. When I read the graphic novel "American Born Chinese" by Gene Yang, I saw it as a golden opportunity to spark their interest in reading and teach tolerance of other cultures at the same time. The problem is, graphic novels tend to be more expensive than a typical paperback novel, and my school district does not have the funds for me to purchase a class set of these novels for use in my classroom.