Here's How To Donate To Think It Up Right Now

Now that Labor Day is over, it's officially back-to-school time across America. Though this was probably your most-dreaded time of the year as a kid, we all know we wouldn't be anywhere without our education. If you agree that's the case — and I sincerely hope you do — you can watch and donate to Think It Up during its live telecast Friday night, in order to help all Americans get excited about learning again.

Before I tell you how you can donate to this worthy cause, you might be wondering what Think It Up is exactly. I mean, it's not exactly a household name like Teach for America or the National Merit Scholarship program. And that's because Think It Up is a new education initiative created by the non-profit Entertainment Industry Foundation, which has also organized such charitable programs as StandUp To Cancer and Hunger Is in the past. Think It Up's goal is to help underscore the value of education in America and reinvigorate the country's desire to learn. The organization hopes to accomplish that by organizing crowdfunded classroom projects beginning this month (more on that later).

To kick this initiative off, the Big Four networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC) will be airing a special live telecast in support of the program featuring celebs like Matthew McConaughey, Stephen Colbert, and Scarlett Johansson and musical performances from Justin Bieber and Kacey Musgraves. You know when FOX forgoes airing reruns of Empire, it's got to be for a good reason.

Now that you know what's going to be going down during Think It Up Friday night, you're definitely going to want to watch it all happen live. And, as you watch it live, you're definitely going to want to help support this deserving cause. Luckily, donating to Think It Up is a lot easier than that high school calculus class of yours.

Head To The Website

If you head over to Think It Up's official website right now, chances are you will be met with this donation page. Just choose a preset amount you'd like to contribute ($10, $25, $50, $75, $100, $150, or your own amount of $5 and up), fill in your credit card and personal information, and you're good to go. You also have the option of making it a monthly donation, because we all know school is a year-round thing.

Support A Classroom Directly

If you'd like to more directly see the impact of your contribution, you can choose to fund one of the projects on DonorsChoose.org, which is a crowdfunding platform that Think It Up has partnered with to support public school classroom projects. Simply head over to the website, read through the descriptions of projects for everything from teaching students how to play the ukulele to getting scientific materials to receiving art supplies, and choose which ones you'd like to support. It's basically like Kickstarter or Indiegogo, except that the only reward you get is some satisfaction in knowing that you're helping to improve the education of students all over the country. That's still pretty sweet, no?

Start Your Own Project

If you're a student or a teacher, you can support Think It Up by starting your own project and posting it to DonorsChoose.org so that donors can help you bring it to life.

Mail Your Donation

Don't let all of this talk about modern technology and the future freak you out too much. If you'd rather send in your dollar dollar bills to Think It Up the old-fashioned way, you totally can. You just have to make your checks payable to Think It Up and send them over to the address on the donation page.

Take The Pledge

You don't have to spend money to support Think It Up. I mean, students don't usually have any extra dough lying around to give to charitable organizations anyway. If you're a public school student in middle school or high school, you can take the Think It Up pledge over on the website to dedicate your smarts to coming up with innovative projects with your teacher that you can then plan and get crowdfunded on DonorsChoose.org. All you have to do is sign up on Think It Up's website if you're 13 years or older and get that brainstorming going.

Show Your Support On Social Media

If nothing else, you can always take to Twitter to show your support for Think It Up. Plenty of big companies and celebrities have already tweeted about the event, so if you join in, it could be a great way to raise awareness of this important cause.

And, of course, tune in the telecast on Friday night because, well, Bieber.

Images: Think It Up (3); Mrs. L/DonorsChoose.org; Quinn Dombrowski/Flickr