10% of them spend more than $1,000 each year.

In the 2012-2013 school year, US teachers alone spent $1.6 billion of their own money on school supplies. And it's not getting any better.

They need your help.

Right now we have 14,000 teachers signed up from 76 countries around the world to receive aid, but we only have 7,000 donors. 7,000 teachers are waiting for you.

The quotes below are all from teachers who have signed up through Reddit Gifts to receive help this year, and the photos are from classrooms that received donations from redditors last year.

I work at a school with 100% free and reduced lunch. Though there is a small 'suggested supply' list, I rarely receive anything from my kids to help our classroom throughout the year. If I do, kids often tell me they had to wait until payday or could only bring one thing...

– teacher who brings plastic bags to school for students to carry their papers home in because they don't even have backpacks

$5 gas cards are helpful. Sometimes my students don't have enough money to buy gas to come to class."

I try to make my classroom like a second home to my students. My classroom, to some students, is that safest place they will be for the day.

Due to cuts in funding, we have little money for curriculum materials... Instead, I make a lot of activities and games myself. I have found that my students have been very successful in learning through these games, especially sight words. I am requesting white cardstock so I can create more games!

For the past five years I have spent about $200 each year purchasing sets of contemporary books that high school students will actually want to read.

For instance.... Shark Week: Model of a shark? Out of her pocket. Books about sharks? Out of her pocket. Shark stickers? Out of her pocket. Shark coloring books? Out of her pocket. Shark posters? Out of her pocket. Shark pencils? Out of her pocket.

– fiance of a teacher

Unfortunately, [our state]'s school budget is sliced more and more each year, and at this time, there are no funds available to purchase books OR supplies. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

I work in an underfunded district. To quote our assistant principal at a staff meeting this afternoon, "Our supplies are so low that if you asked me for a desk, I might have to pawn something to afford a flat surface for you to write on.

I have a $25 budget for supplies for the year, which works out to $0.28 per student.

Last year my pay was cut 5% and I didn't add to the library as I just couldn't afford it. This year it looks like we are going to be asked to take another pay cut. I still believe that high school students need contemporary, high interest books and I know they aren't going to go to the public library to get them.

We connect you directly to a teacher, so there's no middle man and no one to question about what happened to your taxes or where your donation went. You know. And you can make a difference.

Any basic materials will help start the year off right and send a message to my students that lets them know right from the beginning that someone out there wants them to succeed.

I don't need an iPad, calculator or fancy tech—just looseleaf paper. It would mean so much.

Pencils. All I want is pencils!!!! With erasers that work and don't leave black marks. Believe it or not, the students constantly take home the pencils because they don't have any at home. I want enough pencils so that, for the entire year, none of the 60 students I teach is ever without the most basic of tools necessary for learning.