Edward Snowden recommends the free encrypted chat and call app Signal. It works on Android, iOS and the desktop. Built by volunteer Open Source contributors and a group of grant-funded developers, Signal is slick and solid. I’m asking everyone I know to start using it. — MF

Few things in life are as satisfying as getting handwritten thank-you notes from school kids for helping them learn. DonorsChoose is a non-profit that features thousands of public school teachers seeking basic school supplies, or extra gear for special projects (rocket kits for science!). The teachers post their pitch. You choose a project. When it gets fully funded they post verification pictures of the kids using the resource which your funds provided, and later they’ll send you a fistful of amazingly detailed (and endearing) letters from the students themselves. You’ll want to do this. — KK 

I’ve been making micro-loans to entrepreneurs in the developing world via Kiva for 10 years. I loan small amounts (less than $100) to say, women in Africa hoping to buy a sewing machine to start their own sewing business, or herders in Bolivia needing some equipment to make cheese, and soon enough they will repay the loan, so I can re-loan the money again to someone else. I’ve gone through 4 cycles of loans for my first money, and there is less than 0.1% delinquency — a rate any bank would die for. 100% of my money goes to helping the individuals I select; Kiva’s operating costs are funded separately. The money keeps going around. It’s one of the best bargains in the world. — KK

I’m liking the new Mint much more than before. Now that it’s merged with Mint Bills, I can manage both bills and accounts in one place, and it was a lot easier to connect to all my accounts than before. Also, being able to view all my transactions in one place and categorize them permanently makes budgeting painless. — CD

I’ve been using Smarty Pig for years. It’s a website where you create a savings goal by specifying a date and an amount of money that you want to have saved by that time. Smarty Pig will transfer funds from your bank each month so that you meet your savings goal. I’ve used it for vacations, computers, insurance premiums, and holiday shopping. — MF

This website is a dashboard view of national debt, student loan debt, budget items, tax revenue, jobs, and dozens of other rapidly rising numbers. It also has a page of debt numbers for other countries. It’s alarming to watch the numbers rise before your eyes. What can be done about it? — MF

Created by a couple of self-deprecating podcaster/journalist/crypto investors — Aaron Lammer (Longform) and Jay Caspian Kang (HBO’s Vice News Tonight/NYT Magazine) — Coin Talk looks at all the crazy happenings in the cryptocurrency sphere with a high-level, jargon-free approach. Lammer and Kang are intelligent, funny, and skeptical. — MF

The Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies Online Course is a 13 hour video series from Princeton. After a very brief introductory video, they get right down to business with a video about hash functions that’s easy to understand. You can also download a companion textbook. — MF 

I wrote a story for Wired about forgetting my password on a small USB device that stored my bitcoin keys and how I hired a hacker to help me unlock it. Despite my experience, I’m still using the same hardware wallet (the manufacturer updated the firmware to address the exploit) because it’s still the best way to keep hackers away from your cryptocurrency. It’s called a Trezor and it costs about $85. If you have more the $1000 in bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash, or other cryptocurrency, I recommend getting one. — MF

I have a small amount of money in the form of bitcoin. I discovered Purse, which lets me buy things on Amazon using bitcoin at a 15% discount. So far I’ve purchased two items over $100 each, and it has worked without a hitch. — MF

Living in SF and lack of parking makes me avoid grocery shopping. I buy in bulk and use grocery delivery services when I can, but there are minimum purchases for free delivery and sometimes the prices are marked up. Greatist has research-backed tips for more efficient in-store shopping. Planning the week’s dinners and committing to a list has helped me minimize unnecessary trips. Listening to music and avoiding all other aisles are helpful too. — CD

When it comes to Photoshop, I feel like a permanent newbie. I’ve been using it for 20 years, and I’ve just scratched the surface. Recently I watched this video on how to use Photoshop layer masks, which is a very useful way to blend images in different layers. There are lots of other good tutorial videos on the same YouTube channel. — MF

Vintage Patterns Wikia is a collaborative website where you can search through pages and pages of sewing patterns from the past. A lot of the patterns are available and for sale on eBay or Etsy and if they’re not, you can add your contact information to the wiki page in case it becomes available in the future. I found a $2 robe pattern in great condition through the site. — CD

I’ve ordered a few custom t-shirts from Uber Prints, and I am very happy with their customer service and product. They have recently widened their selection of styles, and for most there is no minimum order requirement. — CD

I found a good searchable emoji database. You can search for emoji by subject, and when you find one you like, just copy and paste it as you would with any text-based character. — MF

I have started dozens of projects and ventures that require logos. Logobook is an online library of thousands of logos, organized in categories. It’s fun to browse if you’re logo-curious like me. They are all black and white, which I like. (All logos should have black and white versions.) — MF

If you are looking for an illustrator or looking for inspiration for your own design, Dribbble is a fine place to start. Enter a search term and you’ll be presented with a grid display of work by dozens or hundreds of contemporary designers. You can save your favorite images to any number of “buckets” for later perusal. — MF

Fontsquirrel.com has tons of free fonts, classified by type (e.g., pixel, grunge, retro, etc). They also have very nice “almost free” fonts, usually costing less than $10. — MF

Two of my favorite bookmarked sites for quick formatting fixes are StripHTML and Convert Case. StripHTML strips all formatting from text, and Convert Case transforms text to lower case, all caps, sentence case, title case, etc. — CD

When I need to quote a passage from a paper book or a Kindle, I take a photo of the page with the TextGrabber app (free for Android/iOS). It scans it and turns it into ASCII text, which can be emailed, texted, or saved. It’s very accurate and has saved me a lot of time. — MF