Pacific Beach resident Jerry Hall launched iloveschools.com nationwide in 2003 to connect teachers and schools with donors and volunteers through an interface that is quick, easy to use and far reaching: the Internet. The Web site allows teachers to post a wish list for needed classroom supplies, which donors can choose to fund. Teachers can also ask for volunteer help through the site. On the giving side, donors can find a specific school and scan the teacher’s list of needs to see if they can provide the items. Or, as one might do on Craigslist, a donor can post whatever he has extra of — toner for the printer, literature books, computers — on a board for teachers to vie for. Businesses and volunteers can also post their services online for school districts to take advantage of. For example, a healing arts school or local kitchen can make known its desire to entertain 30 kids on a field trip to better understand the profession. Hall said the Web site gives teachers an opportunity to articulate their needs without begging parents for supplies, fund-raising on their own or pulling money out of their pockets. “I definitely want to encourage far more participation between parents and schools, but when a parent comes to the schools, the teacher shouldn’t have her hand out and say, ‘I need $20,’” Hall said. “To me, it’s separating the two.” Hall ran his own Web design business, eweblab, for nine years but gradually grew more interested in supporting education than turning a profit. Hall soon realized that iloveschools.com could not support itself, however, so he launched an online, for-profit business to sell school supplies at schoolsupplydrive.com. Hall uses his for-profit company to help his nonprofit organization. Hall said he donates 20 percent of the gross profit from the school supply company to iloveschools.com. Offices across the nation can purchase supplies on the Web site, with the gross profit heading to help schools, Hall said. Most of the wish list sponsors also go through schoolsupplydrive.com since delivery is free and the profit margin cycles back into supporting schools nationwide. Hall said his goal is to make iloveschools.com self-sustaining – meaning without relying on donors – from the profits from schoolsupplydrive.com. Hall runs both businesses with two employees, and plans to expand soon to Old Town.