Quoting: "... my older son, Eli, came home from school and told us that his second-grade class was raising money to adopt an orphaned elephant. Her name was Dida. She had fallen down a well in Kenya."

An elephant fell into a well? Didn't the author have any interest in how an elephant could fall into a well, and especially how an elephant could be removed from a well?

The narrative about having to find other reasons to do charity - eventually for the college application - is well worn. But Dida has introduced something fresh and puzzling. She shouldn't be forgotten so rapidly.

I had the same thought immediately go through my head -- how big was this well (I haven't heard of wells that big), how did she manage to get near it, how/why did she get in (some kind of drought with her sensing a water source?)... But maybe most of all, how was money going to help? Was the elephant merely sitting there until they could afford a crane? How many people & orgs were trying to help the elephant and (for comparison purposes) the kids?

It sounds like it's a good thing the school is teaching the kids to care about other species, to balance the total lack of interest shown by some parents. My guess is that it's part of the curriculum -- they probably are learning all about elephants and their natural habitat in the process.

You wrote:

"But maybe most of all, how was money going to help? Was the elephant merely sitting there until they could afford a crane?"

and:

"My guess is that it's part of the curriculum -- they probably are learning all about elephants and their natural habitat in the process."

Not unless elephants live in wells.

Have to admit, I never thought about the elephant still sitting in the well, waiting patiently for enough money to be raised, being told, "Soon, Dida, soon." The people who used the well are probably shouting at local officials: "I want that elephant out of there... NOW!!"

For that matter, how do they know the elephant is an orphan? Did the locals recognize the elephant in the well and know the family history?

Forget philanthropy. The elephant is the story.