(FORTUNE Magazine) – Come September, futures trader Paul Tudor Jones II will be looking out for the futures of 85 seventh graders in Brooklyn's rough Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. He recently told the kids that if they get into college, he'll pay for it. That ought to be a strong incentive to finish high school in a city where about a third of the students don't. ''In my business, luck and being in the right place at the right time can be important to success,'' says Jones, 31, who manages $8 million of his own money and $65 million for customers. Breezing uptown in his red BMW, he adds: ''I'd just like these kids to know that there is a rainbow, and if they work hard there is a pot of gold at the end.'' With creativity, talent, and time, many executives are doing more for charity than writing checks. They are launching their own projects or signing on with others who have done so, getting a close look at the problems they're attacking, and squeezing maximum effect from their contributions. Some, like Jones, use lots of money, while others use little more than initiative and energy. All are finding satisfaction giving to a world with too much need. ! The inspiration for Jones and seven other New York executives who have offered to finance educations for 548 inner-city elementary school graduates comes from industrialist Eugene M. Lang, 67. Founder of Refac Technology Development Corp., Lang promised five years ago to pay college tuition for 59 sixth graders from his old school, P.S. 121 in East Harlem. Nine moved away, one went to jail, and the rest begin their senior year in New York high schools in September. A dozen cities have inquired about the program. ''Interest is spreading much faster than I have time to deal with it,'' says Lang. ''I just can't think of anything more significant.'' Salesmanship and thrift are the keys to V. R. ''Swede'' Roskam's scholarship plan. He and five other businessmen started Educational Assistance Ltd., to which companies donate surplus inventory or equipment -- furniture, office machines, laboratory apparatus -- usually taking a tax deduction. Educational Assistance sends the goods to small liberal arts colleges, which credit the value of the gifts toward tuition for needy students and award scholarships in the corporations' names. As sales vice president of Chicago- based Oil-Dri Corp. of America, which makes clay-based chemical absorbents, Roskam, 56, travels widely and gets plenty of chances to make pitches for Educational Assistance. He devotes 15 hours a week to the outfit, which in three years has arranged $1.5 million in scholarships for 350 youngsters. To help the severely handicapped -- the blind, the mentally retarded, and those with limited muscular ability -- Honeywell research scientist Lee Hallgren, 51, gave the gift of time, for which there is no tax deduction. Working with the Minneapolis Cerebral Palsy Center for more than a thousand hours over 5 1/2 years, he has developed safe, simple electronic aids. One of them, an outsize, highly sensitive disk-shaped switch, lets an ill-coordinated person operate an electric toy or appliance. ''This project was the most difficult and most exciting I have ever worked on,'' says Hallgren. ''The exciting part is to see the look on a child's face when he does something, and to see that joy reflected in the parents.'' Based on Hallgren's automated learning devices, the Cerebral Palsy Center has started Ablenet, which provides education for the handicapped, counseling for parents, and seminars for teachers and therapists. The Center produces and sells the devices, with handicapped persons doing some of the assembly work. THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD is the urgent concern of Robert C. Macauley, 62, the energetic founder and chairman of Virginia Fibre Corp., a manufacturer of paper products headquartered in New Canaan, Connecticut. Five years ago, after meeting with Pope John Paul II, Macauley started up the Americares Foundation, a nonsectarian relief agency that collects and dispatches supplies with the speed and derring-do of a benevolent commando operation. After the accident at Chernobyl spread a pall of radiation over Eastern Europe, a church official in Poland telexed Americares asking for milk, baby food, and vitamins. Americares volunteers and staff members sent overnight requests to pharmaceutical companies, which responded with $970,000 of dried milk, liquid milk requiring no refrigeration, vitamins, and potassium iodide to protect thyroid functions. The supplies went off in three airlifts in May, weeks before Congress appropriated far less money for the same purpose. Managers who cannot contribute time regularly can still target their monetary giving and get a close look at its effects. Two Bear Stearns executive vice presidents were so moved by famine scenes from Africa last year that they wanted to increase their contributions to World Vision, a Christian relief and development agency -- but they also wanted to see where their money was going. Thomas R. Anderson, 41, head of investment banking at the firm, and Denis P. Coleman Jr., 40, in charge of government bonds and mortgage securities, traveled to Mali, one of West Africa's poorest countries, with an official of World Vision. At the village of Menaka they saw residents and nomads line up at 5 A.M. for a daily scoop of rice. They observed how drought, deforestation, and erosion had brought agriculture to a standstill. Moving on to Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta), they were surprised to find crops growing and people well fed, thanks to irrigation from the Tita Dam project. Anderson and Coleman agreed to pay for a feasibility study on water and reclamation projects for Menaka, and they have pledged to raise $1.5 million over five years for long-range development projects. ''I have a name and a face for Menaka now,'' says Anderson. ''I will help Menaka, whether it's a deep-water well or a dam.'' Contributors who can't make on-the-spot inspections can get acquainted with deserving projects through several organizations. InterAction, 200 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10003, comprises more than 100 reputable organizations offering overseas aid. Two services publish lists of charities that meet their standards, plus reports on 300 to 400 philanthropic organizations: the Philanthropic Advisory Service of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, 1515 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia 22209; and the National Charities Information Bureau, 19 Union Square West, New York, N.Y. 10003. The facts these outfits furnish can also help a contributor follow Thomas Anderson's sound rules for intelligent giving: Get firsthand knowledge, target a specific project, and banish the cynical thought that an individual contribution is too small to make a difference.