As the holiday season approaches, Silicon Valley companies are partnering to make social media history in support of an amazing cause: UCSF Challenge for the Children. As we covered before, the team that gets the highest number of contributors (with a minimum donation of only $10), will be able to gift and name “The Link,” a children’s activity space for learning play and discovery in this new hospital.

To really get this competition moving, HP is launching a mini-challenge that kicks off today. HP will match every single donation made between now and Dec 16th, up to a maximum of $10,000. In keeping with the spirit of the Challenge, HP is supporting all levels of contribution to this cause, whether it’s $10 or $1,000, until the $10,000 maximimum is reached.

Not only will HP be supporting all levels of contribution to this cause until the $10,000 maximum is reached, our own Michael Arrington will be personally matching the first $10,000 in donations through TechCrunch. Since there is heavy competition (Zynga has raised $280,000 through 62,000 donors in only 24 hours!), we’re not done yet. MC Hammer has offered to give away 100 CardWoo gift certificates.

You can help too. This is an amazing cause and the startup or person that helps us get the highest number of total participants over the duration of the drive (by referring other donors through Causes) will be able to name the hospital room for our team. Of course, we will be adding another special prize for readers who donate to our team. For this week, we will give away 2 tickets to the Crunchies Awards to a donor chosen at random. If you’ve already donated, you can double your chances by donating again. The deadline will be Friday, Dec. 10th at midnight PST.

Update: On December 16th (cutoff 5pm PST) the Startup team with the greatest number of individuals donating (in any amount) will win a meeting to pitch Ron Conway. Teams must include the word “Angel” in their title, and must have received donations from at least 75 individuals. The winner will have the rare opportunity to sit down with Ron Conway and discuss his or her start up idea. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime! (A raffle will be utilized to choose a winner in the event of a tie). The 60 min meeting with Ron Conway will be limited to 3 representatives (Location and Date TBD).

Please help by making your donation here!