We've heard people say that teachers have no business going rogue and trying to select their own books, technology, and classes - and citizens have no business deciding what is worthy. We believe in teachers. We believe in the wisdom of the crowd.
— Charles Best
Our partnership with Dick's Sports Matter program aligns perfectly with our mission to address inequity in schools nationwide.
We've established a free marketplace of teacher ideas and donor interests.
A really large number of teachers contact us offline testifying how valuable iPads are for their students.
DonorsChoose enables teachers not just to go public with learning needs in classrooms but also to unleash their imaginations about the best ideas to help students learn.
If we can show the world that there are students in all sorts of communities who don't have the material they need for a great education, that will be the first major step to doing something about it.
My colleagues and I would spend a lot of our own money on copy, paper, and pencils. I just figured there are people out there who would want to help teachers like us if they could see exactly where their money was going.
After 14 years of running DonorsChoose.org as someone who had never written a line of code, I did do a three-month night school course. After all these years, I could at least speak some of the same vocabulary and have a first-hand appreciation for what my colleagues on the engineering team are doing.
We reflect on our successes and failures at monthly staff meetings.
One thing that gets missed a lot is that DonorsChoose is merely a place where teachers post wish lists. That doesn't do justice to the level of innovation that we see taking place on our site.
Our name is not great. It doesn't evoke anything about school or teachers. It doesn't roll off the tongue or stick in your head.
Imagine someone with $10 finding a classroom project that speaks to them personally, seeing where their money is going, and realizing that they don't need to be a millionaire to make a difference.
Ideally, DonorsChoose.org wouldn't be necessary for basic supplies, but I hope we'll always be a platform for teachers to request resources that would bring the learning experience of their students to the next level.
We really are based on this idea that teachers have all this pent-up classroom expertise and that if we could just empower them to come up with micro-solutions, they're going to come up with smarter ideas than anybody would at the top.
Laptops are important, but before you spend a million dollars per school providing one laptop per child... won't you please spend $5,000 per school equipping every classroom with a document camera?
We will employ almost every strategy and hustle in any possible way to recruit top engineers to our team.
I'd listened to my colleagues in the teachers' lunchroom. I could tell they were passionate, fired-up people who had great ideas for strategies and projects to help kids learn better. They just didn't have the resources. I was frustrated, but I also knew it was a frustration felt by teachers all over the city.
We've long believed teachers know best what their students need to succeed, and that includes the creation of healthy, supportive school communities.
Access to sports is an important part of a well-rounded education, and it takes committed communities and companies like Dick's to make a real difference in kids' lives.
Our mission is to help students in need and to democratize philanthropy.
I saw first-hand that all schools are not created equal, and the students shouldn't have to go without all of the materials that they need for a great education.
Acknowledging someone is an act of altruism in the first place, so converting that act of altruism into a pizza party or company fleece jacket or a gift card is fine, but it's not in keeping with spirit in which it all began.
We think there's nothing like sunlight to mobilize and energize citizens to demand change of their elected officials.
I get my share of 'cold' requests via LinkedIn from people who are launching non-profit or for-profit ventures and who request a meeting to get my input or help. I wish I could say yes to all of them, but given limited bandwidth, I say yes to the subset who've written a compelling description of their work and who are underrepresented.
We evaluate all business decisions based on how we can best serve public school teachers and their students.
I founded DonorsChoose.org because I care about learning, and I believe every student in our country deserves a great education.
We think we can contribute something toward the improvement of public education in our country.
We think the ability to rattle off people you are grateful to and thankful to is often sort of a proxy for openness to learning from others.
Whenever there are changes to school budgets, we know teachers feel it first.
I'd love DonorsChoose.org to become a place where teachers can post innovative, out-of-the-box projects that they can't get funding for traditionally.
People on the front lines have the best ideas for how to improve things.
Donorschoose.org is the one place where somebody with $10 gets the same level of impact and feedback from the recipients that Bill Gates gets when he's making a million-dollar gift.
We believe in the wisdom of the front lines.
We aren't prescribing anything. We're not claiming to be the experts. We aren't advocating for or against any program. We are going to create a platform that says very explicitly what it is that teachers experience in their classrooms.
We all remember special days at school, whether it was going on a field trip, doing a science experiment, or performing in a school play.
We're thrilled to be a part of PNC's longstanding commitment to early childhood learning. Their generosity will help us expand the DonorsChoose.org platform to serve Head Start classrooms nationwide, ensuring that many more pre-K teachers have resources they need to give their students a solid educational foundation.
Donors are sick of writing that $200 check to the Red Cross and not knowing whether it goes for the executive director's salary or the office rent.
It just felt wrong that the kids I was teaching didn't have the same access to materials that I did when I was a student.
I think philanthropy is so much more in keeping with spirit of shouting someone out than a material reward.
People not only want to support public schools, but people warm to this idea of being a philanthropist, even if they might have only have $5 to spare.
We love that our platform allows people to give.
Learning is a critical part of our mission and organizational culture.
I believe if we can crowdsource educational solutions to teachers on the front lines, who often know their kids better than anyone, we will unearth and generate better-targeted, smarter ideas.
One question we'll ask is, 'Who are you grateful for,' and a surprising number of people can't name anyone beyond their mother.
We make friends with people we admire, including those you might consider competitors, like charity: water, Kiva, and Global Giving. We get on a call with them and exchange ideas.
No matter the circumstances, teachers show up each day ready to give their students every opportunity possible, and they never give up.
I was a social studies teacher at a high school in the Bronx for five years.
Our only political stance is this: listen to these teachers.
My colleagues and I were always having the same conversation in the teachers lunchroom about books we wanted our students to read, a field trip we knew would really bring a subject matter to life... And most of us would go into our own pockets to buy just paper and pencils.
Hardworking, passionate teachers know their students' needs better than anyone else in the school environment. If we can tap into their needs, we can unleash smarter solutions and empower those people on the front lines.
