DonorsChoose.org provides students in need with resources that our public schools often lack. At this not-for-profit web site, teachers submit project proposals for materials or experiences their students need to learn. These ideas become classroom reality when concerned individuals, whom we call Citizen Philanthropists, choose projects to fund.

Proposals range from “Magical Math Centers” ($200) to “Big Book Bonanza” ($320) to “Book Of The Month….Sharing Literacy Across The Grades” ($1,029). Any individual can search such proposals by areas of interest, learn about classroom needs, and choose to fund the project(s) they find most compelling. In completing a project, donors receive a feedback package of student photos and thank-you notes, and a teacher impact letter.

Charles Best leads DonorsChoose.org, a simple way to fulfill needs and foster innovation in public schools. Charles founded DonorsChoose.org in the spring of 2000 at Wings Academy, an alternative public high school in the Bronx where he taught social studies for five years. Under Charles’s leadership, DonorsChoose.org has enabled citizen-donors to deliver millions in funding to thousands of teachers teaching in public schools. National media such as Oprah Winfrey and The New York Times have hailed DonorsChoose.org as “the future of philanthropy.” In 2004, DonorsChoose.org received a Technology Laureate, and in 2005, DonorsChoose.org surpassed 1,000 other organizations to win the Nonprofit Innovation Award conferred by Stanford Business School and Amazon.com.

For more information, visit Donors Choose

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