DonorsChoose

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

DonorsChoose

Type	Non-profit organization
Founded	2000
Headquarters	New York, NY
Key people	Charles Best, Founder
Revenue	$4,615,576 ^[1]
Website	donorschoose.org

DonorsChoose is a United States based nonprofit organization that provides a way for people to donate directly to specific projects at public schools (sometimes known as peer-to-peer philanthropy).

DonorsChoose was started in 2000 by Charles Best, a teacher at a public high school in the Bronx. Since then, it has grown to serve over 4900 public schools throughout the United States. DonorsChoose currently serves schools in five cities (Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Washington, DC [after merging with a similar model called Means For Dreams]) and eight states (Alabama, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas). By January of 2007, more than 10.3 million dollars had been donated to 21,176 projects, helping 606,743 students in need.^[2]

The organization collects proposals from teachers and makes them available to the general public through its website. Individual donors can select projects and contribute as much as they are prepared to. DonorsChoose then purchases necessary supplies and provides them to the schools, and generates a line-item budget which is sent to the donor. In addition, donors who contribute $100 or more to a project, or who complete the funding for a project, also receive a "feedback package" of thank-you notes from students, photographs of the project, and a letter from the teacher.

DonorsChoose is supported by fulfillment costs optionally added to each donation, as well as private funding sources, such as Omidyar Network.