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Mission
Our mission is to improve public education by engaging citizens in an online marketplace where teachers describe and individuals can fund specific student projects. We envision a nation where students in every community have the resources they need to learn.
Company Description
DonorsChoose.org is a simple way to provide students in need with resources that our public schools often lack. At this not-for-profit Web site, teachers submit ideas for materials or experiences their students need to learn, such as Magical Math Centers ($200); Big Book Bonanza ($320); and Cooking Across the Curriculum ($1,100).
Any individual can search student projects by areas of interest, learn about classroom needs, and choose to fund the project she/he finds most compelling. Donors receive a feedback package of student photos and thank-you notes, a teacher impact letter, and an expenditure report showing that their tax-deductible gift was spent as directed.
Management Team
 Charles Best, Founder
Charles founded DonorsChoose in the spring of 2000 at Wings Academy, an alternative public high school in the Bronx where he has taught social studies for four years. Charles and several of his colleagues at Wings Academy were compelled to pioneer DonorsChoose by three problems: (1) disparities in public school funding and the typically unmet needs of students from low-income families; (2) teachers' lack of influence over the purchase of student materials, even as many spent their own money to buy basics like paper and pens; and (3) teachers' untapped potential for educational innovation in and out of the classroom.
Charles believed that contributors to charity also had an untapped potential and a lack of influence on the use of their donations. He conceived a new form of citizen philanthropy where teachers could easily develop projects in need of funding, and where civic-minded individuals could choose a proposal they wanted to fund.
Charles graduated from St. Paul's School with the scholar-athlete award in 1994, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Yale in 1998. He then spent a year studying wood sculpture at the School of Fine Arts in Guadalajara, Mexico; helping to train Tzotzil Indians as teachers in Chiapas, Mexico; and teaching Spanish literacy at a farm/orphanage in the Nicaraguan highlands.
Becky Johnson, Executive Director, DonorsChoose Bay Area
Becky Johnson has been involved in educational philanthropy in the Bay Area for the past four years in both grantmaking and development. She happily made the westward journey to California 7 years ago to become a graduate student at UC Berkeley, where she earned her Master's in Public Health in 1999. She has worked on health policy at the local, state and federal levels; has managed programs for developmentally disabled adults; and has held varoius roles focused on public education and youth development.
Becky has a B.A. in English and Spanish from Amherst College and taught bilingual middle school as a Teach For America corpsmember. Becky's professional passions are improving public education and increasing civic engagement, which are beautifully combined in her new role as the Executive Director for DonorsChoose Bay Area.
Company Highlights
Coming Soon!
Recognition/Awards
2004 Technology Museum of Innovation Laureate in Education
Contact Information
Becky Johnson, Executive Director
DonorsChoose
P 415.956.0334
E becky@donorschoose.org
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Becky Johnson
Executive Director
DonorsChoose Bay Area |
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| Becky Johnson has been involved in educational philanthropy
in the Bay Area for the past four years in both grantmaking and development. She happily made the westward journey to California 7 years ago to become a graduate student at UC Berkeley, where she earned her Master's in Public Health in 1999. She has worked on health policy at the local, state and federal levels; has managed programs for developmentally disabled adults; and has held varoius roles focused on public education and youth development. Becky has a B.A. in English and Spanish from Amherst College and taught bilingual middle school as a Teach For America corpsmember. Becky's professional passions are improving public education and increasing civic engagement, which are beautifully combined in her new role as the Executive Director for DonorsChoose Bay Area. |
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