Cool Site: Donors Choose

I came across a charity site that I saw on some news show this weekend (can't remember which one). The premise is that teachers around the country post requests for funding at Donors Choose, stuff they need but don't have the money from their school to do. So then we can go to the site, choose a project we want to support, and make a donation. Cool, huh?

onorsChooseSM 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 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 "Cooking Across the Curriculum" ($1,100). 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, a teacher impact letter, and an expenditure report showing that their tax-deductible gift was spent as directed.

Fulfilling Student Projects
Sustaining Operations
Spreading the Word
Teaching Students Philanthropy

Fulfilling Student Projects

DonorsChoose performs a good deal of work to ensure the integrity of its philanthropic marketplace. Here's how it works:

1. Public school teachers create student project proposals at DonorsChoose.org. This consists of writing a one page essay and listing the exact resource(s) needed.
2. DonorsChoose volunteers screen each project proposal before posting to the website. Volunteers verify that the teacher and project meet our eligibility requirements, emailing follow-up questions to the teacher if anything is unclear.
3. Concerned individuals fund the student projects of their choice—in whole or in part—and are emailed immediate email gift acknowledgments from DonorsChoose which can be used for tax deduction purposes.
   
   DonorsChoose emails the school principal, alerting him/her to the funded project.
4. Within the next week, DonorsChoose forwards the donor an "e-thank-you" from the teacher, which notes the date by which the donor can expect his/her full feedback package.
5. DonorsChoose purchases the student materials and ships items directly to the school along with a disposable camera, guidelines for preparing feedback packages, and a stamped envelope in which to enclose the feedback.
6. Students experience the project that the donor made possible! The teacher photographs the students participating in the project and writes an impact letter to the donor. Students write their own thank-you notes. This feedback is then mailed to DonorsChoose headquarters.
7. DonorsChoose develops the photos, compiles the letter and thank-you notes, and prints an expenditure report detailing the purchase of student materials. This feedback is mailed to the donor(s) who completed the project or made a partial contribution of $100 or more.

DonorsChoose works equally hard to strengthen the framework which enables citizen philanthropists to connect with classrooms in need. In order to ensure a secure, efficient, and effective exchange, we:

• Negotiate discounts and partnerships with vendors to get the best prices available.
• Continually upgrade our web technology to make DonorsChoose.org more user-friendly and effective for donors and teachers.
• Acquire and update databases of all the public schools in the regions we serve. We track everything from the principal's name to the number of students who receive free or reduced price lunch (a measure of poverty) to ensure the information we provide donors is accurate.
• Create community awareness about DonorsChoose to increase funding of student projects.

Sustaining Operations

The price of a student project includes an optional fulfillment fee covering the work performed by DonorsChoose (see Fulfilling Student Projects). After clicking to fund a project, the donor may decide not to include this fulfillment fee. By choosing to include it, donors support the necessary resources—staff time, office space, and technology—to bring their chosen projects to life.

While the cost of fulfilling student projects remains the same, DonorsChoose offers a "scholarship" to higher need schools by discounting the fulfillment fee. Depending on the school's poverty level, fulfillment is assessed at 15%, 20%, or 25% of the project's cost. The vast majority of schools using DonorsChoose have high rates of poverty, so most proposals carry the 15% fulfillment fee.

Donors' inclusion of the fulfillment fee is essential to the existence and success of DonorsChoose. Thankfully, 90% of our contributors choose to include it, and income thus earned allows us to continue our work.

As more student projects are funded, and donors continue to include the fulfillment fee, DonorsChoose becomes increasingly self-sustaining. However, during this early stage in our growth, we also depend on grants and contributions to support our operation.

Check it out -- education is one of the greatest needs in this country -- and we can make a difference.

Tags: Donors Choose, charity, education, poverty