Educational Institutions

DonorsChoose

Support a Classroom. Build a Future.

aka DonorsChoose.org

New York, NY

www.donorschoose.org

Mission

DonorsChoose makes it easy for anyone to help a classroom in need, moving us closer to a nation where students in every community have the tools and experiences they need for a great education.

Ruling Year

2000

Founder & CEO

Charles Best

Main Address

134 W. 37th St. Floor 11

New York, NY 10018 USA

Keywords

children, students, public education, school supplies, education, literacy, math, science, art, history, music

EIN

13-4129457

 Number

0637344283

Cause Area (NTEE Code)

Education N.E.C. (B99)

Alliance/Advocacy Organizations (B01)

Fund Raising and/or Fund Distribution (B12)

IRS Filing Requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

Sign in or create an account to view Form(s) 990 for 2018, 2017 and 2016.
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Social Media

Blog

Programs + Results

What we aim to solve

Teachers spend, on average, over $500 each year out-of-pocket on classroom supplies and basic needs for their students. We connect teachers who need supplies with donors who want to help.

Our programs

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Classroom Project Funding

Where we work

Our Results

How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one. These quantitative program results are self-reported by the organization, illustrating their committment to transparency, learning, and interest in helping the whole sector learn and grow.

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Number of overall donors

TOTALS BY YEAR
Population(s) served

K-12 (5-19 years)

Related program

Classroom Project Funding

Type of Metric

Input - describing resources we use

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context notes

Measured for our fiscal year, which runs July 1 - June 30.

Number of clients served

TOTALS BY YEAR
Population(s) served

K-12 (5-19 years)

Related program

Classroom Project Funding

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context notes

Measured for our fiscal year, which runs July 1 - June 30. "Clients served" refers to teachers who had a classroom project fully funded on our site in each fiscal year.

Number of facilities improved

TOTALS BY YEAR
Population(s) served

K-12 (5-19 years)

Related program

Classroom Project Funding

Type of Metric

Output - describing our activities and reach

Direction of Success

Increasing

Context notes

Measured for our fiscal year, which runs July 1 - June 30. "Facilities improved" refers to schools which had at least one teacher with a fully-funded classroom project on our site in each fiscal year.

Charting Impact

Five powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What is the organization aiming to accomplish?

What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?

What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?

How will they know if they are making progress?

What have they accomplished so far and what's next?

DonorsChoose engages the public in public schools by giving people a simple, accountable and personal way to address educational inequity. We envision a nation where children in every community have the tools and experiences needed for an excellent education.

To achieve our goal, we:

- Recruit individual donors, or “citizen philanthropists", to support classroom projects, using web search tools, email marketing, social and traditional media outreach, and yearly "tentpole" outreach campaigns.

- Partner with corporations and foundations to fund projects on a large scale, match citizen donations, and raise awareness about DonorsChoose.org and education inequity.

- Collaborate with entrepreneurs and inventors to introduce teachers to novel classroom resources such as 3D printers, underwater robots, and coding lessons.

The assets we deploy to implement our strategies include: - Our website: All transactions with donors, teachers and partners take place through our website, www.donorschoose.org. Our goal is to make it easy for donors to find classroom projects to support. - Our products: We've created tools that make it easy for partners and donors to engage with their communities. - Our marketing plan: We use a mix of email marketing, digital marketing, personal outreach, and social media to raise awareness of our organization and engage donors and teachers. - Our thank you packages and reporting: Once a project is funded, teachers share thank you notes, photos and reports with every donor who gave to their projects, describing how each donation has improved their classrooms. - Our staff: Our team of 100+ full-time employees is organized in teams that focus on each of our capabilities, including Marketing & Partnerships, Product & Engineering, People Operations, Finance, and Operations.

We measure our progress against several metrics on the "Impact" page of our site (www.donorschoose.org/impact), including: - Dollars given - # of projects supported - # of teachers with a funded project - # of students reached - # of schools participating in DonorsChoose - # of supporters giving on DonorsChoose

Our total impact to date as of November 2019: - $900 million raised - 1.5 million projects funded - 83,000 schools participating - 549,000 teachers with projects funded - 4 million supporters

External Reviews

Accreditations

Charity Navigator 2013

Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance 2013

Charity Navigator 2014

Charity Navigator 2015

Awards

Nonprofit Innovation Award 2005

Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and Amazon.com

The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies 2011

Fast Company

Members Project Winner 2010

American Express

Golden Halo Award 2011

Cause Marketing Forum

Directors Award 2011

Committee for Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy

Photos

Financials

DonorsChoose

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  • Address, phone, website and contact information
  • Forms 990 for 2018, 2017 and 2016
  • A Pro report is also available for this organization.

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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

Need more info?

FREE: Gain immediate access to the following:

  • Address, phone, website and contact information
  • Forms 990 for 2018, 2017 and 2016
  • A Pro report is also available for this organization.

See what's included

Board Leadership Practices

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section, which enables organizations and donors to transparently share information about essential board leadership practices.

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

BOARD ORIENTATION & EDUCATION

Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations?

No

CEO OVERSIGHT

Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year?

Yes

ETHICS & TRANSPARENCY

Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year?

Yes

BOARD COMPOSITION

Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership?

Yes

BOARD PERFORMANCE

Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years?

No