Educational Institutions
DonorsChoose
Support a Classroom. Build a Future.
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
EIN
13-4129457
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 2019, 2018 and 2017.
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Communication
Programs and 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?
Classroom Project Funding
DonorsChoose is the leading way to give to public schools. As the most trusted crowdfunding platform for teachers, donors, and district administrators alike, DonorsChoose vets each request, ships the funded resources directly to the classroom, and provides thank yous and reporting to donors and school leaders.
Where we work
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
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of overall donors
This metric is no longer tracked.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
This metric is no longer tracked.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
This metric is no longer tracked.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.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
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.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
To achieve our goal, we:<br/><br/>- 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.<br/><br/>- Partner with corporations and foundations to fund projects on a large scale, match citizen donations, and raise awareness about DonorsChoose.org and education inequity.<br/><br/>- Collaborate with entrepreneurs and inventors to introduce teachers to novel classroom resources such as 3D printers, underwater robots, and coding lessons.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
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.
How will they know if they are making progress?
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
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
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
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
DonorsChoose
Board of directorsas of 11/5/2019
Mr. Peter Bloom
General Atlantic, LLC
Term: 2001 -
Jonathan Alter
MSNBC Analyst, Bloomberg Columnist, Author
Peter Bloom
General Atlantic, LLC
Stephen Colbert
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Theresia Gouw
Aspect Ventures
Trabian Shorters
BMe
Jeff Weiner
Desirée Rogers
Johnson Publishing and former White House Social Secretary
Richard Lovett
Creative Artists Agency
Genein Letford
Elementary Music Teacher
Carolyn Everson
Yvette Brown
Mitch Cohen
Retired, PwC
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and 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 and 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
Keywords
children, students, public education, school supplies, education, literacy, math, science, art, history, music
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