REAL Exclusive Magazine

DonorsChoose.org Funds Venice High School Project.

Every dollar funded through DonorsChoose goes twice as far thanks to “Double Your Impact” funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 

Online donors have fully funded a project submitted by Stefanie Peters, a 9th grade teacher at Venice High School in Venice, FL. The project is titled “CPR2: Creating a Passion for Reading” and it will provide literacy resources and experiences for 80 students. Peters is among tens of thousands of teachers across the country who are turning to DonorsChoose.org to get the learning materials they and their students need.

“Too often, teachers lack critical resources in their classrooms – and in many instances they spend their own money trying to provide for their students,” said Charles Best, founder and CEO of DonorsChoose.org. “Unfortunately, even hundreds of dollars out of pocket each year doesn’t necessarily cover the costs of what’s needed. That’s where concerned citizens come in; anyone, regardless of means, can donate directly to project requests like Ms. Peters’s at DonorsChoose.org.”

DonorsChoose.org received a $4.1 million grant from the Gates Foundation in 2008 to support teachers who aim to promote college-readiness among students in high-need urban and rural public schools. As Peters wrote in the project, “Many of my students have never even read an entire book. I want to provide them with high interest books that they can relate to in order to create a new passion for reading. I have had great success with some of the series of books included in my list: Ellen Hopkins books, the Twilight series, Clique series, etc.”

There are currently other projects in need of funding and they can be found by using DonorsChoose’s search tool at http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/search.html. Once a project is completely funded, a team at DonorsChoose will purchase the requested materials and send them to the teacher. All donors will receive photos of the project taking place, a thank-you letter from the teacher, and a cost report showing how each dollar was spent. Donors who gave more than $100 will also receive hand-written thank-you letters from the students. Any public school teacher can post a project request at DonorsChoose. To view Peters’s funded project request, please visit: http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=233305.

Founded in 2000, DonorsChoose.org is a nonprofit website where public school teachers describe specific educational projects for their students, and donors can choose the projects they want to support. After completing a project, the donor hears back from the classroom they supported in the form of photographs and student thank-you letters.

To date, 109,000 public and charter school teachers have used the site to secure funding for $39 million in books, art supplies, technology, and other resources that their students need to learn. Through www.donorschoose.org, individuals from all walks of life have helped 2.5 million students from low-income families.