Educational Non-profit Fundraising Made Simple with Donorschoose

We have spotlighted various online philanthropy assisting and non-profit fundraising websites over that past few months on the Miratel blog including Jumo, ConvergUS, Crowd Rise, Give2gether, Kickstarter, Kiva City, Givmo, Broadcause and Startsomegood. Today we are continuing this series by featuring Donorschoose and we have to say, it has really stood out to us for its concept, accessibility and purpose. With a robust website, detailed information on each educational non-profit fundraising project and full transparency on how money raised is allocated, this particular platform was quick to impress us.

Donorschoose was created by Charles Best, a former Social Studies teacher from the Bronx, New York and is based on the simple concept of empowering donors to choose the educational projects they wish to support. Mr. Best identified early in his teaching career that there was a large disconnect between dollars generated through educational non-profit fundraising and schools seeing the full benefit of the actual money raised. Charles’ goal was to create a platform where donors were given choices within a secure, transparent donating process and a forum for feedback. Ensuring integrity, all projects are vetted and approved by Donorschoose and all online donor transactions are safe.

Non-profit Fundraising – image courtesy of donorschoose.org

With contributions being as little as $1, supporters no longer had to have a large sum of money to invest to participate.  Supporters can make a one-time or recurring monthly donation where they can select which projects they prefer to support. With a range of choices including by location, urgency, resources required, age, teacher and school, there are many options in which a supporter can make donations that they best identify with. Currently language and literacy is the most supported cause with 63% of projects directly funding high poverty schools.

Upon reaching the non-profit fundraising goal required for the project, materials are purchased and shipped directly to the school, with immediate notification given to the Principal. A cost report is made available to all supporters, ensuring all money is spent appropriately. Donors also receive a thank you note and pictures of the project in progress from the teacher overseeing the project. Donors of over $100 receive personalized thank you notes from the students. If a project is not fully-funded, supporters have the option of choosing another project or opting out.

Donorschoose also engages companies and organizations with their ‘double the impact’ program where they match donations of regular supporters dollar for dollar. Since its inception donations have grown to over $26 million in 2010 in the US. With only 63% of projects being fully funded, additional support is required to ensure that more classrooms have access to the educational tools they desperately need. 94% of teachers, whose projects have been fully funded, confirm that it has increased their effectiveness in the classroom and, in turn, makes an impact in our environment as 85% of materials purchased are reusable for a 2nd year for the following years students.

Donorschoose has been featured on Oprah, CCN and The Wall Street Journal and billed as one of the 50 Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company in February 2011. Now teachers across America have a platform where they can submit their educational non-profit fundraising projects to ultimately benefit the students. Having the choice of who and what to support and with $1 making a difference, certainly increases the accessibility and public appeal. In these difficult economic times, people just don’t have the same disposable income they once had but this allows them to participate in educational non-profit fundraising programs and feel like they are making a difference in the lives of students. I have always had a soft spot for Theatre Arts & Languages so those would be areas I lean towards. How about you?

Beneath is a documentary explaining Donorschoose.org in more detail

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaNCoMchCgs[/youtube]

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