Principals like you use DonorsChoose to support their classrooms
Through our site, more than 11,000 school districts in the United States have received over $700 million of philanthropic funding for classroom resources. That's why 75% of all the public schools in America have at least one teacher who has created a project request on DonorsChoose!
Trust & Transparency
We’re a 501(c)3 nonprofit that prioritizes efficiency, transparency, and accountability. Whether you’re a donor, teacher, or administrator, you know where every dollar goes. That’s why
Better Business Bureau, Charity Navigator, Charity Watch, and Guidestar award us their highest ratings.
We're the platform preferred by school leaders. We provide a safe, systematic way for donors and foundations across America to support your teachers and students.
“I relied on DonorsChoose as a classroom teacher. Now that I’m a principal, it’s a must-have tool that I encourage all of our teachers to use. The resources we’ve received have transformed classrooms.”
“After experiencing the horrible effects of Hurricane Harvey, our faculty and staff have been able to put the pieces back together. We are truly thankful for all of the support from this awesome organization.”
“Thanks to the generosity of donors across the country, we’ve been blessed with everything from computers and flexible seating to new textbooks and guitar strings. Our teachers and students simply could not be more grateful for the support of DonorsChoose—it has changed our school.”
the National Association of Elementary School Principals
the National Association of Secondary School Principals
One-of-a-kind accountability
You may be familiar with traditional crowdfunding websites. We’re different. Over the last 15 years, we’ve set in place measures to verify every teacher, school, item, and shipment. Here’s how we do it.
Only teachers at verified schools post projects on our site, specifying the exact items their classrooms need.
We vet every single project that teachers post, verifying the value of those items and making sure student privacy is protected.
Foundations, corporate partners, and individual donors identify projects they’d like to support and help fund them.
Once a project has been funded, we order the teacher's requested items and ship them to the school. We verify every school address, and we never send cash.
We alert the school’s principal and other registered teachers at that school in advance of every shipment via fax and email, so they know when to expect the materials.
After materials arrive, teachers report on how those materials are being used in their classroom.
How can I keep track of materials?
We’re a 501(c)3 nonprofit, and we keep detailed records on materials shipped to each classroom: the exact items, their value, and the date we shipped them. You can see all the items we’ve shipped to your school by
searching for a school on our site.
Student Safety
We've worked with online safety experts to create protective guidelines for the teacher's profile and for photographs of the funded project. We also vet every project before it's posted to ensure that the teacher's request never includes any student identifying information.
We bring funding to the table
On average, 75% of the funds given to a classroom project comes from people and organizations beyond the teacher’s personal network, which makes our site especially useful for teachers in low-income communities. Our corporate and foundation partners have given more than $550 million to classrooms so far.
Materials belong to the classroom.
Materials funded through DonorsChoose are the property of the public school classroom. We ship items directly to the school address, and we notify the principal and other registered teachers at the school when they’re on their way. If a teacher changes schools, the materials remain at the original school unless that school’s principal gives consent for the teacher to bring those materials to their new classroom.
We protect student privacy.
Every project on DonorsChoose is reviewed by our team before posting, to make sure we aren’t collecting or sharing any information that would put students at risk. Teachers’ classroom photos go through the same review process.
You can get updates on every project posted.
If you’d like to get updates about projects when they’re posted, sign up. After we verify your role, you'll receive an emailed alert every time a teacher at that school posts a new project.
Help your teachers request compatible technology.
Tell us about your district's technology guidelines, and we'll make sure teachers see them when creating classroom project requests. Teachers will know which types of devices are acceptable in your district and which ones they should avoid. We can even share a link to your full IT policy.
Feel confident in the DonorsChoose process.
We are committed to providing end-to-end integrity. More than 50 people work on our Operations Team to vet each project before it's posted, to purchase materials instead of providing cash, and to provide transparency and accountability throughout the process. Our Trust & Safety team provides yet another layer of integrity assurance.
You can keep your district leaders in the loop.
We have a team that answers district leader questions and builds custom reports to help district leaders know what teachers are receiving on DonorsChoose. If you’d like your district leaders to know more about how teachers are using DonorsChoose in your area, just share donorschoose.org/district-leaders with them: we’ll help them out from there.
You can help your teachers get started.
Many principals like to get their teachers involved by leading “Introduction to DonorsChoose” sessions. If you’d like your teachers to get started creating projects, we have some resources to help you out! Sign up for our Principal Toolkit to get a guide to leading a training at your school.
