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School Year in Review

2017 – 2018

When students have books to read, instruments to play, test tubes to fill; when students have the chance to explore the world through field trips and invite guests to their classroom; when students have full bellies, warm bodies, and confident hearts, the possibilities for learning are endless.

This year, DonorsChoose.org teachers, donors, and partners worked together to bring those opportunities and more to students across the country. Here's a closer look:

255,247 classroom projects funded
766,519 citizen philanthropists mobilized
43,313 public schools reached
72,488 teachers with their first project funded
146,696 thank-you packages sent nationwide

We celebrated one million classroom dreams.

From the moment Ms. Pitts walked into school on January 25, it was clear the day would be anything but ordinary. Maybe it was the giant DonorsChoose.org boxes, or maybe it was the professional TV crew, but May V. Carrigan Intermediate School was singularly energized.

Within just a few hours, Ms. Pitts and her peers were featured on Good Morning America, where they learned that all of their DonorsChoose.org projects were funded in celebration of the first million projects brought to life through DonorsChoose.org. For Ms. Pitts, that meant a class set of The Giver, so her students can explore this classic at their own pace.

"I'm still in shock that we were all fully funded on national television! My students can't wait to start our literature circles. Thank you isn't enough for all that you've provided for my students." —Ms. Pitts, "Please Give Us The Giver!"

To help teachers across the country celebrate their milestone, donations to every project were doubled. We're so grateful to the teachers (like Ms. Pitts!), donors, and partners who helped to bring these first million classroom projects to life, and to those already creating and giving to the next million dreams.

Extra Credit

More than half of all donations come from donors who don't personally know the teacher they're giving to, and are often from donors who live far away from the classroom they're helping. Here are a few of the states with donors who love to support teachers from afar.

Delaware donors love Arizona teachers

Partners forged new paths in innovative philanthropy.

This year, more than 170 foundations and corporate partners gave to teachers through DonorsChoose.org. Combined, these partners supported 180,000 classroom project requests — that's 70% of all projects!

Two of these boundary-pushing partnerships were honored with Halo Awards at the 2018 Engage For Good Conference.

Serving our Littlest Learners

PNC Grow Up Great supported our first expansion since we went national in 2007, allowing us to serve all Head Start teachers in the country. Since the launch of this campaign, PNC has helped us welcome 1,627 new Head Start classrooms to DonorsChoose.org.

Redefining Employee Engagement

PwC redefined employee engagement when they gave their interns the chance to investigate our data to identify trends on teacher need. PwC then funded five "philanthropic experiments" based on these findings, helping us serve classrooms even more effectively.

Teachers helped students stay warm in the winter.

When Utah teacher Rickee Stewart learned that 2,100 students in her district faced homelessness and housing insecurity, she was inspired to create change. Instead of a traditional wedding registry, she and her fiancé sought donations to her DonorsChoose.org project requesting 600 coats for students in need. Since then, we've delivered more than 1,200 winter coats to Rickee Stewart's school, and thousands more to schools across the country since we launched our Warmth, Care, and Hunger project category last school year.

Extra Credit

four stars

We've been awarded the highest possible rating from Charity Navigator for 13 years in a row.

The public rallied to help teachers recover after natural disasters.

This fall, Hurricanes Harvey and Irma flooded schools across Florida, Texas, and Louisiana, and Hurricane Maria displaced thousands of Puerto Rican students. The moment the first reports came in, our team sprung to action, working with teachers on the ground to identify immediate needs while bringing together foundations, corporations, and donors looking for ways to help.

Mrs. Haley, one of the many affected teachers, shared what the support means to her. "Words cannot describe how thankful I am for generous donors. Thank you so much for helping to restore normalcy to our classroom after Hurricane Harvey. Our community has lost so much and you've helped replace a piece of what was missing." —Mrs. Haley

Through a combination of grants from partners like the Rebuild Texas Fund and individual donations, our community has been able to support 750 schools impacted by disasters this school year, and continues to support the many schools on the long road to recovery.

$9 million raised for disaster recovery
5,612 recovery projects funded
2,657 teachers in affected areas helped

Ripple made March 28, 2018 the #BestSchoolDay yet.

On March 28, we partnered with Ripple, a San Francisco-based company that uses blockchain technology to facilitate international payments, to fund every single classroom project on our site in one $29 million swoop.

Education advocate and DonorsChoose.org Board Member Stephen Colbert
kicked off the celebration on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Ripple's #BestSchoolDay donation caused quite a buzz, with outlets like the New York Times and Fast Company celebrating the impact for education. And this donation brought awareness of DonorsChoose.org to a whole new group of teachers: Since March, teachers have been creating project requests at higher rates than ever before.

Extra Credit

4000,000 Books!

Teachers had more than 400,000 books funded this year — enough for every person in Iceland!

Rugs!

The carpets and rugs funded this year would cover six football fields.

Guitars

Every musician ever inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame could tune up twice with the amount of guitars and guitar strings funded this year.

Our community uplifted each other every day.

For many, DonorsChoose.org is more than a platform where teachers go to get the materials and experiences their students need. It's a place where teachers can learn from peers across the country, a way for neighbors to lend each other a helping hand, and an opportunity to connect with strangers through a shared passion for helping children succeed.

This year, we welcomed 7,136 teachers to our Facebook teacher community, which is run by one of the many former teachers on our staff! There, teachers share fundraising tips and tricks, project inspiration, and camaraderie.

Ms. Oliver created her first DonorsChoose.org projects this school year, and was hoping to learn some fundraising best practices from experienced DonorsChoose.org teachers. Ms. Gikas who's had more than 30 projects funded since 2012 responded, introducing Ms. Oliver to the power of partner-backed match offers: "Try to use a match and think small. That's how I got started." Three days later, this was the result:

This is just one of the thousands of conversations teachers are having in the Facebook community!

Thank you for an incredible school year!

We can't wait to see what classroom dreams our community of teachers donors, corporations, foundations, and vendors will bring to life next year. Take a look at what teachers are already cooking up.

With special thanks to our most generous partners

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Supporting teachers and students since 2000

DonorsChoose makes it easy for anyone to help a classroom in need. Public school teachers from every corner of America create classroom project requests, and you can give any amount to the project that inspires you.

We've earned the highest possible ratings from Better Business Bureau, Charity Watch, Charity Navigator, and Guidestar.