The Founding of Education Charity DonorsChoose.org

The scenario was once all too common in the public school system: A teacher conceives a brilliant lesson plan only to find that budgetary restrictions make implementation impossible. Since 2000, however, with the launch of DonorsChoose.org, instances of money overriding education have been on the decline.

The online educational charity has already delivered more than $35 million into classrooms, and 90 percent of that funding has gone to low-income schools, according to Brita Lombardi, the executive vice president for strategic development for DonorsChoose.org.

"The impact has been tremendous, both in the education field and for philanthropists, too," Lombardi says. "We've brought playgrounds and recreational areas to low-income communities. We've funded a project on the oral history of native Alaskans, which was done by a teacher that feared the oral tradition was being lost."

The concept for DonorsChoose.org, developed by Bronx high school social studies teacher Charles Best, connects schools and donors through just a few simple steps. To kick off the process, a public school teacher anywhere in the U.S. posts a brief classroom project proposal on the DonorsChoose.org Web site"the description could be regarding anything from a request for 30 pencils for a creative writing endeavor to 10 Petri dishes for a science course to 20 dictionaries for an etymology lecture.

Anyone in the world can then search the site's project database and make a minimum contribution of $1 to a preferred cause. When a project meets its funding goal, the materials are delivered to the school, and the donors receive classroom photos and cost reports detailing how every dollar has been spent. Those altruists who donate more than $100 to any program receive handwritten notes of thanks from the affected students. More than 200,000 teachers and "citizen philanthropists" have already experienced this synergistic relationship, Lombardi says.

In April, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided DonorsChoose.org with a grant that would enable the charity to fund up to 50 percent of the cost of individual classroom projects in high-need urban and rural public schools. The partnership is projected to support more than 17,000 classroom projects and involve more than 300,000 students throughout the nation.

"Our real goal is to inspire donors from all walks of life"from a carpenter in a small town that wants to give back to his school to a wealthy donor in a big city that gives regularly," Lombardi says, alluding to the site's presence on the micro-blogging site Twitter. "Every dollar counts, and we want people to realize that. Our hope is to democratize philanthropy so that everyone feels like they can make a difference in education."

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