Charles Best Explains DonorsChoose.org

DonorsChoose.org is a non-profit organization that lets public school teachers post requests for contributions for specific projects. People who are interested can find projects that "really speak to them," as founder Charles Best told Start Rocket Radio. He proves that high-tech entrepreneurship takes place not just in companies looking to turn a profit, but in charities looking to do good.

(Click here to listen to the 11 minute interview.)

Each teacher receives a disposable camera to photograph thank you notes from students that will then be sent as a laminated packet to contributors. Every donor can choose how to contribute to projects. They can fund all or part of a request. They can also decide whether to have 100 percent of their contribution dedicated directly to the project, or they can elect to add on a 15 percent fulfillment fee to offset the costs of DonorsChoose.

Best was a social studies for 5 years in the Bronx, and DonorsChoose grew out of conversations he had with other teachers. He saw "students going without" the resources needed for a great education, and suspected that "a lot of people out there who wanted to help improve our public schools, but they needed a way to choose where their money was going to go."

Best notes that others have taken to the idea of creating an "eBay for philanthropy." Ultimately he sees it giving the same level of choice and accountability for small dollar donors that has been typically reserved for the Bill Gates of the world.

The initial web site cost only $2,000 for a programmer. Best's students helped write letters enticing visitors and donors, while his teaching colleagues were "bribed" by his mom's desserts into submitting the first proposals.

For nearly five years, Best taught during the day and ran DonorsChoose at night, but for the past two years he has been full-time at the helm of the non-profit. He has been gratified by the response, and says that a number of projects stand out to him. In particular, one that stood out was a teacher who organized a campaign for smoke detectors for her students' homes after one of her pupils tragically died in a fire.

Best notes that there are projects for virtually any interest. He mentions someone who was interested in protecting salmon and thought there would be no way to use DonorsChoose to further that personal interest. In fact, it turned out that there were several schools creating projects centered on salmon that would fit this donor's interest.

(Click here to listen to the 11 minute interview.)