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At DonorsChoose.org, we love it when citizen philanthropists and teachers connect with one another, and sometimes that connection takes on a magic of its own. That’s what happened with a long-time donor from the San Francisco Area. This donor is an avid reader and a warm-hearted soul who read about an outstanding teacher in a national newspaper a few years ago.  She was inspired by this teacher from Boston—Nancy Barile—and decided to contact Nancy directly to ask how she could help.  And one of the things this donor offered in the way of help was an introduction to a super-cool new website (you may recognize the name): DonorsChoose.org.  That was when something incredible happened!

Nancy became a devotee of DonorsChoose.org and started posting her requests right away. She’s now had fifteen projects funded—from class sets of literature to ping-pong tables for her students. And she hasn’t stopped there. She made it her personal mission to spread the word about DonorsChoose.org to every one of her colleagues. She’s presented staff workshops about the website and has trained colleagues to post effective requests. Since Nancy got involved, 117 projects have been funded at 11 schools in Nancy’s Massachusetts school district, including at her school—Revere High School. And anyone who has ever spoken to Nancy would not be surprised by her successful outreach. The word “dynamo” comes to mind….

Nancy has been changing students’ lives for the past 14 years.  She came to teaching as a second career, inspired by positive memories of her own high school English teacher. Before she found DonorsChoose.org, she would annually underwrite her classroom needs with as much as $2,000 from her personal funds.  But no more—by linking to her project requests on her Facebook page and engaging her broad network of friends, fans, and “friends of fans,” she sees her projects come to life almost as soon as she posts them. She tells us, “it’s such fun when a project ‘takes off’ and experiences a flurry of funding all at once!” Nancy uses DonorsChoose.org to bring creative and innovative learning opportunities to her at-risk students and has helped many of them gain access to excellent colleges in recent years. In her eyes, every extra effort is worthwhile, as every student deserves a shot at success. And, with the help of her “West Coast Angel” and DonorsChoose.org, Nancy is giving that shot to every one of her students!

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