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By Daphra
Thursday,
Nov 19, 2009 at 4:55pm
In his updated book, “Philanthrocapitalism: How Giving Can Save the World” Matthew Bishop, American Business Editor and New York Bureau Chief of The Economist, and his co-author Michael Green, discuss how private money can help solve even the most difficult public problems. In the wake of last year’s global economic turmoil, he notes that the fiscal fallout of 2008 will scale back public budgets and government ambitions for at least a generation. Instead, Bishop suggests, government is being replaced by new players in the field of giving: private foundations and innovative non-profits.
In this new release, Bishop argues that online giving marketplaces, like DonorsChoose.org, GlobalGiving and Kiva, are quickly revolutionizing the realm of Philanthropcapitalism. In Chapter 13 of his book “We are all Philanthropcapitalists Now,” he notes that organizations like these are the ultimate agents of change in “mass philanthropy” since they have successfully democratized giving, allowing every global citizen to be a philanthropist. He writes “through sophisticated aggregation of their individual philanthropic decisions, these sites will also allow “microphilanthrocapitalists” with only a few dollars to give to achieve some of the ‘hyper-agency’ of a Bill Gates or George Soros, including by acting more effectively as a community and by forming new sorts of partnerships with the mega-philanthropists themselves”
This is the heart of the new approach to solving social problems that he believes is needed, based on creative partnerships between business, nonprofits and government. He writes, “A group of wealthy entrepreneurs and business leaders is increasingly taking the initiative in creating these innovative new solutions. Rejecting the idea that business is about short-term profits, damn the consequences to society and the environment, these philanthrocapitalists think the winners from our economic system should give back and that business can do well by doing good.”
We are honored to be included in the company of such great organizations in the book and are humbled by Matt Bishop’s recognition of how DonorsChoose.org is enabling everyday individuals to become philanthrocapitalists.
Interested in learning more about the book and how DonorsChoose.org fits into Bishop’s argument? Check out his website Philanthrocapitalism.net. The book is now available in paperback.
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By Daphra
Tuesday,
Nov 3, 2009 at 5:46pm
During the month of October, hundreds of bloggers, teachers, and twitterers devoted their time (and various methods of persuasion) to help inspire over $637,336 in donations to classroom projects via the DonorsChoose.org Blogger Challenge Social Media Challenge, reaching over 116,437 public school students in need of essential learning materials. 4,545 of their readers, fans, friends, and followers helped galvanize the challenge by supporting public schools across the country in such a significant way. We’ve shattered all previous year’s Blogger Challenges thanks to the hardwork of every participant, teacher and citizen philanthropist, along with a $250,000 match offer from HP (read more, here).
Winners: By raising $314,208, mobilizing 1,121 readers and reaching 51,905 students, Sarah Bunting and the Tomato Nation community were the overall winners of this competition. They even toppled the all-time record raised by one Giving Page set in last year’s challenge when they raised over $111,000. This is truly a testament to how deeply they care about public schools and how effective Sarah has been at inspiring the entire Tomato Nation community. We urge you to take a look at the blog posts, comments and video from the past month to see how they were able to mobilize so effectively. Her “Bet Red” Giving Page, an extension of her casino-royale “Bunting’s 13″ theme, also had the most donors; 25% to be exact. Kudos to TomatoNation.com. We look forward to seeing the Tomato costume make its way to Atlantic City where it will undoubtedly bet red!
The other big winner of the Social Media Challenge were our Teachers, who threw their hat into the ring under the “We Teach. Those Who Don’t, GIVE!” Leaderboard. Teachers from all over the country banded together, under this awesome slogan, and helped raise $110,131 for their classrooms. Perhaps most telling about their success is that almost half of the donors of the Social Media Challenge were inspired by one of these teachers. There were a total of 2,401 donors to just this leaderboard!
Other winners in each of the Social Media Challenge leaderboards, include:
By Dollars Raised:
By Donors Mobilized:
- Seed Media ScienceBlogs: This community of ScienceBlogs collectively mobilized 267 donors. Leading the pack? Dr. Isis’s Sacred Temple!
- Tech Blogs: Venture Capital/Tech Blogger, Fred Wilson (A VC), inspired 213 individuals to give to his campaign.
- Gawker: Gawker’s properties mobilized 84 donors, proving they could put their money where their mouth is
- Twitter: Twitter, though a first-time community, entered the fray and were led by Livia. She engaged 52 of her followers in the Social Media Challenge.
We also would like to recognize all of the Social Media Challenge participants and a few communities who joined us in the Challenge for the first time this year. They include: Ariba, Stack Overflow, Seattle 2.0, Mashable, Dr. Pal, Geobloggers, Christina’s LIS, Twitter, Biz Stone, Livia Stone, SocialBrite, The Intersection, 80beats, Gawker Media, Brooklyn Schools, The Nature Blog Network, SB Nation, Serious Eats, Nosh with Me, innonate, David Berkowitz, Kim Molodofsky, Yvonne Michelle, the Colorado Blogging Community, the Twitter 140 Conference, Performance Magazine, Greentech, and the entire BlogHer community!
Interested in creating your own Giving Page and starting your own mini ‘challenge?’ Check out this section of our website!
Finally, if you want to keep up with the participants, our sponsor HP, or with us on Twitter, please click on the respective links.
THANKS!
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By Daphra
Friday,
Oct 30, 2009 at 3:08pm
In the last four weeks, bloggers, twitterers and their 4,327 friends/fans/followers have helped raised $585,691 for DonorsChoose.org classrooms in need of essential resources. With only 24 hours left in the Social Media Challenge, several of the participants need your help getting to the finish line. A few are even offering up some incentives to hit their goals:
- An anonymous donor has pledged to donate an additional $20,000 to TomatoNation.com, if they hit $280k (they just need a few more dollars). Support them, here.
- Fred Wilson has personally invited any citizen philanthropist who makes a donation to his Giving Page to meet him in person next week. Support him, here.
- ScienceBlog(ger), Professor Orzel, is offering up a puppet show and an advance copy of his book. Support him, here.
- BlogHer, the largest community of women bloggers, is targeting local cities in their fundraising. The Seattle Chapter is looking for some help in these final hours. The incentive? BlogHer, Mona, will “spray you with glitter.” Support any of their chapters, here.
- Liva, who sits atop our Twitter leaderboard, is offering up cupcakes to folks in the Bay Area who help fund the last few projects on her page. Support her, here. Mmm… her cupcakes look yummy!
Coincidentally, the Social Media Challenge ends on Halloween so even if none of these incentives suit your fancy, let’s give these classrooms a special TREAT! Click HERE to donate to ANY of the Challenge supporters.
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By Candice
Thursday,
Sep 17, 2009 at 3:56pm
Thanks to the generosity of the Koret Foundation, California teachers, both familiar with and new to DonorsChoose.org, will receive help in bringing their classroom projects to life. All teachers who are members of the California Teachers Empowerment Network (CTEN) and one lucky colleague will receive a $50.00 DonorsChoose.org giving card to use on books, microscopes, paintbrushes or whatever these teachers need for their classrooms!
CTEN is comprised of teachers dedicated to providing fellow teachers with reliable and balanced information about professional affiliations and positions on educational issues. CTEN believes that advocating for open dialogue and informed choices will empower teachers to experience greater satisfaction and success in this profession. We are grateful to the Koret Foundation for supporting these informed and dedicated professionals!
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By Kirk
Wednesday,
Aug 5, 2009 at 5:24pm
Last week, DonorsChoose.org Founder and CEO Charles Best helped Build-A-Bear Workshop honor 12 amazing kids from across the country. These passionately driven children, dubbed “Huggable Heroes,” each have made a significant impact in their communities and around the world by starting their own charitable organizations. You can read more about the Huggable Heroes here.
Thursday night, the Heroes were honored at a dinner at the St. Louis Zoo. Charles was able to meet the kids, share with them how he created and grew DonorsChoose.org, and inspire them to continue helping those in need. He was as impressed with each of them as they were with him!
The following morning, the Heroes participated in a service project at a local St. Louis public school. They helped paint an international mural at Mason Elementary to support the school’s diverse international student community. Click here to view the media coverage of this event. Charles also was interviewed on the local NBC affiliate, which you can watch here.
The events concluded with a press conference, attended by St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, St. Louis Public Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams, local state politicians, Build-A-Bear staff, and Charles. Those in attendance received DonorsChoose.org GivingCards and were excited to hear the impact the organization has had in the community, including over $175,000 in materials for St. Louis public school classrooms last school year. At the press conference, DonorsChoose.org announced that the first project for the 2009-2010 school year in St. Louis had been funded to provide listening materials for English language learners at Mason Elementary, thanks to a donation from Build-A-Bear.
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By Kirk
Tuesday,
Jun 16, 2009 at 10:52pm
Build-A-Bear Workshop continues to partner with DonorsChoose.org to inspire its customers to make a difference in the lives of children. The retailer is donating a portion of the sales of its new Bearville Outfitters Virtual Stuff Game Cards (pictured below) to DonorsChoose.org and other charities. Customers who purchase the cards will vote for their favorite charity (currently DonorsChoose.org or First Book, but other charities may be added in the future), and Build-A-Bear Workshop will donate to that group.
The Bearville Outfitters Cards are a new offering from Build-A-Bear Workshop for customers to use at Buildabearville.com. Buildabearville.com is a new online virtual world where customers of all ages can create an online character, interact with others, participate in games and quests, and learn about giving back to the community. The virtual world is free to participate in, but customers can purchase Bearville Outfitters Virtual Stuff Game Cards to get rides, clothing, furniture, and a house for their online avatar.
Check out the press release for more information. DonorsChoose.org is proud to continue partnering with Build-A-Bear Workshop and thankful for their commitment to helping children learn.
Be sure to visit a Build-A-Bear Workshop store (or their website) to purchase a Bearville Outfitters Virtual Stuff Game Card and select DonorsChoose.org as your favorite charity!
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By Kirk
Monday,
Jun 15, 2009 at 6:42pm
Teachers in St. Louis Public Schools (SLPS) have taken DonorChoose.org by storm! Thanks to partnerships with district administrators and superintendent Kelvin Adams, hundreds of SLPS teachers heard about DonorsChoose.org for the first time and began submitting their classroom needs.
This school year, 95% of the 87 schools in the district have submitted a classroom request at DonorsChoose.org, and over 80% have been fully funded. Seventy-six percent of SLPS teachers who submitted a project have been fully funded (which is higher than our national average of 66%), and over 400 teachers registered to use DonorsChoose.org for the first time.
Over 6,000 SLPS students have benefitted from over 8,000 hours of instruction, and donations in excess of $190,000 were provided from citizen philanthropists across the nation. Local business leaders (most prominently Maxine Clark, CEO of Build-A-Bear Workshop and new DonorsChoose.org National Advisory Board member) also participated in funding projects and spreading the word to more teachers in the city. We are so excited that SLPS students are having greater educational opportunities thanks to our wonderful donors, and we look forward to continued support of the district in the years to come.
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By Alicia
Friday,
Jun 12, 2009 at 12:34pm
Crate and Barrel, the first ever GivingCard partner of DonorsChoose.org, recently completed its fifth GivingCard campaign, which put $25.00 DonorsChoose.org GivingCards in the e-mail inboxes of their customers across the country. The results of this campaign are staggering, with over 347,000 students positively impacted and more than 14,500 projects brought to life, resulting in 434,000+ hours of classroom instruction!
Since 2006, the Crate and Barrel GivingCard partnership has allowed the company to partner with their customers in support of public education. Many Crate and Barrel staff have their own personal connections to the classroom. Crate and Barrel CEO, Barbara Turf, was a fifth grade mathematics teacher when she first began working at Crate and Barrel stores during her holiday and summer breaks. In fact, many of Crate and Barrel’s executives started out as teachers, which is probably why the company is known for doing such a great job educating its employees and customers about its products. As Turf commented, “we know from experience that without funding, many teachers would have to spend their own money to provide their students with even the most basic of supplies, not to mention the materials needed for projects that encourage creative discovery.”
The feedback from Crate and Barrel GivingCard redeemers has been overwhelmingly positive. In addition to adding over $20,000 of their own funds, Crate and Barrel customers tweeted about the campaign and posted comments to their Facebook pages and blogs. A sampling of customer feedback is provided below:
• “Wow, I just got the best email campaign ever. It was from Crate & Barrel - they sent a $25 voucher to redeem at DonorsChoose.org. So cool.”
• “This weekend I had an email in my inbox from Crate and Barrel offering me the opportunity to donate to a project of my choosing - paid for by C&B. ….I found (to my delight) an opportunity to contribute to something very real, very concrete and very much in my own back yard…My thanks goes to Crate and Barrel for this wonderful gift to me and to the students in that classroom…”
• “Crate and Barrel sent me a code to donate to my project of choice at DonorsChoose.org. This is seriously fantastic. Way to go Crate!”
• “Excited to have received and used a DonorsChoose.org GivingCard from Crate & Barrel in my email inbox. Nice, C&B, very nice!”
• “Joy! Crate and Barrel GAVE me $25 to donate at DonorsChoose.org and I gave it locally”
• “Love Crate and Barrel, they just sent me an email with a $25 gift certificate to use at DonorsChoose & support a classroom. So cool.”
• “Crate&Barrel’s new outreach: gift card for donation to donorschoose.org - lets recipient participate in giving process. Clever idea.”
DonorsChoose.org and teachers and students across the country would like to thank Crate and Barrel and its customers for their ongoing support of public school teachers and students!
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By Natalie
Saturday,
May 9, 2009 at 1:44am
Students at MacArthur Elementary are learning valuable lessons about preserving the environment thanks to materials received through DonorsChoose.org. Ms. Cummings’s kindergarten classroom now has recycling bins and their own compost bin, which gives the students a chance to get their hands dirty while providing lessons about biology and recycling.
The environmentally friendly kindergarteners caught the attention of a reporter at The News on 6 in Tulsa who visited their classroom last week. The students showed their enthusiasm for the creepy crawlers that ultimately break down food scraps into healthy soil.
The green lesson plans are clearly making an impact on the students. According to Ms. Cummings, “Parents come to me all the time telling me my child is on me all the time about recycling paper and plastics.”
In addition to helping teach the kids about preserving the planet, DonorsChoose.org grants have boosted their reading skills and introduced them to cultures halfway around the world.
Click here to view the inspiring story from The News on 6 in Tulsa.
Click here to view other projects from MacArthur Elementary that are currently being sponsored by the George Kaiser Family Foundation.
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By Kari
Wednesday,
Apr 8, 2009 at 10:30am
DonorsChoose.org has joined the Get Schooled project! The Get Schooled project is partnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Viacom, which they hope to find new ways to improve education, raise graduation rates and better prepare students for life.
Within the next five years, the goal is to raise the percentage of students graduating from high school and post-secondary education (college, community college or trade/vocational school). DonorsChoose.org along with several other organizations are featured in the Take Action section of the site–with DonorsChoose.org allowing visitors to make a direct impact on classrooms nationwide!
Learn more about the initiative and view the video messages from celebrities supporting the campaign, like: America Ferrera, Harrison Ford, Meryl Streep, Mark McGrath, George Lopez, Salt-N-Pepa, Will Arnett, Ne-Yo, DMC, Nick Cannon, Jon Hamm—to name a few!
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