After founding DonorsChoose from his Bronx classroom 21 years ago, Charles Best has decided to pass the torch to a new CEO in 2022 and transition to our Board of Directors. The search for a new CEO is currently underway.
Watch Charles’ message to our community.
Theresia Gouw, the newly elected chair of the DonorsChoose Board of Directors, shared with our supporters, “Charles’ spirit of service has been the driving energy of DonorsChoose, and his decision to welcome a new leader into this role shows his unwavering dedication to our mission. I’m excited to work with Charles and my fellow board members to find a visionary leader for the organization.”
Russell Reynolds Associates will lead the search for the new DonorsChoose CEO. Over the next year, Charles will lead DonorsChoose as the organization continues to address racial inequity in education and to support teachers and students through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Share a message with Charles on our Facebook post.
Over Charles’ 21 years as CEO, DonorsChoose has empowered 4.7 million people to give more than $1 billion to nearly 2 million requests from U.S. public school teachers. In 2008, Charles led the organization through an expansion that made the site available to teachers in every public school in the United States. Today, four out of five public schools across the U.S. have a teacher who has posted a request on DonorsChoose. The organization was the first charity to make the cover of Fast Company’s “World’s Most Innovative Companies” issue, has been named one of Oprah’s Ultimate Favorite Things, and has won multiple Halo Awards for its partnerships with the world’s most respected brands. In 2019, DonorsChoose received the largest known gift of cryptocurrency to a single charity: $29 million in XRP to fund all 35,000 teacher requests live on the site at that time.
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