Update 11/29/17: This #GivingTuesday, an incredible 15,700 people from across the United States came together to support over 11,715 teachers. Thank you so much to everyone who helped to spread the giving spirit! We'll be drawing the winners of our $5,000 DonorsChoose.org gift card GIVEaway next week, so keep an eye out here to see if you are one of our lucky winners. By choosing to support a classroom, you sent an important message to teachers: Someone out there believes in you.
“They almost never fail to lend one another a helping hand.” — Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 1840
Based on the quote above, we suspect Mr. de Tocqueville wouldn’t be surprised by the meteoric rise of #GivingTuesday. Now in its sixth year, this global celebration is a time for all of us to reflect on the importance of giving back to our fellow citizens, and of living up to the democratic ideals that de Tocqueville so admired in our country.The need for generosity in education has never been so clear. The average teacher is spending hundreds of dollars out of pocket every year on essential school supplies, and while we wait on systemic change the burden lands squarely on our teachers to keep students from falling through the cracks. We’re grateful for the work our community has done so far to fund supplies for nearly 400,000 classrooms, and we know there’s so much more work ahead of us.Giving is a fundamentally hopeful act. When you choose to support a classroom, you aren’t just giving pencils and books and technology. Whether you give in your community or across the country, you’re telling teachers and students that you believe in them. All of us who work at nonprofits like DonorsChoose.org know that you could spend that money on anything, but you choose to use it to shape a better world by supporting the amazing work teachers are doing across the country. As de Tocqueville noticed, generosity is core to what it means to be an American, and #GivingTuesday is a digital-age expression of this centuries-old tendency.getOur teachers have put forward over 50,000 ideas to make the world a better place. Which one will you choose?
