Teaching right now is so many things: challenging, joyful, rewarding, stressful, rewarding. This Teacher Appreciation Week, the DonorsChoose community made their support for educators loud and clear.
DonorsChoose is the nonprofit classroom funding site for public school teachers. From May 6–10, donors and partners brought more funding to classrooms than any Teacher Appreciation Week in DonorsChoose's 24-year history!
The stats:
- More than 468,000 people flocked to the DonorsChoose site to celebrate teachers, raising over $10 million for classrooms across the country.
- A record-breaking 35 corporate and foundation partners participated.
- More than 24,000 teachers received support for their classroom projects.
A Stellar Week of Classroom Funding
Five days of matched donations and funding surprises led to the biggest Teacher Appreciation Week in DonorsChoose history. Each day unveiled more funding for teachers across the country. As usual, the tidal wave of support that followed was no surprise at all — donors showed up to make donations with full fanfare for teachers all week long.
MONDAY: THE KICKOFF
Before the day even began, Power for Good Foundation gave a whopping $500,000 in funding to projects selected by their employees. And the Center for Black Educator Development invited their community to help them give $5,000 to support Black educators and schools where the majority of students are Black.
The morning began with a STEM-tastic match! Thanks to GM, every donation to projects for STEM supplies was doubled. Thousands of folks flooded the site to kick off the week’s celebrations.
TUESDAY: EVERY PROJECT MATCHED!
It was a very happy Teacher Appreciation Day for…EVERYONE! Every single donation to every single classroom project was matched.
From coast to coast, kindergarten to 12th grade classrooms, librarians to coaches, language arts to music — everyone got to be part of the action. Thousands of teachers from all 50 states and Washington, DC received funding for their projects making it a true nationwide celebration.
Comedian and DonorsChoose board member, W. Kamau Bell helped spread the word by making it loud!
WEDNESDAY: MATCH MADNESS!!
A flurry of partners jumped in midweek to give people a chance to make an even bigger difference for teachers: More than 15 matches and fundings launched all at once!
- Bazinga! The Chuck Lorre Foundation doubled donations to every STEM project.
- A family that cares about teachers doubled donations to every teacher who has never been funded at every Equity Focus School.
- The Wing 2 Wing Foundation fully funded every teacher’s project in West Virginia.
- Dalio Education doubled donations to every project from Connecticut teachers.
- Montgomery Family Fund doubled donations to every book project in Texas.
- Valhalla Foundation helped support more than 500 pre-K teachers at Equity Focus Schools.
- Amazon fully funded select projects from never-before-funded teachers of color at Equity Focus Schools. They’re also doubling donations to select STEM projects from teachers of color!
- Bezos Family Foundation supported select projects from Equity Focus Schools and additional projects that help teachers bring equity education to the classroom.
- Vroom doubled donations to pre-K projects at Equity Focus Schools in Louisiana, Alabama, and New Mexico.
- Love’s Travel Stop fully funded engineering, tech, and science projects in Oklahoma City.
- An anonymous donor doubled donations for furniture projects from Equity Focus Schools in Pennsylvania.
- Kleenex doubled donations to select projects requesting classroom basics.
- The Peterson Family doubled donations to vital projects supporting air quality and filtration.
- Happy Planner doubled donations to select art projects.
- Optimum doubled donations to select STEM projects in Essex County, New Jersey.
- An anonymous donor fully funded select schools in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
- Quill donated to select projects requesting Quill supplies.
- …and an anonymous friend in Houston will triple every donation to AG Hilliard Elementary School in Houston, Texas.
The world also got a special message from Young Sheldon himself, Iain Armitage, who announced a $2 million in STEM funding in honor of our country’s incredible public schools teachers!
THURSDAY: A MATCH FOR MINDS AND HEARTS
In one of the most heartwarming surprises of the week, an anonymous donor doubled every donation to projects for social and emotional learning supplies. From journals to flexible seating to behavior incentives, teachers received an outpouring of love & care from their biggest supporters.
FRIDAY: THE FINAL WORD
The week finished off on a high note with a very special promo code. Donors entered the code “FRIDAY” to have their donations doubled and finish off their week with even more support.
In a spectacular finale, Valhalla Foundation fully funded every pre-K teacher at Equity Focus School who had never been funded before —and launched a match for teachers who missed out. And Optimum brought one last surprise to St. Joseph, Missouri with funding for STEM projects.
The biggest Friday headline of all? The DonorsChoose community blasted through it’s original goal of $8 MILLION in project funding for teachers to reach a whopping $10 million for classrooms!
DonorsChoose boardmember, acclaimed entertainer, and friend to teachers everywhere Yvette Nicole Brown made the big announcement!
Reactions from Teachers
From shock to gratitude to spontaneous dance parties, teachers everywhere celebrated a week of joyful news for their classrooms.
Teachers in the Spotlight
The nation’s attention turned to teachers with DonorsChoose teacher features in Live 5 News’ “Classroom Champions” campaign in Charleston and WECT News in North Carolina.
The DonorsChoose team did some spotlighting of our own. You may have noticed teachers playing a starring role across our channels all week long. Thank you to the following superstar educators: Erica Yonks from LACJHS, Michelle Mason from PS 352X, Alicia Luna and Della Regina from PS 43, Genuine Blumenthal and Agnes Laird from PS 63, Monnero Gurvil from the High School for Math, Michael Costa and Sameena Tanedo of PS 84, and Dora Schaffer of PS 54.
Some Love from our Friends
From comedian W. Kamau Bell to actress Emily Hampshire to Young Sheldon himself, friends with a social media megaphone helped celebrate teachers. They spread the word about the passion and dedication of DonorsChoose educators far and wide.
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