Using Tech to Grow Givers: DonorsChoose.org

If you watched the Colbert Report last week, you learned something about DonorsChoose.org. It has also received attention from Oprah, the Today Show, Dateline, the New York Times, Time magazine, Newsweek and Doonesbury comics. The organization has received the Nonprofit Innovation Award from the Stanford Business School and Amazon.com, a Global Technology Laureate from the TECH Museum of Innovation and Microsoft, the 2006 Social Capitalist Award and selection by Ashoka as a model project.

The idea behind DonorsChoose.org is a two-way exchange, to foster innovation in public schools and at the same time encourage individual philanthropy for that cause. School teachers submit ideas for experiences and materials that their students need to learn, using a form. The proposals are then put online and anyone can search among them by areas of interest, learn about needs, and choose to fund a project with a gift card to a teacher or family member. Donors get a package of photographs and student thank-you notes, a teacher impact letter, and an expenditure report showing how their gift was spent.

A former student in the CSR course at NYU Stern School that I teach (with Prof. Bruce Buchanan), Kari Hayden, is now Director of Corporate Partnerships at DonorsChoose.org. She will be working on direct corporate philanthropy and cause marketing programs through an innovative approach highlighted by the Wall Street Journal. To learn more, look at Blogger Challenge, or email Kari at kari@donorschoose.org.