Jacquie's Gold Stars

Each month I honor an individual, team, program, school, or piece of legislation that is helping to promote a quality education for kids. I welcome your nomination for this honor, and I will consider thoughtfully any name(s) you recommend. You can use the "Contact " link to make a nomination. Please explain why you think your nominee should be honored, and let me know how I can contact you for verification. And if you're one of a group that has gone the extra mile, tell me know about it. It doesn't hurt to blow your own horn once in awhile. And besides, nobody will ever accuse you of bragging because I don't ever reveal the nominator's name.

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Although DonorsChoose isn't exactly an "individual, team, program, school, or piece of legislation," its success for advancing the quality of education in this country is unparalleled.

A New York City teacher, Charles Best, started the Donors Choose program for public school educators in 2000, and in 2007 it went national. As of August 2011, more than $86 million dollars had been donated to over 210,000 projects, helping more than 5,150,000 students in need. A "by the week" accounting of the group's philanthropy can be found at the top of the site's (www.DonorsChoose.org) homepage. For example, the statistics for the third week in January (2012) say "22,380 donors helped 130,283 children this week."

The nonprofit organization is particularly eager to assist high-need schools, a designation determined by a school's free and reduced-price meal participation. In the last four years roughly 40 percent of public schools across the nation have had at least one teacher use the site to fund a project.

The organization collects proposals from teachers and makes them available to public schools through its website. Individual donors can select projects and contribute as much as they choose to. DonorsChoose.org then purchases the supplies and provides them to the schools, and generates a line-item budget which is sent to the donor. DonorsChoose.org is supported by fulfillment costs optionally added to each donation, as well as private funding sources — including corporations, teachers, parents, service organizations, and the like.

DonorsChoose.org is open to select schools: Traditional public schools; Public charter schools; GED programs; Pre-K programs run by the school system; Alternative schools run by the school system; and Federal or state-run public schools. Eligible requestors: Public school teachers, librarians, guidance counselors, school nurses and full-time teachers who also act as coaches. Private schools are not allowed to participate in this program.

It would take a ream of paper to record all the materials, books, and equipment DonorsChoose has already funded. I've heard of fertile duck eggs, iPads, Dry Erase Boards, classroom collections of emergent readers, electric pianos, and on and on and on. Suffice it to say, if you can dream it – Donors Choose can (and usually do) fund it.

If you haven't taken advantage of this marvelous nonprofit work of charity, be sure to visit their website and check it out. I've spoken with hundreds of educators throughout the country who have requested and received supplies through Donors Choose and they all say the application process is simple and the wait time is minimal. Now THAT'S worth a Gold Star.

*Click on the Podium link at my website to learn about a just-forged partnership between DonorsChoose and NEA, and to see how that partnership can benefit you and your students.