DONORSCHOOSE
South Carolinians can now specify how their donations to schools will be used!
October 18, 2005 – DonorsChoose is “the future of philanthropy” according to the New York Times. Today that future arrived in Charleston via the DonorsChoose bus. DonorChoose program is a process by which families, businesses and philanthropic organizations can easily provide monetary support to South Carolina teachers and classrooms and to specify the exact project or program they wish to fund. Through the use of a user-friendly website with a virtual menu of options, donors can pinpoint the exact program to be the fortunate recipient of a gift. Donors can make a donation on behalf of someone in lieu of a gift when there is a special reason to do so. Missy Sherburne, the Executive Director of DonorsChoose told Rotarians how this program began and how it evolved into a state-wide initiative in South Carolina.
In 2002, a teacher in New York had the idea to build a web site through which parents and businesses would have a simple way to financially support teachers who were spending their own money to fill budget shortfalls and enhance classroom activities. He built the website on his own time and it was an immediate hit! Word spread quickly and before long DonorsChoose was recognized as a national model by The New York Times, Oprah, and by National Public Radio. When word of this idea reached Charleston, people were quick to want to find out more information and to begin the work necessary to get such a program up and running. As it so happens, Greenville schools had also heard about DonorsChoose and were pursuing their own interest in the program. The two cities learned about one another and quickly joined forces. Through the sponsorship of a number of exceptional organizations and the hard work of people in Greenville and Charleston, South Carolina is only the second state to adopt this program on a state-wide basis.
Ms. Sherburne then gave us an on-screen glimpse of the DonorsChoose web site (www.donorschoose.org). It is an easy web site to access and to use. Potential donors can’t help but be impressed by the creativity and motivation of our teachers as they read through the variety of ideas expressed in the project proposals. All of the proposals represent class projects designed to enhance and support learning in classrooms K -12 and for which money is not available. One can search the proposals by subject matter or by location and donations can be made to schools in South Carolina from any location in the US. Some of proposals submitted by our creative and talented teachers are, for example, “Chapter Challenge” ($185) to “Don’t Let Genetics (Fruit) Fly By” ($428), and “Who Gives a Hoot?” ($908).
At today’s meeting, Rotarians had a chance to log onto the web site. One Rotarian who boarded the DonorsChoose bus to log on was Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson. Dr. Goodloe-Johnson told the club how impressed she was by all of proposals she read but one jumped right out at her. Because of her lifelong love of jazz and because music has been such a constant in her life, a proposal involving a small after-school jazz group held special appeal. The proposal would benefit a group of kids who stay after school because of their love of jazz. The only set of drums to which they have access is currently shared by three children. Their wish is for a second set of drums. Dr. Goodloe-Johnson promptly donated $100 to this effort and then challenged Rotarians to come up with the other $900.00 necessary to buy the drums. Within 15 seconds Rotarians had committed significantly more than the additional $900 she requested.
Won’t you take a minute to look to this web site? Go to www.donorschoose.org and most likely you, too, will begin to appreciate the potential of this program to positively benefit our schools.
Reported by Helen Harloe, Keyway Committee