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Posted by Dan on
Friday,
September 30, 2011 at 12:50pm
Since 2005, classroom projects have been brought to life at an astonishing pace (749 projects!) in Georgetown County, South Carolina. Many of these projects were funded by the mysterious, “Friends of Georgetown County“.
Today, we are proud to announce the cloak has been removed, and this anonymous funder has identified themselves as the Frances P. Bunnelle Foundation.
The Bunnelle Foundation’s mission is to improve the quality of life for Georgetown County citizens. To that end, they have donated almost $180,000 to classroom projects since 2005. More impressively, this generosity has encouraged individual donors from around the country to open their wallets and donate over $200,000 additional funds to Georgetown County projects.
With this exciting announcement, the Bunnelle Foundation has agreed to underwrite a new “Double Your Impact” campaign on Georgetown County classroom projects. Might you consider joining their support?
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Posted by Katie on
Tuesday,
September 27, 2011 at 4:14pm
This blog post was written by Debby Guardino, a self-described “DonorsChoose.org
teacher” who has been using DonorsChoose.org since January 2009:
On Thursday, September 22, I boarded a plane headed to New York. I was traveling at the invitation of DonorsChoose.org to present to their Board of Directors on my efforts to help teachers in Joplin, MO. It was an unexpected honor to be invited. As I left Virginia, it began to sink in just how much my life had changed because of my involvement with DonorsChoose.org.
I shared with the Board of Directors the story of how I had traveled to Joplin, MO, a small town devastated by an EF-5 tornado on May 22nd. The tornado left 260 teachers without classrooms or resources. As I recounted personal stories about the remarkable teachers I met in Joplin, I felt an extreme sense of compassion and empathy from the board members. Many members expressed that they shared such a sense of pride that DonorsChoose.org/Joplin had raised over $400,000 in funded projects and that we were able to accomplish so much in just 4 short months. At the end of my presentation, Peter Bloom, the Chairman of the Board presented me with an iPad2 and expressed the board’s gratitude for my part in assisting Joplin teachers. It was a surreal moment and something I had not expected.
I was really excited that I was allowed to stay for the entire board meeting. Every board member was involved and 100% engaged in the meeting. Each brought with them their individual expertise and insights to create a productive meeting. Senior DonorsChoose.org managers presented insightful presentations on their portions of the operation. As senior teams reviewed these functional areas, their discussions focused on what went well, what went wrong, and then the board discussed what the goals should be moving forward.
I will never forget this remarkable experience and the pride I took as a public school teacher watching DonorsChoose.org staff and board members working together to enrich the lives and education of students across the country. I am so proud to be part of this amazing organization!
Over the past year, Bing has helped bring more than $1.5 million to classrooms in every state in the country at DonorsChoose.org. They have given hundreds of thousands of individuals the power to search and decide, and fund the projects that are most meaning to them. On behalf of all the students and teachers whose lives have been changed by your commitment to education, thank you!
As part of our ongoing partnership, Bing is enabling everyone to support classrooms through the searching you do each day.
Here’s how it works:
Join Bing Rewards for free and Bing will send you a $5 DonorsChoose.org gift card.
Continue searching with Bing, and earn credits which can be redeemed for more $5 DonorsChoose.org gift cards to help more classrooms.
Turn your searching and exploring with Bing into donations for classrooms all year! Visit Bing Rewards to learn more and join today.
Gift cards are limited to one per donor and a maximum of 100 codes can be applied to projects from each teacher. Gift codes are not transferable.
TODAY and “Education Nation” have announced the launch of a school supply drive to benefit our nation’s teachers and students!
From Monday, Sept. 26 through Friday, Sept. 30, TODAY and NBC’s affiliate stations will encourage viewers across the country to support teacher’s classroom projects through DonorsChoose.org/EducationNation. Viewers can support clasroom projects in their neighborhood by donating to requests for notebooks, pencils, rulers, backpacks, erasers, calculators and more.
“This is a terrific opportunity to help our nation’s students and to make a positive impact on our communities,” said Jim Bell, executive producer of TODAY. “We hope our viewers will join us in this nationwide mission to help our classrooms thrive and our students succeed.”
Through “Education Nation,” NBC News hopes to educate Americans so they can make decisions about how best to improve our education system both in the near and long terms, and to shine a spotlight on one of the most urgent national issues of our time, so that America can once again become the Education Nation of the world.
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Posted by Katie on
Monday,
September 26, 2011 at 3:05pm
The Microsoft Alumni Foundation is recognizing a select group of alumni giving of themselves to help others at home and around the world. Last week, the Foundation announced the six finalists for the 2011 Integral Fellows Awards.
Among the finalists is our very own Oliver Hurst-Hiller, CTO and EVP Product. Oliver joined the DonorsChoose.org team five years ago, after managing product engineering projects for Microsoft’s new Internet search engine, now called Bing. He also helped start Microsoft Live Labs, an applied research laboratory for Internet technologies. Oliver joined Microsoft when the Windows division acquired EQuill, a venture-backed startup that he co-founded and led for three years as CEO.
Oliver benefited from some amazing New York City public school teachers during his formative years, and with his brother teaching at public schools in high-need communities in Massachusetts, he has always felt strongly about the importance of empowering great teachers in our highest-need communities.
This year’s panel of distinguished judges will review achievements that reflect the values of the Microsoft Alumni Foundation, which are: innovation; entrepreneurship; effectiveness; collaboration and integrity. Additional criteria in selecting the winners include: the ability to create something extraordinary out of limited resources; selflessness; passion; smarts; need; and, scalability. The panel of judges includes:
Microsoft Alumni Foundation award winners will be recognized by Bill and Melinda Gates at the Microsoft Alumni Foundation Celebration on November 16, 2011 in Seattle at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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Posted by Nicole on
Friday,
September 23, 2011 at 5:27pm
DonorsChoose.org is excited to announce that we are working with the Disneyland Resort to empower teachers as part of the newly enhanced Disneyland CREATE (Creative Resources Enabling Arts through Education) Grant Program!
The program provides kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers in Orange County with needed funds for projects, programs and materials that directly support student involvement in the visual and performing arts. Since its inception in 1994, the program formerly known as the Disneyland Resort Enabling Grants Program, has contributed more than $1.5 million to projects that further arts education.
This year, Disneyland Resort will grant an additional $50,000 bringing the total to $125,000 in available funding. If you are an Orange County teacher looking to inspire creativity in your classroom, do not miss out on this opportunity!
For teachers: To apply for a Disneyland CREATE Grant, visit www.disneyland.com/publicaffairs. The deadline to submit a project is November 4th. If your project is chosen, it will be fully funded on November 25, 2011.
These positions will report directly to DonorsChoose.org’s CTO and will play a central role in an agile organization that is serious about technology.
The right candidates are top-notch contributors with a proven track record of success, who will be comfortable in DonorsChoose.org’s start-up atmosphere and ready to play a key technical role on a small, dedicated team. Our team is smart, committed, and passionate, and the work environment is informal, fast-paced, and fun.
Thanks for helping us grow our team so we can serve even more classrooms!
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Posted by Ellen on
Thursday,
September 22, 2011 at 1:05pm
There’s a new kid in town and his name is Scholastic Classroom Magazines. The Logistics and Business Relations team is excited to announce that Scholastic Classroom Magazines has been added as a DonorsChoose.org preferred vendor! They offer a wide variety of magazines for Pre-K through high school students in subjects from current events to math to foreign languages, and lots more in between! We can’t wait to see how our teachers will incorporate this resource into their classrooms. Please join us in giving a warm welcome to Scholastic Classroom Magazines!
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Posted by Dan on
Tuesday,
September 20, 2011 at 3:49pm
People’s United Community Foundation REALLY loves the communities they serve. They have once again partnered with DonorsChoose.org, donating $100,000 to help bring classroom materials to counties they serve throughout Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York.
PUCF is funding 50% of eligible projects on the condition that people like YOU donate the rest. Think you’re up for the challenge??
This December, Livia and Biz Stone are expecting their first baby. Rather than registering for new baby items, Biz and Livia have chosen to have a “virtual” baby shower: they’re asking friends and family to support classroom projects in lieu of gifts.
In their words: “We want to celebrate this new life by helping other children make the most of theirs”.
We’re so grateful and honored to be a part of this special event in their lives. Thank you for including us, Biz and Livia!
To congratulate the Stones on the new addition to their family, consider supporting a classroom project on their Giving Page: DonorsChoose.org/biz-livia
