Celebs, Athletes & Tech Titans AM $14M Surprise to Teachers in 47 Needy Communities

donors choose

DonorsChoose.org

Today, there was a lot of “good” being done on the Internet as celebrities, professional athletes, tech giants and other public figures participated in a flash fund philanthropy imitative and fulfilled the total funding goal of teachers at needy schools in 47 cities nationwide!

Each year, teachers spend $1.6 billion of their own personal funds to buy school supplies for their classrooms. At the same time,  teachers earn on average $50,000 annually, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in a Periscope broadcast this morning.

In this digital era, teachers in impoverished school districts with limited budgets can create a funding request project on the innovative crowdsource funding charity site DonorsChoose.org.

Today, many of those hopeful teachers woke to news that their entire project funding goal was met by a rich celebrity who has a personal connection to their city or town.

Samuel Jackson, for example, funded projects in Chatanooga, Tennessee where he grew up.

“My head might explode. It really might explode from joy. Or my heart,” comedic actress Yvette Nicole Brown, who stars in Community said in her own Periscope this morning message.  Brown is covering DonorsChoose.org projects in her hometown of East Cleveland, Ohio, in the #BestSchoolDay initiative.

The celebrity givers in Thursday’s campaign hope to inspire others to pitch in and get all the pending projects funded. Google co-founder Sergey Brin and WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton will match $3.2 million in citizen donations.

A total of 58 celebrity philanthropists including Stone, Brown, Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Serena Williams have pledged $14.2 million to fund nearly 12,000 projects in 47 states plus Washington, D.C., that were listed on the DonorsChoose.org website as of 8 a.m. Thursday.

Before Thursday, DonorsChoose.org’s website indicates that over $400 million had been raised to fun close to 700,000 education projects that 280,000 teachers posted on the site.

 

The celebrity givers in Thursday’s campaign hope to inspire others to pitch in and get all the pending projects funded. Google co-founder Brin and WhatsApp co-founder Acton will match $3.2 million in citizen donations.

That means your $50 donation turns into $100! Awesome!

How did this all start?

Actually, “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert, a DonorsChoose.org board member,  inspired the idea. Last May, he surprised teachers in his home state of South Carolina by funding all the classroom projects in one day.

Inspired by the act, Twitter co-founder Stone and his wife, Livia, asked the website if they could do the same for Boston and Contra Costa County, California schools where the two hail from, respectively.  Stone got his Twitter co-founders Ev Williams and Jack Dorsey to commit to fund wish lists in Nevada, San Francisco and Missouri.

It blew up from there.

DonorsChoose.org Chief Executive Charles Best thought it should spread.

“At that point, I said, all right, let’s keep this secret and let’s see if some more people would want to join you and then we’ll unleash all of these flash fundings in one unforgettable moment,” Best told AP. “And it grew from there.”

It all culminated to today’s surprise flash fund! Awesome sauce!

Who else gave?

The benefactors include other actors (Ashton Kutcher, Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick), athletes (Carmelo Anthony, Torrey Smith, Larry Fitzgerald and Dwight Howard), and business and foundation leaders (Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen; Bill and Melinda Gates; the chief executives of Zappos, LinkedIn and Yelp; Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg).

Thank you to the complete list:

Alexis Ohanian

Co-founder of Reddit, and best-selling author, supporting Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NY

Alison and Mark Pincus

Supporting Long Beach, CA

Alys and Brad Smith

Chairman and CEO of Intuit, supporting West Virginia

Angela and David Filo

Yellow Chair Foundation, supporting Kansas, Louisiana, Solano, Santa Cruz, San Benito, Stanislaus, Yolo, and Fresno Counties, CA and northern Alameda County, CA

Anna Kendrick

Actress, supporting Maine with an anonymous donor

Ashton Kutcher

Actor and entrepreneur, supporting Iowa

Barbara Dalio

Public school advocate, supporting Connecticut

Bezos Family Foundation

Supporting student-led projects from high-need schools

Bill & Melinda Gates

Supporting South Bronx, NY

Blake Mycoskie

Founder and chief shoe giver of TOMS, supporting Wyoming

Bob Moritz and the PwC Charitable Foundation

PwC U.S. Chairman, supporting Jamaica, Queens, NY and Miami, FL

Carmelo Anthony

New York Knicks, supporting West Baltimore, MD

Chris Sacca

Venture investor of Lowercase Capital, supporting Buffalo, NY

Craig Newmark

Founder of Craigslist and Craigconnects, supporting Detroit, MI and New Jersey

Dan Gilbert

Cleveland Cavaliers, supporting Akron and Canton, OH, and Cuyahoga County, OH

David Sze

Venture capitalist, supporting Monterey County, CA

Perry and Donna Golkin Family Foundation

Supporting Southern Tier, Manhattan and highest-need communities in Brooklyn, NY

Dwight Howard

Starting center of the Houston Rockets, supporting PreK-2 literacy projects in Houston, TX

Elizabeth Simons and Mark Heising

Supporting Mississippi

Elon Musk

Supporting Los Angeles, CA; Washoe, NV; and Coryell and Cameron, TX

Elsa Brule

Philanthropist, supporting Alabama, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Milwaukee, WI, and Brownsville, Brooklyn, NY

Eron Jokipii

Software author, supporting Western TX

Gwyneth Paltrow

Actress, supporting Santa Monica, CA

Henry and Marie-Josée Kravis

Supporting Tulsa, OK

Herbert Simon Family Foundation and the Pacers Foundation

Supporting Indiana

Howard L. Morgan

Venture capitalist of First Round Capital, supporting West Bronx, NY

Jack Dorsey

Co-founder & CEO of Twitter & Co-founder, CEO, and Chairman of Square, supporting Missouri

James Anderson

NFL player and actor, supporting Chesapeake, VA

Jeff Weiner

CEO of LinkedIn, supporting San Mateo County, CA

Jeremy Stoppelman

CEO and co-founder, Yelp, supporting Oakland, CA

Joanne and Fred Wilson

Supporting Montgomery County, MD and Orange County, NY

Karen Leshner

President of Intrepid Philanthropy Foundation, supporting San Joaquin County, CA

Larry Fitzgerald

Wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals, supporting Minneapolis, MN

Laura and John Overdeck

Overdeck Family Foundation, supporting Washington, DC, and the surrounding metro area

Leslie and Cliff Hudson

CEO of Sonic, supporting Oklahoma City, OK

Livia and Biz Stone

Co-founder of Twitter and co-founder and CEO of Askjelly.com, supporting Boston, MA and Contra Costa County, CA

Lynda Resnick

Vice-chair and co-owner of The Wonderful Company, supporting Kern and Kings Counties, CA

Marc Benioff

Chairman & CEO of Salesforce, supporting Hawaii

Mark Ingram

Running back for the New Orleans Saints, supporting Flint, MI

Paul G. Allen

Founder & CEO of Vulcan, Inc., supporting Washington

Ric Elias

On behalf of Red Ventures, supporting Lancaster County, SC and Mecklenberg County, NC

Russell Simmons

Entrepreneur and philanthropist, supporting Hollis, Queens, NY

Samuel L. Jackson

Actor, supporting Chattanooga, TN

Sara and Evan Williams

Founder of Medium and co-founder of Twitter, supporting Nebraska and San Francisco County, CA

Serena Williams

World’s #1 women’s tennis player, supporting Compton, CA

Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen

Actor and wife, supporting Sonoma County, CA

Sheryl Sandberg

COO of Facebook, and founder of LeanIn.org, supporting Imperial, Modoc, Tehama, Tulare, Trinity, Siskiyou, Merced, Lake, Glenn, and Madera Counties, CA

The Simons Foundation and Math for America

Supporting Bronx, NY

Sobrato Family Foundation

Supporting Santa Clara County, CA and Southern Alameda County, CA

Theresia Gouw

Venture capitalist and co-founder of Aspect Ventures, supporting Northern NY

Tim Ferriss

Author of “The 4-Hour Work Week,” supporting Sacramento, CA, Long Island, NY and New Hampshire

Tony Hsieh

On behalf of Zappos, supporting Las Vegas, NV

Torrey Smith

NFL wide receiver, supporting East Baltimore, MD

Yvette Nicole Brown

Actress, supporting Cleveland with an anonymous donor

Anonymous donor

Supporting Alaska, Kentucky, New Mexico, Ohio, and projects from among the 50 highest-need communities in the country