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.
50 philanthropists have helped us fully fund 11,000 classrooms today. Happy #BestSchoolDay! https://t.co/gMRWRPGlxT pic.twitter.com/E7a335YuCa
— DonorsChoose (@DonorsChoose) March 10, 2016
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
