The Best Way to Give

How many people do you know who would shell out hundreds of dollars per year just to do a job they're not getting paid much to do in the first place? Your answer just might depend on how many teachers you know.

Nationally, teachers spend over $1 billion a year on classroom supplies, everything from chalk to books to microscopes. According to a 2001 study by Quality Education Data, Inc., on average, teachers in grades K-8 spend about $520 of their own money annually, with new teachers, who make the lowest salaries, spending about $700.

Enter Charles Best, a 28-year-old teacher at Wings Academy, a high school in the economically depressed South Bronx. Four years ago, Best started the Internet-based non-profit, DonorsChoose.org, for teachers in New York City. Earlier this year, he was able to expand it for teachers in North Carolina. Here's how it works: Teachers submit proposals for classroom supplies, which are then reviewed and posted on the site. Potential donors can then browse these proposals and, if they choose, fund them fully or partially. Donors then send their financial contributions to DonorsChoose, which purchases the items for the teacher and ships them directly to the school. In return, contributors receive photos of the students using the gift and thank-you notes from the teacher and the entire class.

Kids pose with their new bags full of books, funded by a DonorsChoose citizen philanthropist.

Initially, Best financed many of the proposals himself and put much of his salary toward the organization's administrative costs. He even went so far as to give up his apartment and move back in with his parents. Who or what inspired him? "My dad was an inspiration to me growing up," he says, "because of his values and character. He was a corporate lawyer, but he encouraged me to do whatever it was that I'd most enjoy, not to care about money."

Best was determined that DonorsChoose succeed, especially since its model was unlike many online charities where donors give money and don't see the direct results of their contribution.

"I think not only do [our contributors] want to choose where their money is going to go," says Best, "but they want to see the impact that they've had and want to know that dollars were spent as intended."

The letters from recipients are both heartfelt and heartwrenching. One teacher wrote to her donor, "Many of my students live in shelters and do not possess books to read. I require my students to read for at least thirty minutes each night, and sadly I have had at least three students approach me and inform me that they didn't have any books at home..."

A student in her class added, "Now I get to take my books home over the weekend to show my parents how I have improved. Thank you for thinking about us. Your kindness is great. Your parents should be very proud of you."

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