If you haven’t heard of DonorsChoose.org, you’ll probably enjoy learning about it. Charles Best was a teacher in the New York area and a graduate of Yale who, in the year 2000, created a website where teachers could post needs that they had in the classroom and encourage donors to help them put the project together. He paid a developer a few thousand dollars and DonorsChoose.org was born. Donors can find projects that inspire them and put in as little as $1 towards the cause. When the project has its funding, the site buys the needed supplies and ships them directly to the school. Every donor also gets a thank you note from the teacher, photos from the classroom and an accounting of how the money was spent.
Today, a staggering 76% of public schools in the U.S. have a project posted on the site. Learn more about their site, and think about how one person with an out-of-the-box idea can change an industry.