Alumni Profile

As you’re reflecting on what you have created, what do you see as DonorsChoose’s biggest accomplishments?

DonorsChoose launched 22 years ago out of a Bronx high school where I taught history, and to date, we’ve generated $1.2 billion in giving to more than 2 million classroom project requests from teachers at 80% of all the public schools in the country. My students helped me to launch the site, and we never dreamed it would grow to this scale. We also didn’t imagine that crowdfunding would become a way to support all sorts of individual needs and ideas, as crowdfunding wasn’t even a word back then!

As the organization has evolved, has its focus shifted?

From the beginning, we’ve channeled classroom project funding overwhelmingly to public schools in low-income communities. But over the last few years, I came to appreciate, thanks largely to my colleagues, that a strictly economic measure of equity wasn’t enough. So starting in 2018, our team set out to make DonorsChoose not simply a force for economic equity, but for racial equity in students’ access to learning materials. For example, instead of measuring our success by total dollars raised, we focus on the project funding we generate for schools where inequity is concentrated: those where a majority of students are Black, Latinx, or Native American, and where a majority of students qualify for free or reduced price lunch. These schools represent about a third of all the public schools in America but receive twice that proportion (64%) of DonorsChoose classroom project funding.

You started out as a teacher, and the concept of DonorsChoose feels like a love letter to teachers’ dedication, passion and hope for their students. What do you think is the biggest benefit you’ve been able to provide for teachers?

I love your description of DonorsChoose as a love letter to teachers’ dedication, passion and hope for their students! That’s just what we strive to be. A new study from the University of Michigan is going to show that funding teachers’ projects on DonorsChoose lifts student learning and increases teacher retention. But I think there’s an even greater, intangible benefit from teachers feeling like they have a cheering squad, that there are people who don’t know them personally but who are inspired by their project idea and rooting for their students. That sense of support might be even more important than the classroom resources a teacher gets through our platform.

What’s it like to see Grace again through the perspective of a parent?

I’ve been able to see Grace again not just through my son George but through my brother-in-law, Jacob Root (who teaches at the high school), and my nephew Arthur and niece Francesca with whom I could share fond memories of Mr. Diveki, Ms. Collet and Ms. Meyer, among teachers who were at Grace when I was a student there! It’s especially poignant to see George thrive at a school that meant so much to me, too. 

What are your hopes for your next chapter?

I’ll be full-time at DonorsChoose through June and will then get to serve on the board, and haven’t figured out what I’ll do next for a day job! I’d love to build one more thing, and if it has a fraction of the reach of DonorsChoose, I’ll be happy.