Picture a Bronx classroom in the year 2000. A young public school teacher named Charles Best stands at a copy machine, painstakingly photocopying pages from the single copy of Little House on the Prairie he could secure for his students. As the machine hums, he thinks about all the books he and his colleagues buy with their own money — and wonders if there might be people out there willing to help, if only they could see exactly where their dollars were going.
That simple idea became DonorsChoose, sketched out on paper and launched with eleven classroom requests posted by Charles's fellow teachers. Today, the platform serves every public school in America, having connected 3.5 million donors with more than $800 million in classroom support — reaching 30 million students and counting.
The Hidden Cost of a Quality Education
Teachers are the architects of opportunity. They spend countless hours shaping students into curious learners and responsible citizens, instilling the skills and wisdom that open doors for a lifetime. Yet nearly every public school teacher in America reaches into their own pocket to make that possible.
The average teacher spends roughly $480 each year on notebooks, pens, books, and essential classroom supplies — nearly double the $250 federal tax deduction available to them, a figure that has remained stagnant despite the growing need. Across social media, the hashtag #OutOfMyPocket tells the story in receipts: glue sticks, tissues, dry-erase markers, hundreds of books purchased so every child can find something they love to read.
An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.Benjamin Franklin
Fueling Project-Based Learning
In 2019, the J.W. Couch Foundation was honored to partner with DonorsChoose on a mission that hits at the heart of what makes education transformative. Our $150,000 grant matched donations for teachers bringing project-based learning into their classrooms — an approach that invites students to build deep knowledge by tackling real-world challenges through hands-on exploration.
Project-based learning turns abstract lessons into lived experiences. Students become engineers, scientists, historians, and storytellers, learning by doing rather than memorizing. It's the kind of teaching that lights up a classroom — and the kind that often requires extra materials, tools, and creative resources that simply aren't in the school budget.
The Impact, In Numbers
Thanks to this partnership, the match offer helped support:
534 teachers bringing innovative lessons to life
Nearly 53,000 students across the country
480 schools from neighborhoods large and small
Behind every figure is a classroom where a student picked up a microscope for the first time, designed a solution to a community problem, or built something with their own hands that they'll remember long after the school year ends.
Looking Ahead
DonorsChoose is uniquely positioned to solve a stubborn problem in American education because it was built by a teacher who understood it from the inside. Twenty-five years later, that same spirit of resourcefulness and trust still powers every project on the platform — and it's why we're proud to stand alongside the educators using it.
Teachers are the source of our shared knowledge, and they deserve exceptional support to help children prosper far into the future. We encourage everyone to find a way to back the teachers in their own community. When we invest in classrooms today, we invest in the leaders, builders, and dreamers of tomorrow.
