"My students are all English Language Learners. Although they are all bright, often they do not perform as well as the monolingual students on English literacy assessments given by the school. With language and literacy games, they will be able to expand their English vocabulary, recognize letter sounds, rhyming, and decoding." (Ms. B., New York, NY)

Today’s public schools often lack resources for students to thrive.  As a result, teachers are spending $1 billion from their own pockets each year on supplies.  DonorsChoose.org is an online charity that makes it easy for anyone to help students in need through school donations. 

Here's how it works: public school teachers from every corner of America post classroom project requests on DonorsChoose.org. Requests range from gelboards for kindergarteners, to language photo cards for autistic students, to math games for engaging students.

Kaplan Early Learning Company wanted to sponsor a teacher’s project, and we narrowed down the candidates to five great projects.  From March 15-26, 2010, visitors to our Web site were given an opportunity to read descriptions of each project and to vote for the one they found the most compelling.

The day before voting closed we were delighted to discover that the project receiving the largest number of votes, Puppets and the Alphabet Go Hand in Hand, had been fully funded by other donors.  We were pleased to sponsor the runner-up, Help Us Become Super Readers, a project for Ms. B and her class of kindergarteners in the Bronx. 

“I truly believe that education is the key to empowerment and this is why I try to provide top quality instruction for my students. My goal is to ignite a life-long love of reading within my students,” wrote Ms. B. “I feel that I can better accomplish this goal with a variety of literacy games. I believe that if I make learning to read a more enjoyable experience for them, they will become not just readers, but SUPER READERS!”

Once a project reaches its funding goal, DonorsChoose.org delivers the materials directly to the school. Donors get a thank-you letter from the teacher, a cost report showing how each dollar was spent, and photos of the project taking place.  If you give over $100, you'll also receive hand-written thank-you letters from the students.

“I am so lucky to teach a class of wonderful kindergarten students every day.  Our school is located in a high-needs community in the Bronx.  Although most of my students come from low-income homes, they always come to school happy and eager to learn,” shared Ms. B.

DonorsChoose.org grew out of a Bronx high school where teachers experienced first-hand the scarcity of learning materials in our public schools. Charles Best, then a social studies teacher, sensed that many people would like to help distressed public schools, but were frustrated by a lack of influence over their donations. He created DonorsChoose.org in 2000 so that individuals could connect directly with classrooms in need. Since the site's inception, over 75,000 classroom projects have brought learning alive for students, primarily in high poverty neighborhoods, and over 2,000,000 students have received books, technology, supplies, field trips, class visitors and other resources. 

We encourage you to consider giving any amount to one of the projects highlighted on our DonorsChoose.org Giving Page or to browse project requests and give any amount to the one that inspires you.