DamienLanfrey.net - Web-native social change project # 1: DonorsChoose.org

Web-native social change project # 1: DonorsChoose.org

Written by Damien Lanfrey

Friday, 13 November 2009

Tags: donorschoose, education, philanthropy 2.0, social change, teaching, technology for change, Web-native projects for social change, Add more tags...,
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DonorsChoose is surely one of the most successful and intriguing projects out there. Indeed not the latest, but I feel it is good to start with a charitable venture that has been able to become an landmark example for everybody in the philanthropic field.

Like many of the Web-native platforms we will investigate, DonorsChoose is far from being a project that exhausts its impact in online discussions and information spaces.

DonorsChoose is, in fact, producing material change by choosing, buying and delivering goods aimed at educational projects. It does so by connecting American teachers (since 2000, more than 103,000, apparently) with the general public through a simple Web interface where teachers advertise their educational projects and the general public chooses to fund one or more of them on the basis of their innovativeness or any set of personal criteria.

The site itself suggests three interesting keywords in this sense: "get local, get inspired, get choosy". :)

A DonorsChoose user might thus end up funding a project because of its innovativeness and originality or rather its simplicity; because of its cost, high or low, or its need in respect to the "poverty level" (calculated in terms of students free/reduced lunch eligibility and thus associated to the average income level of the class); some other users might instead prefer find special, even personal attachment to a theme (for example a particular literature having impacted their lives) specified in an educational proposal or, ultimately, an objective of a learning project, be it science, sustainable living, peace, understanding of diversity, history or any other goal.

From a user perspective the model is as great as simple, a classic in the philanthropic revolution happening online: in choosing to give to a particular educational project and thus classroom, we purchase goods that DonorsChoose will deliver to the asking schools.

From the point of view of teachers instead, what you can see in this section, the process is almost as simple, with some obvious additional requirements. Teachers have to register, being able to be contacted regularly by e-mail, and specify where their teaching school is located, confirming the only requirements to be eligible for submitting a project on the site.

I confirm that I am a full-time teacher in a public school.
I confirm that I am NOT a principal, administrator, staff developer, substitute, or student teacher.
I confirm that I spend 75% of my time working directly with students.
I commit to posting projects for materials that my students will directly use/experience.

In submitting the project, they indicate online the EXACT materials needed for the classroom, thus delineating the exact costs of each element involved in the proposal.

Subsequently, it is only a matter for teachers of describing what they need, why they need it and the educational goal aimed for their students, thus inspiring potential donors through the published proposal on the DonorsChoose site.

The last step of the process is a feedback mechanism proposed by DonorsChoose: "In return, you and your students will write thank-you letters and take photographs of the project in action. We’ll share your thanks with your donors, who love to see the impact of their gifts!"

Results are impressive and easily visualized: more than 40 million dollars raised and more than 2.6 million students helped in US from 165,00 supporters.

More in detail, 41% of the materials provided are constitured by classroom supplies 27% by books, 21% by technology, 81% of them re-used by next-year students.

Comments

What appears increasingly evident in the DonorsChoose model is its resemblance to a market mechanism in which the supply of projects is matched by users funds and willingness to contribute.

DonorsChoose appears to constitute a winning mix of elements. Let's try to capture some of them here:

It is about education, a sector and key activity in human developed that could hardly be considered marginal by anybody
Being about education, it is sector-specific, and thus can get very sophisticated and targeted in the type of processes it sustains and targets it aims at.
It is about individual engagement and personal choice, hence supporting both rationalist and emotional sense of attachment to projects, sometimes blending them together
It employs, as we anticipated, a sort of market mechanism that, though, takes into account social variables such as level of poverty. The market mechanisms functions to connect potential donors to the opportunities they engage the most and at the same time reward the most innovative, effective, well-formulated or most clearly-in-need projects
It thus encourages creativity and rewards different successful education ideas, thus encouraging diversity.
It suggests a direct connection and a very rewarding feedback mechanism (the results of the classroom, a letter, pictures, the learning outcomes)
It is locally rooted, community oriented and dependent on naturally distributed existing institutions, schools, and thus more trustable and already networked: this last aspect seems structurally of strategic importance.
It is about real materials to be purchased and transparent in most of its steps
It is about measurable outcomes