Charles Best

“I've met with titans of Silicon Valley because they're investing in our national expansion. I've had lunch with Claire Danes because she sees DonorsChoose.org as the best way to help students in public schools. I would never, ever rub shoulders with such people if I had followed the typical career path in investment banking or whatever.”

“If you track your organization's creativity by the number of brainstorms on your calendar, you're missing out. It's more important to capture those unplanned sparks of inspiration that so often come when we're cooking dinner, taking a shower, or commuting to work.”

“We've established a free marketplace of teacher ideas and donor interests.”

“I'm not tech savvy at all.”

“If anything, we hope that DonorsChoose.org is going to be a prompt, a nudge in the side of the public school system to improve and to start delivering these materials and experiences that students need and to make it easier for teachers to innovate.”

“America's best teachers are always looking for new ways to bring learning to life.”

“We evaluate all business decisions based on how we can best serve public school teachers and their students.”

“We've long believed teachers know best what their students need to succeed, and that includes the creation of healthy, supportive school communities.”

“I'd love DonorsChoose.org to become a place where teachers can post innovative, out-of-the-box projects that they can't get funding for traditionally.”

“Ideally, DonorsChoose.org wouldn't be necessary for basic supplies, but I hope we'll always be a platform for teachers to request resources that would bring the learning experience of their students to the next level.”

“One thing that gets missed a lot is that DonorsChoose is merely a place where teachers post wish lists. That doesn't do justice to the level of innovation that we see taking place on our site.”

“For my 9th birthday, my only wish was to eat like a farmer boy. I had devoured 'The Little House on the Prairie' book series and wanted to be like Almanzo Wilder, the protagonist of 'Farmer Boy,' one of the later installments in the 'Little House' series.”

“To get DonorsChoose.org to scale, we first need to increase the viral appeal of our website.”

“We think the ability to rattle off people you are grateful to and thankful to is often sort of a proxy for openness to learning from others.”

“My colleagues and I would spend a lot of our own money on copy paper and pencils, and often we couldn't get the resources that would excite our students about learning.”

“We reflect on our successes and failures at monthly staff meetings.”