Donor Power Award: Donors Choose empowers donors

A rarely bestowed Donor Power Award to Donors Choose, an organization with a very descriptive name that puts all the power in donors' hands.

Here's what Donors Choose does: They raise money for teachers in public schools to enrich their work with their students. Not in a big, national way, but at the classroom level. Teachers make pitches for projects they need funded. Donors connect with projects they like and fund them.

Many of the proposals are pretty raw -- very real, direct from real teachers. No marketing BS here. The funds needed for projects vary from under $200 to a few thousand dollars. A donor of average means can fully fund a project. Or give whatever they want to partially fund a project.

(An organization with a similar fundraising model is Kiva, discussed here.)

Another very cool and donor-honoring feature: Donors Choose is totally open about their overhead costs, which are 15% on top of the cost of the proposed projects. Donors can choose not to pay for overhead. According to the website, 90% of donors elect to include overhead costs with their gift.

When you give, the feedback is excellent: an email right away. An email from the teacher whose project you've helped a while later. And, reportedly, letters from the kids after that. It's just a stream of feel-good stuff!

Is it any surprise Donors Choose is growing -- fast?

Visit this interesting organization. Check out how it works. Fund a project and get a first-hand donor experience. This is the Donor Power Revolution in action!

Previous Donor Power Award winner: Smile Train.

Thanks to dot-org for the tip.

Technorati Tags: fundraising, awards

Comments

[Kelly Brown]

I was wondering if you have suggestions for ways I can get my proposals that are available for funding out to people who might be interested in helping my classroom? I am open to any and all opinions! Thank you in advance, Kelly Brown

My website is listed which also has my proposals linked to donorschoose.org. Thank you! http://www.tinyurl.com/emcj2

[Allan Faire]

My mistake, Jeff. Thank you for setting me straight.

[Jeff Brooks]

Allan, you seem to assume the "donor power" is the same thing as operational efficiency. It's not, really. Donor power is about giving donors control, respect, and choice. I'd appreciate a United Way if they did that (I know, fat chance). Operational cost is a very complex issue, and the numbers you find on a 990 doesn't necessarily tell you everything. If efficiency is the most important issue to you as a donor, you have ways (thankfully) to find the most efficient organizations and give to them; more power to you. That's just not what this blog is about.

[Allan Faire]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I just had a look at Donors Choose's 2005 990. According to that document, Donors Choose's total expenses in 2005 were $2.91 million.

If Donors Choose has 'transparent overhead costs' of 15% as this article suggests, then I'd have expected to see about $2.47 million of their expenses going to teacher proposals. But in fact, in 2005, Donors Choose only spent $1.56 million on teacher proposals.

That's not $0.85 on the dollar going to teacher proposals. That's $0.53 on the dollar. That leaves $0.47 on the dollar to 'overhead,' and that's neither particularly transparent nor particularly effecient as far as I'm concerned.

By the way, as a donor that has given to Donors Choose in the past, I don't like that I had to dig around for that information, which is buried on page 14 of their Form 990 under 'other expenses.' That didn't seem particularly 'transparent' to me either.

I'm not really criticizing Donors Choose for the costs they incur. Considering the size of their infrastructure and staff, I think they're doing well to spend $0.53 out of every dollar on a classroom proposal.

But I also believe in 'truth in advertising,' and I don't like someone telling me they're doing a job for 15% when it's really costing them close to 50% and then going out of their way to hide that fact in their federal filings.

As far as 'Donor Power' is concerned, I guess I just don't see what all the Donors Choose hoopla is about. Donors Choose's own filings show that it is not particularly effecient, and I'm not sure that Donors Choose does for me anything that I couldn't do on my own. Donations to schools are already tax-deductible. If I want to donate a field trip to a class of students in my area, I can simply call the school of my choice and arrange to do that 'at cost.'

To do the same thing through Donors Choose would cost me 50% above cost.

So exactly what is it about Donors Choose that merits a 'Donor Power' award? If increasing the cost of fulfilling a student's need by nearly 50% is 'Donor Power' then this blog's next 'Donor Power' award might as well go to a local United Way.

[Jeff Schreifels]

I just visted Donor's Choose for the first time and I was also impressed with their program to help young people learn about Philanthropy. A large donor can make a gift and have a classroom of children decide how to best give that gift away to someone or school in need. What an incredible gift to let children make that kind of decision. Kudo's to Jeff Brooks for picking this non-profit for the Donor Power Award.

Now, tell me why other non-profit's can't do what Donor's Choose is doing? The fact is...they can and donors WILL give them the adminstrative costs non-profits are so in fear of not getting IF they let donors designate their giving.

[Jeff Brooks]

I'm pretty sure Boo is joking. And that America will be spared the horror of the Canadian Occupation.

[Holden]

I can't tell if the post above mine is serious.

If the military worked this way, we wouldn't choose what wars to fund, we'd choose what WEAPONS to fund. Each officer would post a request for a new gun, and they would all be handled individually by people cruising around the web. And Canada would take one look at this website, and decide to conquer us just for fun. And they'd win.

Only when marketers think of *themselves* as the donors - and put helping the world over the short-term approval of their "customers" - will we stop identifying fundraising success with wisdom, and ask how we can best go about making a positive difference.

[BooRadley]

This is brilliant!

Imagine if we funded the military this way. This would free up tax dollars for things like education and healthcare, etc. And people would have a choice about which wars to fund.