I'd listened to my colleagues in the teachers' lunchroom. I could tell they were passionate, fired-up people who had great ideas for strategies and projects to help kids learn better. They just didn't have the resources. I was frustrated, but I also knew it was a frustration felt by teachers all over the city.

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.

Charles Best

Acknowledging someone is an act of altruism in the first place, so converting that act of altruism into a pizza party or company fleece jacket or a gift card is fine, but it's not in keeping with spirit in which it all began.

Charles Best

We are so humbled and grateful to Google for their devotion to our teachers and students.

Charles Best

It's hard to enlist the support of people you don't know, but it's critical to growing your career, finding new customers, and building out your team.

Charles Best

My colleagues and I were always having the same conversation in the teachers lunchroom about books we wanted our students to read, a field trip we knew would really bring a subject matter to life... And most of us would go into our own pockets to buy just paper and pencils.

Charles Best

I believe if we can crowdsource educational solutions to teachers on the front lines, who often know their kids better than anyone, we will unearth and generate better-targeted, smarter ideas.

Charles Best

To take on the jobs of tomorrow, students must become more than good test takers. They need to become makers who design, sketch, build, and prototype. And their classrooms will need more than a chalkboard and a set of textbooks.

Charles Best

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.

Charles Best

At DonorsChoose.org, we believe that teachers are unsung heroes.

Charles Best

Whether you're raising money for a cause, a personal need, or a project, most crowdfunding sites center on you hitting up people you already know. These sites make it easier to tap your social network for funds, but only the most compelling cases inspire support from strangers.

Charles Best

I was a social studies teacher at a high school in the Bronx for five years.

Charles Best

We love that our platform allows people to give.

Charles Best

I've been a fan of bass fishing for as long as I can remember.

Charles Best

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.

Charles Best

DonorsChoose was conceived at a Bronx public high school where I taught social studies for five years. In the teachers' lunch room, my colleagues and I often lamented a problem that drained learning from students and creativity from teachers: a lack of funding for essential materials and for the activities that bring subject matter to life.

Charles Best

If we can show the world that there are students in all sorts of communities who don't have the material they need for a great education, that will be the first major step to doing something about it.

Charles Best

We all remember special days at school, whether it was going on a field trip, doing a science experiment, or performing in a school play.

Charles Best

Teachers are heroes.

Charles Best

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

Charles Best

In the sixth grade, I planned to start my own business making custom fishing lures.

Charles Best