Last Friday morning, wreathed in smiles, Lynn Newell’s kindergarten class used their new puppets for the first time.As the children struggled to figure out the mechanics of making the mouths on the bundles of fabric move, they held conversations with each other and, holding the puppets in the air, said their names.
Newell received the puppets through a grant program called Donors Choose, an innovative nonprofit online program that allows “citizen philanthropists,” as the company calls them, to choose which programs or school systems they wish to help.
Newell submitted her idea for the $716 puppetry program last November and it was fully funded in April. Since it was so close to the end of the school year, however, the puppets weren’t sent until school began this year.
“To buy higher quality things for kids, we have to look for outside sources,” said Newell of the struggle teachers face to fund classroom projects.
On the Donors Choose website, teachers post essays detailing out who their students are, what they would like to do in their classroom and the cost of the project. Donors can then shop for the program they want to help or simply donate to Donors Choose itself.
Anyone can donate – from parents who know their child’s teacher has submitted a proposal, to concerned citizens all over the United States.
“The program encourages teachers to keep projects small, so they are manageable for donors and more teachers have an opportunity,” said Newell, as she explained the sites system of points.
Teachers use points to place a project on the site – the more expensive it is, the more points are spent – then they earn points by sending thank-you’s and pictures back to the donors via Donors Choose.
Since teachers’ names are purposefully left off the proposals, donors who want to give to a specific teacher often have to know which proposal(s) to look for.
Newell currently has three active proposals. One, a proposal for a better way to help her students be more autonomous, will expire on Sept. 29. She currently has $59 of the $474 needed. The other two proposals, which focus on reading, expire in January and February.
“It’s really user-friendly,” Newell said of the Donors Choice website. “I’ve really enjoyed being involved with it.”
This past February, Newell received the equipment from her first proposal, A Kinder”Garde”: Teaching Natural Science to Young Children and she hopes her example will lead other teachers to use the Donors Choice service.
A friend who teaches in the Albertville school system told her about it and Newell has already passed the website on to several friends and relatives who teach.
Programs submitted to Donors Choose stay on the website for about nine months, unless they receive full funding during that time. According to donorschoose.org, the program has received $14,256,404 to help 623,446 students since its inception in 2000.
