DonorsChoose is a United States-based nonprofit organization that allows individuals to donate directly to public school classroom projects. The organization has been given Charity Navigator's highest rating every year since 2005. In January 2018, they announced that 1 million projects had been funded. In 80% of public schools in the United States, at least one project has been requested on DonorsChoose. Schools from wealthy areas are more likely to make technology requests, while schools from less affluent areas are more likely to request basic supplies. It has been noted that repeat donors on DonorsChoose typically donate to projects they have no prior relationship with, and most often fund projects serving financially challenged students. History DonorsChoose was founded in 2000 by Charles Best, a social studies teacher at Wings Academy in The Bronx. Charles and his colleagues often spent their own money on school supplies for their students, and discussed materials they wished they could afford in the teachers' lunchroom. With the help of his students, he built the first version of the site in his classroom and invited colleagues to post material requests. In 2003, The Oprah Winfrey Show featured Charles Best in a segment on Innovative Teachers, which aired on June 20. Traffic generated from the show crashed the site, but viewers donated $250,000 to classroom projects. In 2006, following the destruction of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the site opened to public school teachers in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas. In 2007, the site opened to every public school in the United States. As of March 2018, donors have contributed over $640 million to fund more than 1 million classroom projects posted on the site, reaching 27 million students in public schools across the United States. Real-time impact statistics are available on the DonorsChoose impact page and open-source classroom data is offered to developers. Background DonorsChoose enables teachers to request materials and resources for their classrooms and makes these project requests available to individual donors through its website. Donors can give $1 or more to projects that interest them, which are searchable by school name, teacher name, location, school subject, material, and keywords. DonorsChoose then purchases necessary supplies and ships them directly to the schools. Every project contains a line-item budget and a description of the project. All donors receive photographs of the project taking place in the classroom and a letter from the teacher. Donors who contribute $50