When Innovation Comes From Without

At DonorsChoose.org, we have stakeholders who inspire us to innovate — whether it’s the teachers we serve, who constantly invent new ways to keep their diverse students engaged, or the foundations and companies we work with, who seek opportunities to help teachers more effectively.

This past year, Overdeck Family Foundation and Simons Foundation shared their focus on informal, outside-the-classroom science learning — a field we hadn't thought about before. My colleagues did some research, and noticed that more and more teachers were creating projects on DonorsChoose.org seeking resources for students to take home. Some teachers wanted Spanish-language kits so bilingual students could read at home with their parents. Others requested math-centered board games, giving students the chance to reinforce their learning with their parents. Clearly, Overdeck Family Foundation and Simons Foundation were on to something!

Last winter, our organizations teamed up to launch the Science Everywhere Innovation Challenge. We called on teachers to submit their most innovative projects for engaging students with math and science outside the classroom, and teachers who participated saw donations matched by the foundations. A panel of experts, guided by a UVA researcher’s analysis, selected ten winning projects; and each teacher received DonorsChoose.org funding credits to put towards their next project request.

The winning projects were incredible. Mrs. I in South Carolina facilitated a student-led project for resources to interview science professionals, while Mrs. Lail in North Carolina requested resources for students to grow plants in a 3D maze at home. To make sure these ideas didn’t remain isolated, Overdeck Family Foundation and Simons Foundation quintupled public donations to projects replicating the winning ideas. This campaign marked the first time a supporter had quintupled donations from the public. (The Simons Foundation and Overdeck Family Foundation wanted to ensure any teacher could adapt a winning project without encountering a fundraising burden.)

We also wanted to make it as easy as possible for time-strapped teachers to pick the right project to replicate, so we authored our first Buzzfeed quiz. Take-home kits and experiments were the most popular ideas, and nearly ? of participating teachers focused on launching or supporting robotics clubs at schools.

Teachers jumped on the opportunity to empower student learning outside the classroom. The grant for teachers replicating winning projects was tapped out in just two weeks, funding 646 projects.

When was the last time your stakeholders pushed you to innovate?