DonorsChoose Receives 2005 Amazon.com Nonprofit Innovation Award
Amazon.com is pleased to announce that Amazon customers have selected DonorsChoose as the winner of the 2005 Amazon.com Nonprofit Innovation Award. This award, created in partnership with the Stanford Graduate School of Business Center for Social Innovation, is designed to recognize and reward nonprofits whose innovative approaches and breakthrough solutions most effectively improve their communities or the world at large.
Amazon customers were encouraged to support the 10 finalist organizations by making online donations, and DonorsChoose generated more than $790,000--the most of all the finalists. As a result, the organization received a matching grant from Amazon.com, bringing its total earnings to more than $1.5 million. The other nine finalists kept the monies they raised via Amazon.com. The total amount contributed to the finalists by individuals exceeded $1.66 million.
"Donors Choose is exactly what we set out to find--a genuine and practical invention in philanthropy," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com.
Based in New York City, DonorsChoose is a simple way to provide students all across the country with resources often lacking in public schools. At the DonorsChoose web site, teachers submit project proposals for materials or experiences their students need to learn. These ideas become classroom reality when concerned individuals choose projects to fund.
With the proceeds earned through the Amazon.com Nonprofit Innovation Award, DonorsChoose will be able to reach out to public schools along the Gulf Coast region of the United States, helping tens of thousands of additional students. By mid-November, classroom needs from regions impacted by Hurricane Katrina will be posted at DonorsChoose.org, allowing contributors to participate in relief efforts in a tangible, transparent way.
To learn more about Donors Choose, visit www.DonorsChoose.org.
To learn more about all 10 finalist organizations, click on the links in the Awards Finalists box at left.
