Crowdsourcing support for schools

In the United States, as a result of the pandemic and racial injustice crisis, teachers are facing new, unprecedented challenges and resources are often limited. In any given year, data shows that teachers spend about $500 of their own personal money to support their classrooms and buy supplies for their students. With new safety protocols, remote learning environments, and a constant need to adapt to new systems and schedules this year, teachers are reporting even greater financial and resource constraints.

In our Dow communities, we learned of teachers’ needs for basic classroom supplies, health and sanitation items, technology and digital access, in addition to resources for fun student learning project materials that had been redirected to urgent classroom items not budgeted for.

To help lift some of the burden, rally the community, and to recognize our teachers – thanking them for the important role they play in our students’ lives – we partnered with DonorsChoose.

DonorsChoose is a nonprofit organization designed to enable crowdfunding for educators.

We initiated a $100 gift code offer and 5x match offer for their communities in Michigan, Texas, Louisiana and Pennsylvania.

As a result of this partnership:

• 150 schools in Dow communities were reached; 78.9% of schools that received funding have a majority of students from low-income households
• 378 teachers received support enabling 48,231 student learning experiences
• $285,000 donation supported 591 projects