When designing my research project for my internship and then deciding on incorporating virtual field trips, I knew I would need some type of VR headsets for students to use. While I was fully prepared to foot the bill for a few of these headsets (comparable to Google Cardboard) for students, I thought I'd give DonorsChoose a shot. What's the worst that could happen, right? At the time of my shopping, I was able to find 12 packs of that same headset. This study was also initially planned out pre-COVID, so the thought of a few headsets to share between students would be fine. Thankfully, I took advantage of trying to get multiple 12 packs sponsored, so I now have enough to keep students safe and the ability to have a nice sample size group.
At my previous school district, the use of DonorsChoose and/or sharing an Amazon Teacher Wishlist were absolutely prohibited. I was never able to use either of these options before now. However, my current district has a big, Gatsby green light shining on taking advantage of these options. I have seen many projects funded at my school by teachers asking for a wide variety of items. Dorm bedding through laptops. I figured if they can make it happen, why not me?
Before jumping into creating a project, please make sure your school district is okay with you taking advantage of opportunities like DonorsChoose and/or an Amazon Teacher Wishlist.
The process to start a project on DonorsChoose is pretty simple, but it does take some time to set up your account. The site asks for some basic information such as a classroom photo, teaching details, a photo of you, and a demographic survey. Within the non-photo sections, there are questions to answer about yourself and your school. Once you finish setting up your account with details, you are able to start constructing your first project.
Like most sites that ask you to create something, there is a step-by-step process that it walks you through. They ask the questions someone who could potentially want to donate to you or your classroom would want to ask about your project, school, students, or for what you would use the materials. One nice advantage to DonorsChoose is the availability of example responses or projects to review at the appropriate stages within building your own project.
Section breakdowns:
HI
Your district email to verify employment
Standard project (classroom/for students) or a professional development project
WHO
Grade level
Number of students your project will impact
Description of your students
WHAT
Commonly used vendors broken down by shipping speed
Shopping categories divided into supplies, virtual class trip, and virtual class visitor
WHY
Project title (make it catchy!)
Whether or not resources be used at home
About your project
Subject area(s)
REVIEW
This will show all your responses and if anything still needs submitted or corrected
A few things I learned by going through the process:
Cost: One thing to keep in mind if you decide to create a DonorsChoose project is that your project must cost a minimum of $100 to be launched. Having a clear path of materials mapped out before starting to create a project will help keep you organized when filling out the various information sections.
Time: There are time restraints put on your project. If you need something immediately or in the very near future, an Amazon Teacher Wishlist (probably coupled with Prime) might be your better option. DonorsChoose doesn't let your project run forever, but it can be more of a long term donation goal. I posted my project in the middle of July, and it needed to be funded near the end of November for me to get the materials. For reference, my project was posted 7/14/20 and was fully funded 7/24/2020. Mine was funded very quickly, but some projects can sit for much longer.
Tags: You are able to categorize your project by putting tags on your project. The more and the more accurate tags you place on your project, the more potential donors you can reach. These work like hashtags, and people are able to search the DonorsChoose site to find projects based off of these tags specifically.
Share: Share, share, share! I shared my project on my personal social media and my professional Twitter accounts. Your donations can come from your family, friends, social media friends, and even strangers all looking to make a donation targeted to a teacher or classroom, not just a general school donation.
Extras: Like all sites, DonorsChoose added a few "extra" fees in my grand total. For example, the three 12 packs of headsets I asked for cost $104.97, but my grand project total was $160.64. The other $55.67 went to:
A 3rd party payment processing fee ($1.57).
Fulfillment labor and materials ($30).
A suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms ($24.10), which they suggested 15% of your project. You are able to opt out of the donation portion, but DonorsChoose says it's to help fund other projects and keep the site up and running.
Shipping: My items were purchased through Amazon, so when I was shopping, I had to add my personal Amazon account details to my DonorsChoose profile. When my project was fully funded, the headsets showed up in my Amazon account like I had purchased them myself. I was able to track their arrival through both Amazon and DonorsChoose. I was also able to ship the headsets to my house instead of the traditional method of shipping to the school. DonorsChoose has made accommodations to make it easy for teachers to get what they need where they need it, especially during this time of COVID.
Aftercare: Once your project materials are in your possession, you are put on another timeline to fulfill your end of the bargain. You will need to write your donors a thank you message and include 6 pictures of your students using the materials, taking the trip, or interacting with the speaker. In the past, I believe tangible thank you cards and pictures were to be included, but in current times, everything is being done 100% digital. The pictures I was able to share with my donors were not the traditional pictures of students using the materials I received. My district was still 100% virtual at the time of my thank you message and pictures being due. I decided to use pictures of the headsets assembled so my donors could at least see what their money wen't towards.
Want more info? Check out the DonorsChoose website for more details. If you've never used DonorsChoose before, you can check out what my completed project looks like on the site. If you scroll the whole way down, there is even a timeline of the process of my project from start to finish. While creating your own project, if you have any questions about using DonorsChoose, feel free to contact me through the comments, this site, or email me at mtyson2@ycp.edu.