DONOR DATA DIALOGUES: K-12 crowdfunding site DonorsChoose is looking to help the public understand what iPad donations and fully-funded projects reveal about schools in America. Recently, DonorsChoose.org CEO Charles Best gave Co.Design access to the company's data on what teacher-proposed projects get funded. As reported in FastCompany, Best explains that DonorsChoose hopes that releasing this data will help make, "government education spending smarter, better targeted, and more responsive.”
Turns out that the best place to be a student is in New York, where teachers proposed 1,894 projects for every 100,000 students in the public school system from 2008 to 2013. (Sorry Ohio students--you had the lowest rate, with 380 projects per 100,000 students.) Some other key data points:
- Music and arts projects were the most successful funded campaigns, while applied learning requests (this includes tablets/computers, early childhood development products, and college prep materials) were the least successful;
- Eight of the nation’s ten least-funded states for literacy and language are in the South (with Arkansas being the one exception);
- DonorsChoose still has a higher success rate than comparable sites--69% of projects are funded in comparison to general crowfunder Kickstarter's 44% success rate.
Curious to learn more? Compare each of the states' donation data with FastCompany's interactive infographic.
