Gift is the largest ever reported donation of cryptocurrency to a single charity, and the largest ever to DonorsChoose.org. Funds used to purchase classroom materials for 28,210 public school teachers in all 50 states.
NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO, March 28, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — DonorsChoose.org announced today that Ripple, provider of enterprise blockchain solutions, and its executives have donated $29 million to fund every classroom project request on the nonprofit’s website. The donation fulfilled 35,647 requests from 28,210 public school teachers in every state. Teachers at 16,561 public schools — or 1in 6 of all the public schools in America — will receive books, school supplies, technology, field trips, and other resources vital for learning.
“At Ripple, we care about giving back to our community and we collectively value the importance of quality education in developing the next generation of leaders,” said Monica Long, SVP of Marketing at Ripple. “DonorsChoose.org’s track record speaks for itself — they are highly effective at improving the quality of education and the experience of teachers and students across America. We’re proud to work with them to support classroom needs across the country.”
The gift represents the largest donation received by DonorsChoose.org in its 18-year history, and likely represents the largest ever donation of a digital asset to a single charity. Ripple and its executives contributed the donation in XRP, which was converted to U.S. dollars and used to purchase the classroom materials.
“We are awestruck by the generosity of the Ripple team. Their gift will provide learning materials and experiences to more than a million students, overwhelmingly in low-income communities,” said Charles Best, founder of DonorsChoose.org. “I doubt that there has ever been a day when more classroom dreams came true.”
The Ripple team’s donation provides the ultimate culmination of #BestSchoolDay, a campaign launched in March 2016 when 58 athletes, artists, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists funded classroom requests in cities and states covering just under half of the country. For a limited time, as teachers generate new classroom project requests on the site, DonorsChoose.org will offer donors the option of giving to the #BestSchoolDay Fund, which will be used to support projects from teachers creating their first requests on the site. DonorsChoose.org estimates that teachers will submit at least another 135,000 classroom project requests between now and the start of the next school year.
About Ripple
Ripple provides one frictionless experience to send money globally using the power of blockchain. By joining Ripple’s growing, global network, financial institutions can process their customers’ payments anywhere in the world instantly, reliably and cost-effectively. Banks and payment providers can use the digital asset XRP to further reduce their costs and access new markets. With offices in San Francisco, New York, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Singapore and Sydney, Ripple has more than 100 customers around the world.
About DonorsChoose.org
DonorsChoose.org is the leading platform for giving to public schools. Teachers across America use the site to create projects requesting resources their students need, and donors give to the projects that inspire them. Since its founding by a Bronx teacher in 2000, 3 million people and partners have given over $650 million to projects reaching 27 million students. Unique among education funding platforms, the DonorsChoose.org team vets each project request and ships resources directly to the school. Every donor receives photos of their project in action, thank-yous from the classroom, and a cost report showing how every dollar was spent. DonorsChoose.org was the first charity to make the top 10 on Fast Company’s list of the Most Innovative Companies in the World. Visit www.donorschoose.org to learn more.
