Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/12/15/Tis_the_Season_of_Giving
Charles Best, founder of DonorsChoose.org, describes the charity’s goal of matching donors with unique school projects. He gives an example of one such pairing, explaining how Stephen Colbert distributes “philanthropic gift certificates” to guests of The Colbert Report.
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Matthew Bishop, The Economist’s New York Bureau Chief, and co-author of the highly acclaimed book Philanthrocapitalism talks with Lauren Bush, of FEED Projects, Charles Best, of DonorsChoose.org, and Scott Harrison of charity: water. The conversation aims to spark ideas on innovative ways to give this season. – JANERA
Charles Best founded DonorsChoose.org at Wings Academy, a public high school in the Bronx where he was a social studies teacher for five years.
He thought up DonorsChoose.org during a lunch conversation with colleagues, and his students volunteered to help start the organization. DonorsChoose.org has been growing since.
Duration : 0:3:0
[youtube RIRyxHBcRAM]
March 8th, 2010 at 12:52 am
cool, i go to Wings.
cool, i go to Wings.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:52 am
We all get to …
We all get to choose where we make our charitable contributions. By giving to Haiti relief do I “discriminate” against the poor in Africa? That’s an untenable position.
I support my values with my money. I value voluntary association. I support moving away from a govt near-monopoly in education, to a system where the poor get full-ride govt vouchers for use at any private school they choose. The poor deserve choice.
To do that, I support private schools, and not govt schools.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:52 am
Fair enough. But …
Fair enough. But are you saying that, out of principle, you will discriminate against children by where their parents send them? I’d hope it was more about helping a child than anything else.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:52 am
Because the guy in …
Because the guy in the video SAYS in the first minute that the projects are in govt schools.
I prefer private schools for many reasons. I prefer them because one is not forced to attend them (truancy laws) one is not forced to pay for them via property and sales taxes, because they are voluntary associations and because they tend to do a better job than govt schools.
I do not trust the govt with the power to educate/indoctrinate the people, for the same reason as I value the 1st amendment.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:52 am
@freesk8
Why on …
@freesk8
Why on earth would you want to do that necessarily? I could understand if it just-so-happened that a private school was the one doing a project you cared about. But to chose private school over public out of hand? Why? And how do you know it’s restricted to public schools?
March 8th, 2010 at 12:52 am
You are right that …
You are right that it would be good if we did not need to rely upon charity, but the alternative to voluntary charity is government force.
Is that what you are advocating?
If so, I don’t think Gandhi would have approved.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:52 am
I’d rather …
I’d rather contribute to private school projects instead of government school projects.
Why restrict the program to government schools?
March 8th, 2010 at 12:52 am
It would be best if …
It would be best if we did not need charity.
Human dignity is written into our international decelerations of human rights. policy to deal with many problems people face should be a priority.
It is why charities also have lobbying arms.
Yet those who have the money can lobby to be heard above the rest, they are often the ones who cause the problems the rest of us must then dig into our pockets for.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:52 am
bleh…
bleh…
March 8th, 2010 at 12:52 am
more giving is good …
more giving is good, even better is giving more effectively (aka choosing the right charities)
March 8th, 2010 at 12:52 am
Great idea! Hope it …
Great idea! Hope it spurs more charital contributions to various orginizations and causes!