Stephen Colbert, Gates Foundation Team to Support Donors Choose

I spent my morning in the auditorium at Manhattan Bridges High School in Hell's Kitchen.

It was there that Stephen Colbert, along with representatives of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation came together to announce a $4.1 million grant to Donors Choose.

The "Double Your Impact" program will provide half the dollars to fund an expected 17,000 projects, which will touch 300,000 students. Qualifying projects will focus on college readiness.

Stephen Colbert, who was recently named to the board of Donors Choose, served as moderator of the event, with a panel consisting of Donors Choose Founder and CEO Charles Best, Gates Foundation director of education Vicki Phillips and Elizabeth Smith, a teacher at Manhattan Bridges, who twice has had projects funded through Donors Choose.

Donors Choose is an amazing organization. Founder Charles Best, a former Bronx social studies teacher  came up with the concept in conjunction with his students. To-date, the program has funded more than 80,000 projects, impacting more than 2 million students in all 50 states.

Donors Choose blends the concept of micro-donations with transparency, control and accountability. It's an amazing model and it's a model for individual philanthropy. To explore the projects currently seeking funding, visit Donors Choose.

I caught up with founder Charles Best for a few minutes at the end of the event.