Teachers are heroes.

When I began teaching, my colleagues and I quickly realized that our students didn't have access to the same resources we had growing up. We knew there were supplies and resources that could help our students, but our school district simply couldn't afford them.

At DonorsChoose.org, you can give as little as $1 and get the same level of choice, transparency, and feedback that is traditionally reserved for someone who gives millions. We call it citizen philanthropy.

Committed teachers know their students' needs better than anyone in the system. Traditionally, however, teachers have little control over the purchase of student materials.

You have to wade through tons of 'no's' to get one 'yes,' and you can't let it go to your head when you get that yes.

My colleagues and I would spend a lot of our own money on copy paper and pencils, and often we couldn't get the resources that would excite our students about learning.

I'm not tech savvy at all.

I created DonorsChoose by putting pencil to paper - literally - and sketching out each screen of the web site and how it would work. Then I paid a programmer from Poland $1,500 to turn my sketches and common-sense rules into a functioning website.

I've met with titans of Silicon Valley because they're investing in our national expansion. I've had lunch with Claire Danes because she sees DonorsChoose.org as the best way to help students in public schools. I would never, ever rub shoulders with such people if I had followed the typical career path in investment banking or whatever.

I do not live off canned soup.

Teachers know how to improve education, but they are a voice that is consistently overlooked or ignored.

I think it's the strength of the idea that's made Donors Choose work, not me. I mean, I'm determined, and I work hard, but so does everyone else.

I had really good relationship with my students; it definitely took me a few months before I had my students' respect.

To get DonorsChoose.org to scale, we first need to increase the viral appeal of our website.

If anything, we hope that DonorsChoose.org is going to be a prompt, a nudge in the side of the public school system to improve and to start delivering these materials and experiences that students need and to make it easier for teachers to innovate.

If you just believe in our democracy, and you want an informed electorate, public schools are in your interest, and I think our country is dependent on public schools, whether or not you personally have a kid in the public school system.

I think there are really are some public schools, incredibly successful public schools, that are inculcating a real educational ethic in their students.

KIPP schools would be just a shining example of schools where students aren't just given homework and taught imaginative ways, but they're really brought into a culture of education.

We are so humbled and grateful to Google for their devotion to our teachers and students.

Teachers know how to improve education.

We want to use our site to galvanize people to give but also to take important steps toward real change.

I'd listened to my colleagues in the teachers' lunchroom. I could tell they were passionate, fired-up people who had great ideas for strategies and projects to help kids learn better. They just didn't have the resources. I was frustrated, but I also knew it was a frustration felt by teachers all over the city.

Hardworking, passionate teachers know their students' needs better than anyone else in the school environment. If we can tap into their needs, we can unleash smarter solutions and empower those people on the front lines.

We believe in the wisdom of the front lines.

We will employ almost every strategy and hustle in any possible way to recruit top engineers to our team.

Laptops are important, but before you spend a million dollars per school providing one laptop per child... won't you please spend $5,000 per school equipping every classroom with a document camera?

Our only political stance is this: listen to these teachers.

People on the front lines have the best ideas for how to improve things.

I was a social studies teacher at a high school in the Bronx for five years.

I'd love DonorsChoose.org to become a place where teachers can post innovative, out-of-the-box projects that they can't get funding for traditionally.

Ideally, DonorsChoose.org wouldn't be necessary for basic supplies, but I hope we'll always be a platform for teachers to request resources that would bring the learning experience of their students to the next level.

Whenever there are changes to school budgets, we know teachers feel it first.

We make friends with people we admire, including those you might consider competitors, like charity: water, Kiva, and Global Giving. We get on a call with them and exchange ideas.

We think the ability to rattle off people you are grateful to and thankful to is often sort of a proxy for openness to learning from others.

Our name is not great. It doesn't evoke anything about school or teachers. It doesn't roll off the tongue or stick in your head.

One question we'll ask is, 'Who are you grateful for,' and a surprising number of people can't name anyone beyond their mother.

We think we can contribute something toward the improvement of public education in our country.

One thing that gets missed a lot is that DonorsChoose is merely a place where teachers post wish lists. That doesn't do justice to the level of innovation that we see taking place on our site.

I believe if we can crowdsource educational solutions to teachers on the front lines, who often know their kids better than anyone, we will unearth and generate better-targeted, smarter ideas.

I founded DonorsChoose.org because I care about learning, and I believe every student in our country deserves a great education.

We reflect on our successes and failures at monthly staff meetings.

We evaluate all business decisions based on how we can best serve public school teachers and their students.

After 14 years of running DonorsChoose.org as someone who had never written a line of code, I did do a three-month night school course. After all these years, I could at least speak some of the same vocabulary and have a first-hand appreciation for what my colleagues on the engineering team are doing.

We love that our platform allows people to give.

My colleagues and I would spend a lot of our own money on copy, paper, and pencils. I just figured there are people out there who would want to help teachers like us if they could see exactly where their money was going.

I think philanthropy is so much more in keeping with spirit of shouting someone out than a material reward.

Acknowledging someone is an act of altruism in the first place, so converting that act of altruism into a pizza party or company fleece jacket or a gift card is fine, but it's not in keeping with spirit in which it all began.

It just felt wrong that the kids I was teaching didn't have the same access to materials that I did when I was a student.

A really large number of teachers contact us offline testifying how valuable iPads are for their students.

Donors are sick of writing that $200 check to the Red Cross and not knowing whether it goes for the executive director's salary or the office rent.