Updated 4/6/20 6:30 PM EST
Coronavirus is having a significant impact on communities around the world, including the classrooms we serve here in the U.S. Our team is prepared to assist our teachers, donors, school administrators, partners, and vendors as we work through various challenges related to the coronavirus.
We'll update this page regularly as the situation evolves, so please check here first if you have any questions about how your projects or donations may be impacted.
For more information on keeping our classrooms and communities safe, visit the CDC website and the U.S. Department of Education's guide to coronavirus resources.
For classroom supporters
How to help students from closed schools
Because many schools are closed and unable to accept deliveries from our vendors, we’ve created a new pilot program called the Keep Kids Learning program for delivering on our mission that empowers teachers to get supplies directly to students at home. You can support the fund for this pilot directly at any time! We’ve waived our 15% optional donation for this fund, so 100% of your gift will go to supplies for teachers and their students. Learn more about the Keep Kids Learning program here.
As always, you can also support any project you see on the site. We're working directly with teachers to ensure any funded materials get to schools safely.
Discontinuing student thank-you notes until further notice
Teachers and students across the country are embarking on a totally new learning style and expanding the boundaries of their classrooms. As a result, we’re no longer asking teachers to create student thank-you notes with their students until schools are able to open their doors again. Donations made after 3/20/20 will no longer be eligible for student thank-you notes until further notice. While this is a big shift for us, we know it’s the right choice -- we’re glad we can take one thing off teachers’ minds right now. We’re looking forward to bringing back the glittery, magic-markered, sweetly drawn notes we all love to receive as soon as we can.
Keeping our communities healthy and safe
To ensure the safety of our team and communities, and in accordance with local recommendations, DonorsChoose has closed its New York and San Francisco offices from March 11 through April 20, possibly beyond. We're helping our staff make accommodations to work from home, cancelling volunteer shifts in our office, and have cancelled all non-essential business travel as well as our partner and vendor conferences planned for April. Our work doesn't stop, however; teachers, who may not have the option of working remotely or who may be doing so for the first time, need our community's help more than ever to keep their students safe and healthy. We're working hard to limit disruptions in our support. Our team will continue to monitor the situation and update our guidance on working from home and staff travel in the coming weeks.
For teachers
- Class trip eligibility
- Ordering timeline for funded projects
- Thank-you packages
- Additional resources for teachers
- Questions you might have
Trip projects taking place before 8/1/20 are not eligible on DonorsChoose until further notice
Starting 3/23/20, trip projects that take place before 8/1/20 will not be eligible to be posted on DonorsChoose until further notice. This decision was made out of an abundance of caution for the safety of the teachers and students we serve, and under the guidance we’ve received from districts, the State Department, and other health organizations. We may revise this policy as the coronavirus pandemic progresses.
Placing orders during business hours only
We are placing orders for fully funded projects only during business hours Monday-Friday. Teachers will have the ability to select an order date for their fully funded materials from the day they confirm their project up to 9/15/20. Note that we are only able to deliver to school and district addresses. If your district has designated a school, district office or warehouse location to accept deliveries, we recommend changing your school address to the designated address.
If your school hasn't opened yet and you're not sure when it will, we recommend selecting an order date several months out. If you end up wanting your materials earlier or later than that date, contact our team.
Thank-you packages
Our goal is to make sure that the gratitude element of your DonorsChoose experience does not cause any additional concern during this time. To that end, our team has taken the following steps:
- We are ready to waive thank-you package requirements as needed. Contact us if this is something you need.
- We’ve proactively extended the deadline on all thank-you package elements due this school year by at least six weeks to accommodate widespread school closures. Ongoing, we defer to teachers to select the due dates that make the most sense for their schools.
- We have suspended operations to process student thank-yous while our offices are closed. We will resume operations once our offices have re-opened. If you have an outstanding thank-you package that requires student thank-yous, you can continue to send them as normal and your materials will not be considered late. You can also choose to forego these notes entirely by contacting us.
- We are not offering student thank-yous to our donors for donations made after 3/20/20 until further notice.
As always, be sure to use the Business Reply mailing label available in your account when mailing student thank-yous. Our office will be closed for all other mailing services (UPS, FedEx, USPS First Class), so any student thank-yous sent via other methods may be returned as undeliverable.
If you need to extend the due date for your thank-you package, you can do so through our contact form. Contact us if you need any other accommodations for the thank-you package portion of your project.
Additional resources for teachers
Our vendors, partners, and friends of DonorsChoose are doing so much to support teachers, students, and parents during school closures. Here's a growing list of additional resources you may find helpful.
Questions you might have
How can I let DonorsChoose know my school is closed, not accepting orders, or considering a closure due to coronavirus precautions?
Instead of tracking each individual school's status, we are asking teachers to let us know when the best time to send materials to their schools is when they confirm funding for their fully funded projects.
What can I expect if I get funding for a project for materials that are in limited supply?
We hope to be able to order these materials as expected. We'll let you know if we need you to reshop for alternatives, and we are here to help should you need it!
I'm unable to cart cleaning and sanitation items when I create my project. How should I proceed?
There are global shortages on certain sanitation supplies that are affecting our vendors, too. Please check back regularly or search for your requested resources from our other vendor catalogs as supply changes on a day to day basis.
I'm having trouble meeting a deadline for my project (like confirmation, thank you package, etc) because my school is closed.
You can extend your thank-you package due date by up to 180 days through our contact form. For any other inquiries, you can contact our customer support team.