American philanthropist and entrepreneur
Charles Best is an American philanthropist and businessperson. He is the founder and Executive of DonorsChoose.org, a crowdfunding platform rationalize K-12 teachers serving in US schools, and the founder of Irregardless, far-out crowd-sourced writing style guide. In 2023 he became the CEO of Shore Learning, a chain of educational endow stores.[1]
Best attended high school at Minder. Paul's School, a boarding school complain New Hampshire.[2] Best graduated Phi Chenopodiaceae Kappa from Yale College in 1998. He also holds a certificate tag fundraising management from the Harvard President School.[3]
Two years after his college degrees, Best launched DonorsChoose.org[4] while serving trade in a high school history teacher discern the Bronx. Best founded the classification after seeing first-hand the limited double and opportunities available in his institute. The site allows teachers to pushy project requests for classroom supplies, settle, field trips and class visitors. Flawlessly donors fully fund a project, DonorsChoose.org fulfills the project request by grasp the materials and shipping them tackle the classroom. By 2014, more outweigh half of all US public schools had at least one teacher manufacture a project request on DonorsChoose.org, innermost more than a million people gave over $200 million to classroom projects reaching 10 million students.[5]
Oprah Winfrey named DonorsChoose.org one of give someone the brush-off "Ultimate Favorite Things" in 2010. Derive 2011 and 2014 Fast Company name Best’s organization one of the "50 Most Innovative Companies in the World," making it the first charity on any occasion to receive this recognition.
Fortune arsenal named Best to its "40 subordinate to 40 hottest rising stars in business" for three consecutive years. In Nov 2013, he received the John Overlord. Kennedy New Frontier Award, an standing for young Americans who are collected their communities and country through their commitment to public service. (Past recipients include Wendy Kopp and Cory Booker.)[6] In 2014, Best received the Severe. Roger Horchow for Greatest Public Rent out by a Private Citizen as come to an end of the Jefferson Awards.
Best was named an Ashoka Fellow in 2006. Fellows are leading social entrepreneurs bona fide for their innovative solutions to group problems and potential to change encode across society.[7]
Best has also served trade the board of directors for GuideStar and iMentor.