Good Things Come to Those Who Code Campaign Wrapup

The widget came down on Tuesday night at midnight. The DonorsChoose campaign I called Good Things Come To Those Who Code is over.  Here are some stats:

Total Raised: $25,172

Donors: 162

Students Helped: 8,551

I really appreciate the generosity of everyone who participated. The number to focus on is 8,551 students who will have their classroom experience improved in some way because of you.

Here's a list of all the DonorsChoose campaigns I have done on this blog over the years. There have been seven in total since 2007. In total we have raised almost $190,000 in this community for teachers and their classrooms via DonorsChoose. That is fantastic.

#hacking education

Comments (Archived):

  1. Aaron Klein

    Awesome, Fred. Proud to have been a small part.

    1. Aaron Klein

      PS: Best way to be first commenter on an AVC post is to be vacationing in Italy. 🙂

      1. William Mougayar

        Bravissimo. Dove sei?

        1. Aaron Klein

          First Sorrento, then Roma and now leaving for a last few days with family in Asti (about an hour west of Milan).

          1. William Mougayar

            Enjoy! If you’re passing by Naples, make sure you get a real pizza napoletana. My favorites were Da Michele, Trianon and Starita a materdei in capodimonte.

          2. Aaron Klein

            Passed through on the way to and from Sorrento, but sadly, never left the termini. We decided to focus on a few spots and not see everything, so Sorrento, Roma and Asti have largely been it.We’ll be back. 🙂

          3. andyidsinga

            now your rubbing it in 😉

          4. Aaron Klein

            It is really a beautiful country. We’re doing this whole thing on points and miles. You should! 🙂

          5. andyidsinga

            wife and I went for tenth anniversary … was a wonderful trip .. went to Venice, Florence and volterra … we really want to go back and check out southern Italy :)speaking about travel … we just got back from an amazing adventure in Belize.

          6. Aaron Klein

            Ooh, I’ve heard good things about Belize.

          7. William Mougayar

            Thanks for taking the time to respond. arriva derci!

          8. ShanaC

            now you make me feel guilty for emailing you today 🙂

          9. Aaron Klein

            All good. 🙂

      2. jason wright

        are visas required to visit North Korea?

        1. Aaron Klein

          Most definitely. They tightly control entry, from what I understand.And they are even tighter on controlling exits…most states that lack freedom and respect for human rights are.

    2. awaldstein

      If you end up for a night in Milan I have a restaurant that does a baked fish in Sea Salt and a really know-it-all artisanal wine bar that might be worth a visit.

      1. Aaron Klein

        Send it my way…you never know. But I suspect our family here in Italia will be proud to show us all of their favorite places, so I doubt we will have much input. 😉

  2. Dave W Baldwin

    That is impressive!

  3. Kirsten Lambertsen

    Nice! I’m just trying to picture what 8,551 people looks like, and that’s a lot of people. High five 🙂

    1. fredwilson

      think of a small NBA arena

      1. Kirsten Lambertsen

        right! that’s really cool.

      2. kirklove

        Just don’t think of JR’s or Melo’s shooting percentage last night.

        1. fredwilson

          i am having nightmares about those two right now

    2. ShanaC

      the main floor of macy’s herald square filled with people – or maybe a section of a parade route in nyc

      1. Kirsten Lambertsen

        :-)I searched briefly, in vain, for a photo that showed about 8500 people.

        1. jarid

          Here you go… Hearst Greek Theatre, an 8,500-seat amphitheater owned and operated by the University of California, Berkeley.

          1. Kirsten Lambertsen

            Awesome 🙂

  4. William Mougayar

    Well done. DC does a very good job communicating with donors about where their contributions are going.

  5. laurie kalmanson

    thank u for leading this.

  6. Cam MacRae

    Hey that list of campaigns goes to our personal giving pages.Congrats on fighting the good fight.

    1. Oliver Hurst-Hiller

      It should be http://www.donorschoose.org…As I said above, our site served the wrong permalink up to Fred. We’ll fix the bug to avoid it happening to others in the future.- Oliver (DonorsChoose.org)

  7. Richard

    Awesome, this is more than just the one time gift. These kids are young and impressionable and no doubt some will remember these gifts for years to come and likely shape, in part, who they are as a person. I still can recall moments in my life.

    1. andyidsinga

      this is true, and the reason why donors should take advantage of the note that goes along with the donation to provide some audacious advice / predictions about what the kids will be able to do in the future.

    2. Matt A. Myers

      It hopefully will instil the value of giving / receiving.

  8. kirklove

    You should get a tattoo of 8,551 like Pitino did of the Louisville win: http://goo.gl/cTETV

    1. btrautsc

      Had to comment…if you made $4.9M a year, wouldn’t you get a slightly cooler tattoo of the event you may experience only once?I’ve always said I’d get a company tattoo for making great accomplishments, but I would actually utilize design

      1. kirklove

        It is a lame tattoo for sure, though pretty bad ass of the “little magician” to get it.

    2. fredwilson

      i am too old to get inked

  9. ObjectMethodology.com

    Good to see people helping people. Too bad it’s students in classrooms instead of students on the internet..Thought I should post this: http://www.epi.org/publicat

    1. fredwilson

      too bad you like to make asinine comments

      1. ObjectMethodology.com

        That’s not very nice. It’s a relevent and forward looking comment. The internet is the revolution in knowledge delivery. Investing money in education that is only brick-n-mortor is backward thinking.

          1. ObjectMethodology.com

            I watched the video and it backs up what I’m saying. Making your “not true” conclusion false..So unless I’ve missed something in these posts. I still contend that investing in “only brick-n-mortor” is backward thinking. I have to say that what you described on the video is what I see as forward thinking education. And that is putting effort into a mix..So, for the $60K I say 2/3 should go to creating electronic content. And 1/3 should go to the classroom efforts. Now, before we go any further I can’t comment on whether 1/3 will pay the classroom costs. I’m just giving my opinion on how I think funds should be allocated. Taking into consideration the availability of internet delivery and how I envision education for the future..Another thing we may have to consider here is what we each are seeing as investing in “only brick-n-mortor”. I think *all* investing in education should require a mix. This is to keep us from looking back in 10 years only to find that there was no mix *actually* happening..So, after reviewing your supporting video. I’m not sure why you concluded my comment was asinine. Maybe I didn’t make myself clear. While even though I think the above paragraphs clear things up. I’ll summarize because years of teaching makes it a habit for me..I think that due to electronic content delivery, internet mostly but including intranets or whatever, we need to move away from brick-n-motor thinking. Not just to get away from huge hard asset, buildings and grounds, costs. But, also to focus on the content and learning changes due to the huge frontier of electronic content delivery..Last I’m all for making it so that some people won’t *need* to step into a brick-n-mortor classroom to get an MBA or whatever. But, I also know that there will always be some who *must* step into a brick-n-mortor classroom to get an education.

          2. fredwilson

            That’s fine if you want 1-10% of the people in this world, the self directed learners, to be the only educated people in the world. But if you want to educate everyone you need teachers and facilities

          3. ObjectMethodology.com

            We can’t “educate” everyone using an educational system. Many get their education on the streets. That’s not a bad thing. Some make it big that way..I know that for mentally and physically challenged people there will always be a need for physical classrooms. Also, testing will require physical locations. Not because technology can’t play a part but because physical location testing will be preferred in many instances..As far as self-directed learners goes. I think in the knowledge worker age that we’re in they are the cream of the crop. During the industrial age worker tasks were well defined with step-by-step instructions created off-line. Now, being able to learn during the task is a must! So, the self-directed learner is king..Lastly, is a new topic which we don’t need to discuss but I would like to mention. There is a problem with current schooling that seems to dull the student’s ability to learn. If you give a kid a video game they can learn even the most complex of games while alone staring at the computer screen. But, then after years of schooling I see many of them lose the ability to self direct their learning. I don’ t teach anymore but still know and discuss these topics with teachers.

          4. ObjectMethodology.com

            BTW, thanks for the discussion. Many times when dicussing this topic teachers get so frightened they will lose their job because of cyber schooling efforts. But really the ones who will lose their jobs will be the ones who fight the electronic knowledge delivery revolution. Not because we won’t need them but because they will spend their time fighting instead of moving forward. So, they will make themselves obsolete.

  10. Max Yoder

    High fives all around.

  11. LE

    “Here’s a list of all the DonorsChoose campaigns I have done on this blog over the years.”(That link is actually going to a “sign in” page.)

    1. Guest

      It should be http://www.donorschoose.org…It’s our fault, our site served the wrong permalink up to Fred. We’ll fix the bug to avoid it happening to others in the future.- Oliver (DonorsChoose.org)

    2. Oliver Hurst-Hiller

      It should be http://www.donorschoose.org…It’s our fault, our site served the wrong permalink up to Fred. We’ll fix the bug to avoid it happening to others in the future.- Oliver (DonorsChoose.org)

  12. Matt A. Myers

    I thought I donated to the campaign, though thinking I may supported a different campaign thinking they were connected. I sent DonorsChoose a support request to find out.. still haven’t heard back yet though.

    1. Jenny, DonorsChoose.org

      Matt, someone from our Customer Relations team will follow up with you directly. We can link your donation to the page retroactively if there was a mix-up. Thanks for helping shine a light on CS education!

      1. Matt A. Myers

        Heard from them. Thanks. 🙂

  13. Jenny, DonorsChoose.org

    Fred, many thanks to you (and the awesome A VC community) for all the support you continue to provide for students and teachers. We’re thrilled the A VC community could show educators Good Things Come to Those Who Code!