Innovation agent Charles Best to speak

Charles Best, founder and CEO of DonorsChoose.org, will deliver a presentation at 2 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 14, in Cone University Center, McKnight Hall.

Named to Fortune magazine’s “40 Under 40 Hottest Rising Stars in Business” for three consecutive years, Best is considered a pioneer in citizen philanthropy. A former history teacher in the Bronx, Best created the nonprofit DonorsChoose.org as a simple way to address educational inequality. At the website, public school teachers could create classroom project requests, and donors could pick the projects they wanted to support.

Today, half of all public schools in America have at least one teacher who has funded a project through DonorsChoose.org, and more than a million people have donated $200 million to classroom projects reaching 10 million students. Fast Company magazine recently named DonorsChoose.org one of the “50 Most Innovative Companies in the World,” the first time a nonprofit has received this recognition.

Best’s lecture at 2 p.m. Oct. 14 is free; however, tickets are required. Single tickets can be picked up at the Student Union First Floor Information Desk or the Atkins Library First Floor Research Services Desk. To request a block of tickets for a class, email Gail Pankas, events and special projects, at gpankas@uncc.edu. This event is sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor.

Best will give an invitation-only presentation at UNC Charlotte Center City in the evening as part of the annual Chancellor’s Speaker Series.