Projects / Which classroom projects get funded on a school crowdfunding site

Which classroom projects get funded on a school crowdfunding site

Course project, Michigan Ross MBA. Tableau views of 1.2 million public DonorsChoose project records. Not client or employer work.

Tableau
SituationTeachers post classroom projects on a crowdfunding site, and donors choose which projects to fund. 1.2 million projects were posted from 2002 to 2016.
ComplicationAbout 3 of 10 projects do not reach their goal. Teachers do not know which of their choices change the chance.
QuestionWhich projects get funded, and what can a teacher control?
Answer70% of projects reach their goal. Price matters most: 90% of projects below $200 are funded, and 45% of projects above $1,500.

Some drivers of funding are in the hands of the teacher; the price of the request is the strongest

  • Chance that a project is funded70% of closed projects
    • What the teacher controls
      • Price of the requestThe lever

        Does a lower price help?

        Yes. 90% funded below $200, 45% above $1,500.

      • Type of resourceThe lever

        Does the resource matter?

        Yes. Books 77%, technology 63%.

    • What the teacher does not control
      • Poverty level of the schoolFixed

        Are the poorest schools funded less?

        No. 73% for the highest poverty level, 67% to 68% for the others.

      • YearFixed

        Did the rate fall as the site grew?

        No. Near 70% from 2010 to 2016.

Lever what the decision changes Limit what the answer must respect Fixed outside the decision

Projects that reach their goal

70%

of 1,130,701 closed projects, 2002 to 2016

Funded below $200

90%

45% for projects of $1,500 to $2,500

Median project

$428

4 donors for the median funded project; $501M donated in total

The price of a project decides most: each $200 more cuts the chance of funding

Share of closed projects (funded or expired) that reached their goal, by price of the project without optional support.

Technology grew from 18% to 31% of funded projects, and books fell from 25% to 17%

Area chart from Tableau: share of funded projects by resource type, by quarter, 2006 to 2015.
Share of funded projects by resource type, by quarter of completion. Tableau.

Literacy has 28% of all donors, but small subjects such as team sports raise more for each project

Treemap from Tableau: number of donors and average amount raised, by subject.
Size: number of donors. Colour: average amount raised for each project. Tableau.

The analysis

Question

Which classroom projects do donors fund, and what does a teacher control?

Data

1,203,287 public project records from a crowdfunding site for schools: price, resource, subject, poverty level, status.

Method

Tableau views of funding by resource type, subject and place, and funding rates by price band.

  • Technology projects have the lowest funding rate (63%) and the highest median price ($557). Books have the highest rate (77%) at $374.
  • Schools with the highest poverty level are funded more often (73%) than all other schools (67% to 68%).
  • For a teacher, the practical lever is the size of the request: two projects of $400 have a better chance than one of $800.
  • The funding rate stayed near 70% from 2010 to 2016 while the number of projects more than doubled.