NEW YORK, March 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Today, more than fifty athletes, actors, founders, and philanthropists announced a surprise “flash funding” of classroom projects posted on DonorsChoose.org in communities across America. We’re so grateful to the people who have kicked off this philanthropic flashmob, and we hope that everyone–no matter the size of their wallet–will join this act of mass generosity by supporting a classroom project and committing to make every day a #BestSchoolDay.”

To inspire citizen donors to support classroom projects, Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, and Brian Acton, the co-founder of WhatsApp, have together pledged $3.2 million to match donations on DonorsChoose.org, beginning today. Allen, founder & CEO of Vulcan, Inc., supporting Washington
James Anderson, NFL player and actor, supporting Chesapeake, VA
Carmelo Anthony, New York Knicks, supporting West Baltimore, MD
Marc Benioff, chairman & CEO of Salesforce, supporting Hawai’i
Bezos Family Foundation, supporting student-led projects from high-need schools
Yvette Nicole Brown, actress, with an anonymous donor, supporting Cleveland
Elsa Brule, philanthropist, supporting Alabama, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Milwaukee, WI, and Brownsville, Brooklyn, NY
Barbara Dalio, public school advocate, supporting Connecticut
Jack Dorsey, co-founder & CEO of Twitter, and co-founder, CEO, and chairman of Square, supporting Missouri
Ric Elias on behalf of Red Ventures, supporting Mecklenberg County, NC and Lancaster County, SC
Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week, supporting Sacramento, CA; Long Island, NY; and New Hampshire
Angela and David Filo, Yellow Chair Foundation, supporting Kansas; Louisiana; Solano, Santa Cruz, San Benito, Stanislaus, Yolo, and Fresno Counties, CA; and northern Alameda County, CA
Larry Fitzgerald, wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals, supporting Minneapolis, MN
Bill & Melinda Gates, supporting South Bronx, NY
Dan Gilbert, Cleveland Cavaliers, supporting Akron and Canton, OH, and Cuyahoga County, OH
Perry and Donna Golkin Family Foundation, supporting Southern Tier NY and Manhattan, NY, and highest-need communities in Brooklyn, NY
Theresia Gouw, venture capitalist and co-founder, Aspect Ventures, supporting northern NY
Dwight Howard, starting center of the NBA’s Houston Rockets, supporting PreK-2 literacy projects in Houston, TX
Tony Hsieh on behalf of Zappos, supporting Las Vegas, NV
Leslie and Cliff Hudson, CEO, Sonic, supporting Oklahoma City, OK
Mark Ingram, NFL’s New Orleans Saints, supporting Flint, MI
Samuel L. Jackson, actor, supporting Chattanooga, TN
Eron Jokipii, software author, supporting Western TX
Anna Kendrick, actress, with an anonymous donor, supporting Maine
Henry and Marie-Josee Kravis, supporting Tulsa, OK
Ashton Kutcher, actor and entrepreneur, supporting Iowa
Karen Leshner, president, Intrepid Philanthropy Foundation, supporting San Joaquin County, CA
Howard L. Morgan, venture capitalist, First Round Capital, supporting West Bronx, NY
Bob Moritz, PwC US Chairman, and PwC Charitable Foundation, supporting Jamaica, Queens, NY and Miami, FL
Elon Musk, supporting Los Angeles, CA; Washoe, NV; and Coryell and Cameron, TX
Blake Mycoskie, founder and chief shoe giver, TOMS, supporting Wyoming
Craig Newmark, founder, craigslist and craigconnects, supporting Detroit, MI and New Jersey
Alexis Ohanian, co-founder, Reddit, and best-selling author, supporting Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NY
Laura and John Overdeck, Overdeck Family Foundation, supporting Washington, DC, and the surrounding metro area
Gwyneth Paltrow, actress, supporting Santa Monica, CA
Alison and Mark Pincus supporting Long Beach, CA
Lynda Resnick, vice-chair and co-owner, The Wonderful Company, supporting Kern and Kings Counties, CA
Lauren Miller Rogen and Seth Rogen, supporting Sonoma County, CA
Chris Sacca, venture investor, Lowercase Capital, supporting Buffalo, NY
Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook, and founder, LeanIn.org, supporting projects from among 10 challenged communities in California
Russell Simmons, entrepreneur and philanthropist, supporting Hollis, Queens, NY
Herbert Simon Family Foundation and the Pacers Foundation, supporting Indiana
Elizabeth Simons and Mark Heising, supporting Mississippi
The Simons Foundation and Math for America, supporting Bronx, NY
Alys and Brad Smith, chairman and CEO, Intuit, supporting West Virginia
Torrey Smith, NFL wide receiver, supporting East Baltimore, MD
Sobrato Family Foundation, supporting Santa Clara County, CA and southern Alameda County, CA
Livia and Biz Stone, co-founder, Twitter, and co-founder and CEO, Askjelly.com, supporting Boston, MA and Contra Costa County, CA
Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO and co-founder, Yelp, supporting Oakland, CA
David Sze, venture capitalist, supporting Monterey County, CA
Jeff Weiner, CEO, LinkedIn, supporting San Mateo County, CA
Sara and Evan Williams, founder of Medium, co-founder of Twitter, supporting Nebraska and San Francisco County, CA
Serena Williams, world’s #1 women’s tennis player, supporting Compton, CA
Joanne and Fred Wilson, supporting Montgomery County, MD, and Orange County, NY
An anonymous donor, supporting Alaska, Kentucky, New Mexico, Ohio, and projects from among the 50 highest-need communities in the country

Many #BestSchoolDay funders chose to support their home city or state. Seeing the impact of that gift, Livia and Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, committed to fund all the projects in Boston and Contra Costa County, CA, which spurred Twitter co-founders Jack Dorsey and Evan Williams to commit to the states where they grew up.

For additional comments from today’s flash funders, visit the DonorsChoose.org FAQ.

DonorsChoose.org shared the news with teachers and supporters today via social media, videos, and emails sent to teachers whose projects were funded. To be eligible for the flash funding, teachers in funded areas had to have submitted a project to DonorsChoose.org by March 7, 2016.

Those interested in supporting a classroom project can visit www.donorschoose.org to find a project request that speaks to them. Teachers at over two-thirds of all the public schools in America have created project requests, and more than 2 million people have donated $400 million to projects that inspire them. SYS-CON Events announced today that iDevices , the preeminent brand in the connected home industry, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 18th International Cloud Expo | @ThingsExpo, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. The Microservices architecture, which is the basis of many new age distributed systems such as OpenStack and NetFlix, is at the heart of Cloud Foundry a complete developer-oriented Platform as a Service (PaaS) that is IaaS agnostic and supports vCloud, OpenStack and AWS.SYS-CON Events announced today that HGST, a Western Digital Company, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 18th Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7-9, 2015 at the Javits Center in New York, New York. The combined st…SYS-CON Events announced today that Fusion, a leading provider of cloud services, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 18th International Cloud Expo , which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. A key reason for the non-profit organization’s selection was Fusion’s ability…SYS-CON Events announced today that DDN Storage has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 18th Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7-9, 2015 at the Javits Center in New York, New York. By creating an Energy Network of Things, facilities can manage energy assets in real-time, institute system-wide operational oversight and compliance, execute energy efficiency programs, utilize real-time data, and support budgeting and asset planning across local and geo…SYS-CON Events announced today TMCnet has been named “Media Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 18th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7 9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, and the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1 3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) is the world’s leading business-to-business and integrated marketing media company, servicing niche markets within the com…SYS-CON Events announced today that Alert Logic, Inc., the leading provider of Security-as-a-Service solutions for the cloud, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 18th International Cloud Expo , which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. The 572,000 grant will enable the continued growth of its Belf…SYS-CON Events announced today that VAI, a leading ERP software provider, will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 18th International Cloud Expo , which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. VAI has been a Rocket partner for more than 20 years and has incorporated a number of …SYS-CON Events announced today that Tintri Inc., a leading producer of VM-aware storage (VAS) for virtualization and cloud environments, will exhibit at the 18th International CloudExpo , which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York, and the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Imad Mouline, chief technology officer for Everbridge, will highlight incident communications best practices and …SYS-CON Events announced today Object Management Group has been named “Media Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 18th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7 9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, and the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1 3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.SYS-CON Events announced today that Pythian, a global IT services company specializing in helping companies adopt disruptive technologies to optimize revenue-generating systems, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON’s 18th Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7-9, 2015 at the Javits Center in New York, New York.