Case Study: DonorsChoose.org achieves $10M+ in email-driven donations and 99% deliverability with SendGrid

DonorsChoose.org Raises the Bar on Philanthropy Utilizing the SendGrid Platform

DonorsChoose.org is a nonprofit crowdfunding platform that connects public school teachers with donors; email is central to its work, driving about one third of donations from a 1.4 million–member opt-in list and sending roughly 2 million messages a month. When a datacenter move exposed the limits of their homegrown email system—including the risk of losing long‑established IP reputation and growing technical overhead—DonorsChoose needed a hosted solution that could scale, preserve deliverability, provide clear analytics, support DKIM/click/bounce tracking, integrate easily, and offer hands‑on deliverability expertise.

After evaluating vendors, DonorsChoose adopted SendGrid for its simple SMTP/DNS integration, one‑click configuration of best practices, and real‑time Event Webhook analytics. The switch freed engineering resources, stabilized delivery (now around 99%), and improved campaign performance—monthly project recommendation emails grew from about $15,000 to over $150,000—and helped contribute to more than $63 million raised for classrooms, with over $10 million directly attributed to their email program.

DonorsChoose.org

Oliver Hurst-Hiller

Chief Technology Officer & Head of Product, DonorsChoose.org