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Ripple Funds All 35,000 DonorsChoose Classroom Projects with $29 Million Donation

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Josiah Wilmoth
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Cryptocurrency startup Ripple has funded all 35,000 classroom projects on the educational crowdfunding website DonorsChoose with a $29 million donation, the largest gift the non-profit has ever received.

DonorsChoose and Ripple unveiled the San Francisco-based company’s donation on Tuesday in a video announcement, explaining that the $29 million gift was enough to fund all 35,000 projects currently listed on the platform.

Through DonorsChoose.org , public school teachers can create crowdfunding campaigns to raise money for educational resources such as books, school supplies, and field trips. To date, more than 1.1 million projects have been funded, with a total reach of nearly 27.7 million students.

In a statement posted on its company blog, Ripple said  that the donation was made in XRP, though it was presumably converted into USD immediately thereafter.

“Today marks the first time in 18 years where the total number of projects on our site reads ‘0.’” DonorsChoose said in a blog post. “Thanks to Ripple’s gift, over the next few weeks tens of thousands more boxes full of supplies will start arriving in classrooms across the country.”

The donation even earned a mention from Late Show host Stephen Colbert, a vocal proponent of DonorsChoose.

“Hopefully Ripple’s act of generosity will send waves of inspiration over the pool of human kindness like a — I don’t have the word for it — like a sploosh,” Colbert said.

“[$29 million] in XRP virtual currency is, I have no idea,” he adding, shrugging. “One, a billion? It’s wonderful, but please don’t explain blockchain to me.”

At the present exchange rate, it’s actually just under 50 million XRP, though if the company had made the donation in January — when XRP peaked at a global average of $3.84 — it would have required just 7.5 million tokens.

This is just the latest instance of organizations and individuals associated with the cryptocurrency industry putting their newfound wealth to a good cause.

As CCN.com reported, an anonymous donor operating under the pseudonym “Pine” committed to donating $86 million in Bitcoin to a variety of charities through the “Pineapple Fund,” of which more than $55 million has been gifted to date.

Featured image from Shutterstock.