North Carolina math teacher Clair Best says school supplies are more than a line item — they're the tools that determine whether a student succeeds. That belief is shared by a growing list of donors stepping in to help cover a gap that state education budgets haven't closed, and this summer one North Carolina foundation decided to close it all at once, fully funding every single open classroom project on the crowdfunding platform DonorsChoose across the entire state.
In August, the foundation Exponential Scholars donated more than $2 million to cover over 3,200 classroom projects requested by teachers at more than 1,000 schools in North Carolina, according to Spectrum News. Per The Philanthropist's Notebook, the donation totaled $2.25 million and fully funded 3,233 open classroom projects submitted by 2,466 public school teachers across 1,075 schools statewide. The funded projects focused heavily on literacy, language learning, and social and emotional learning, all requested directly by teachers through DonorsChoose, a fundraising website where educators post specific classroom needs for donors to cover.
Best, a North Carolina math teacher, said the funding means teachers can obtain supplies without dipping into their own paychecks, freeing them up to focus on teaching rather than fundraising. That relief matters in a state where teachers spend more than $1,600 on classroom supplies on average every year, according to figures from the North Carolina Association of Educators cited by the same report.
A Reopened Media Center in Kinston
Holly May, a representative of Exponential Scholars, said the donation funded materials that enabled a Kinston-area teacher to reopen a school media center that had previously sat closed. According to the station's report, the teacher received all the materials they had hoped to secure through the funding, allowing the space to function again for students.
Exponential Scholars was founded in 2025 by Holly May, a Cary Academy alumna, to expand access to educational opportunities, mentoring, and funding for youth and educators in underrepresented North Carolina communities, according to Cary Academy. May has credited her own experience receiving financial assistance as part of what inspired her to start the foundation.
Charlotte's Classroom Central Fills Gaps Year-Round
While Exponential Scholars' donation was a single statewide event, Charlotte-based nonprofit Classroom Central works to support teachers throughout the school year. The organization provides free school supplies to educators across six Charlotte-area school districts, though eligibility is restricted to public schools where 50% or more of students are classified as economically disadvantaged based on state education data, according to Classroom Central. Eligible teachers, counselors, and media specialists may visit the group's free supplies store once a month.
Since its founding in 2002, Classroom Central has distributed more than $100 million in free school supplies to educators and students across the region, according to Axios. The nonprofit currently supports more than 75% of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools along with surrounding county districts. In August 2025, the David & Nicole Tepper Foundation and the Carolina Panthers expanded their partnership with Classroom Central to deliver over 38,000 supply-filled backpacks to students across eight Carolinas school districts for the 2025–2026 academic year, per the Carolina Panthers, marking the largest backpack contribution in the nonprofit's history.
Closer to home, Hoodline previously reported that Kannapolis allocated a $5,000 federal Community Development Block Grant to Classroom Central in September 2025, specifically to provide free school supplies to teachers in Kannapolis City Schools, one of six districts the nonprofit serves.
Why Teachers Keep Reaching for Their Own Wallets
The donations arrive against a backdrop of persistent state-level funding shortfalls. A December 2025 report by the Education Law Center found North Carolina ranked 50th out of 51 nationally in cost-adjusted per-pupil public education funding, according to the NC Budget & Tax Center. Inflation-adjusted state appropriations per student declined by 13% between 2003 and 2025, the same analysis found.
Meanwhile, the federal IRS Educator Expense Deduction still caps unreimbursed classroom supply write-offs at just $300 a year, a limit set in 2022, according to Taxstra. That's a fraction of what North Carolina teachers report spending annually. Compounding the gap, a 2025 national survey by AdoptAClassroom.org found average K-12 school supply prices rose nearly 8% year-over-year, pushing more educators toward donor platforms and classroom wishlist drives.
Those financial pressures sit alongside workforce strain across the state's public schools. A North Carolina Department of Public Instruction report recorded a 10.11% public school teacher attrition rate for the 2024–2025 school year, leaving roughly 1,000 classrooms statewide without a permanent certified teacher, as Hoodline previously reported. The state recorded 9,107 public teacher departures during that single academic year.
Whether large one-time gifts like Exponential Scholars' statewide DonorsChoose payout, or standing efforts like Classroom Central's monthly supply store, can keep pace with those structural funding gaps over the long term remains an open question. For now, teachers like Best say the support is allowing them to spend more of their energy on students and less on scrounging for basic classroom materials.
