Objective

According to a 2024-2025 survey of 2,552 public school teachers who use DonorsChoose, teachers spend on average $655 of their own money for their classrooms in a school year. Teachers say that if it weren’t for DonorsChoose, they’d be spending, on average, over $1,400 out-of-pocket on school supplies in a year. 

With those stats in mind, iHeartMedia and DonorsChoose partnered to launch iHeartRadio’s Thank a Teacher campaign with some key objectives in mind:

• Raise awareness to the growing need for funds and supplies for public school teachers
• Highlight teachers and encourage listener donations to various DonorsChoose projects
• Highlight subject matter experts on iHeartMedia platforms 

Strategy

In July 2025, in anticipation of the back-to-school season, iHeartMedia launched iHeartRadio’s Thank a Teacher campaign in partnership with DonorsChoose. The campaign aimed to spotlight over 1,500 public school teachers on-air and award $5,000 DonorsChoose gift cards to provide classroom supplies to five teachers, for a total prize of $25,000 in classroom resources. The one-month media campaign was dedicated to recognizing public school teachers who are shaping the future of America’s youth and to highlight the important role that teachers play in educating, mentoring and inspiring students, despite facing limited resources and funding challenges. The nominations were open through August 29, 2025. Listeners were encouraged to nominate a public-school teacher from their own community at donorschoose.org/iHeartRadio. All 160 local markets featured one local teacher each week to encourage listeners to donate to their classroom needs.  

Execution

On-air media

iHeartMedia engaged all of its 860 radio stations to highlight iHeartRadio Thank a Teacher campaign. iHeart aired over 200,000 on-air promos encouraging listeners to support, highlight and celebrate teachers in the community. 

Local on-air personalities

iHeart engaged dozens of local on-air personalities, the trusted friends of many local listeners, to talk and promote the iHeartRadio’s Thank a Teacher campaign, building and adding to the momentum of the campaign. The stations featured phone calls and on-air checks of on-air personalities speaking with listeners and nominated teachers on the importance of supporting public schools and their teachers. 

Public affairs interview

In August 2025, the iHeartMedia Public Affairs Communities show invited guest speaker Alix Guerrier, CEO of DonorsChoose. The 15-minute interview touched on DonorsChoose’s critical mission, the uniqueness of the Thank a Teacher campaign, and the importance of supporting public schools and public school teachers, so that children and the communities in which they live can thrive. The show also lives in podcast form on iHeartRadio.

Public Service Announcements

In addition to iHeartRadio’s Thank a Teacher campaign, iHeartMedia also pledged to run PSAs across all its stations to encourage listeners to support DonorsChoose and donate to a teacher in their community.

Results

The campaign brought tremendous awareness across iHeartMedia’s platforms and experienced great engagement across the DonorsChoose platform in terms of donations and teacher submissions. Some of the key metrics include:

• iHeartRadio’s Thank a Teacher campaign generated over 600 million on-air impressions 
• Over 200,000 on-air promos delivered over the span of one month. 
• Over $500k in-kind media value donated to DonorsChoose through PSAs
• DonorsChoose registered over 37,624 unique nomination entries for a total of 28,227 public school teachers nominated.
• During the month of August 2025, DonorsChoose received $11.5 million in donations to benefit local school teachers.