Notable Judges Join Ripple and DonorsChoose to Launch a $4.5M Program to Support STEM Education
As part of its $25 million commitment to helping teachers and classrooms, Ripple is announcing a STEM Innovation Challenge with DonorsChoose judged by John Legend, Dr. Laurie Santos, Monica J Sutton, and Ripple employees
New York, New York, Sept. 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ripple, the leading provider of digital asset infrastructure for financial institutions, today announced the launch of the Ripple STEM Innovation Challenge in collaboration with long-time partner and education nonprofit DonorsChoose, part of a $25 million commitment in Ripple USD (RLUSD), Ripple’s U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin. As part of the challenge, Ripple will launch a $4 million donation match on DonorsChoose, doubling every contribution made to STEM projects on the nonprofit’s website, as well as award five winning teachers with $100,000 for each of their schools, making it the largest innovation challenge hosted on DonorsChoose.
To enter the innovation challenge, U.S. public school teachers must submit a STEM project on DonorsChoose with resources in their project totalling no more than $1,000 by October 5th, 2025. A panel of notable judges and Ripple employees will choose the five winning teachers who will receive $100,000 each for their schools: artist and activist John Legend, Yale professor of Psychology and host of The Happiness Lab podcast Dr. Laurie Santos, and Early Childhood Expert and YouTube Personality Monica J Sutton.
According to a 2024-2025 survey of DonorsChoose teachers, more than 50 percent of educators say that they do not have the resources to prepare their students for future careers. Through the company’s STEM Innovation Challenge, Ripple wants to help students not only access an enriching education but also thrive in a rapidly evolving job market and inspire them to start their journeys of exploration, discovery, and creative thinking.
“DonorsChoose has changed the way teachers bring their best ideas into the classroom,” said Eric van Miltenburg, Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Ripple. “With the Ripple STEM Innovation Challenge, we’re building on that work by making innovative projects more accessible to every school and ensuring that all students – not just those in well-resourced communities – have the chance to explore STEM, gain new skills, and see a future full of possibility.”
This is Ripple’s second time partnering with DonorsChoose to help improve academic outcomes in U.S. public schools and inspire younger generations. In 2018, Ripple funded every classroom project on DonorsChoose, bringing to life more than 35,000 DonorsChoose projects submitted by teachers with a gift of $29 million, the largest known gift of cryptocurrency ever donated to a single charity.
In May 2025, Ripple pledged $25 million in Ripple USD (RLUSD) to DonorsChoose and Teach For America to support innovative, high-impact initiatives throughout the year, including funding thousands of classroom projects and teacher requests on DonorsChoose during Teacher Appreciation Week, Teach For America’s Ignite tutoring program nationwide, and the Ripple STEM Innovation Challenge. Ripple’s commitment focuses on supporting new initiatives focused on financial literacy and helping students and educators across the U.S. build strong academic foundations and economic mobility.
“Teachers want to give their students access to future careers in STEM, especially in an increasingly changing workforce environment,” said Alix Guerrier, CEO of DonorsChoose. “Ripple is directly providing learning tools to young people who are our future engineers, software developers, and mathematicians. This will give countless students direct access to new classroom experiences and the possibility of pursuing their passions in the STEM industry.”
About Ripple
Ripple is the leading provider of digital asset infrastructure for financial institutions—delivering simple, compliant, reliable software that unlocks efficiencies, reduces friction, and enhances innovation in global finance. Ripple’s solutions leverage the XRP Ledger and its native digital asset, XRP, which was purpose-built to enable fast, low-cost, highly scalable transactions across developer and financial use cases. With a proven track record working with regulators and policymakers around the world, Ripple’s payments, custody and stablecoin solutions are pioneering the digital asset economy—building credibility and trust in enterprise blockchain. Together with customers, partners and the developer community, we are transforming the way the world tokenizes, stores, exchanges, and moves value.
About DonorsChoose
DonorsChoose is the leading way to give to public schools. Since 2000, 6.4 million people and partners have contributed $1.8 billion to support over 3 million teacher requests for classroom resources and experiences. As the most trusted crowdfunding platform for teachers, donors, and district administrators alike, DonorsChoose vets each request, ships the funded resources directly to the classroom, and provides thank yous and reporting to donors and school leaders. Charity Navigator and GuideStar have awarded DonorsChoose, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, their highest ratings for transparency and accountability. For more information, visit www.donorschoose.org.
Juan Brizuela DonorsChoose media@donorschoose.org Kailey Medzadourian Ripple press@ripple.com
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