Alix Guerrier, CEO, DonorsChoose: The Changemaker Interview

A former teacher, educational technology innovator, McKinsey consultant and giving platform CEO with degrees from Stanford, Harvard and New Haven public schools, Alix Guerrier took the reins in 2022 at DonorsChoose, a nonprofit platform that enables teachers to post classroom needs and individuals and organizations to fund them. As he approached his one-year anniversary, Guerrier reflected on how he came to lead this innovative organization and where he hopes to take it.

David Hessekiel: Please share some insights into the personal and professional journey that led you to the helm of DonorChoose.

Alix Guerrier: Joining the team here at DonorsChoose felt like coming home, even though I had never been to the headquarters before my first interview!

First, I was a public school teacher. In fact, I was working as a teacher in the Bay Area at the same time that our founder, Charles Best, was conceiving of DonorsChoose in his own classroom in New York. I can remember what it was like to pay for so much. Twenty years later I still cringe if someone uses a dry-erase marker on regular paper; they are so much more expensive than regular markers!

I left the classroom to work for consulting firm McKinsey, where I joined the education practice and had exposure to system-level strategic work. In 2011, I co-founded the ed-tech start-up LearnZillion, which offered high-quality digital curricula (it is now part of Imagine Learning). Leading LearnZillion with my co-founder, I learned about the tech start-up world while simultaneously diving deep into what it takes to support great teachers and teaching practices.

In 2018, I became the CEO of the international crowdfunding platform GlobalGiving, taking over from the co-founder Mari Kuraishi. I loved the people at GlobalGiving and its mission had personal relevance to me as the son of immigrants from Haiti and Brazil, but I came to realize what a great fit DonorsChoose could be. In particular, our focus on racial and socioeconomic equity means that we take on a special duty to serve schools like the ones that I taught at, and like the ones I went to as a public school kid in New Haven.

A year into my time at DonorsChoose, I am as excited as I was on day one.

David Hessekiel: Some people are thrown into the CEO position with little support and others are fortunate to have terrific support from the departing leader and the staff. What did DonorsChoose do to get you off to a good start? What was most helpful and why?

Alix Guerrier: Fortunately, it was a very smooth and well-supported transition. Charles planned his exit months in advance, which allowed him to oversee the search for a CEO and stay on for several months of the transition. We were able to meet jointly with donors and partners to demonstrate the stability of the organization, which, I hope, calmed any fears.

The board was incredible. Every member personally offered their support, which meant the world. But, most importantly, I was blown away by how open my new colleagues were with me from the beginning. Every person went above and beyond their duty in offering me encouragement and helping me learn how DonorsChoose works. I am so grateful!

David Hessekiel: This is the second time you’ve taken the reins at a nonprofit from the founder. What did you learn from your experience at GlobalGiving and how have you applied it?

Alix Guerrier: Now that I’ve done it twice, I might be one of the world’s leading experts in succeeding founders at nonprofit giving platforms!

The big lesson that I learned at GlobalGiving is that leading an organization I didn’t start—one that in fact had a 20-year history pre-dating my arrival—posed certain challenges I had never faced at my own startup. At LearnZillion, I effectively knew every employee, every customer, every failed strategy or winning move. I could lean on this expertise as a source of confidence.

But once I arrived at GlobalGiving, every employee there knew more than me! This was deeply uncomfortable at first, and I initially flailed as I tried to recreate that deep expertise. Of course, that was a fool’s errand.

Coming to DonorsChoose, I was prepared to relish the expertise of my amazing teammates, and admit from the start that I was there to learn. It turns out that this approach works much better.

David Hessekiel: You’ve had a year to “learn the ropes.” What are some of your top priorities at DonorsChoose especially when it comes to building strategic corporate alliances?

Alix Guerrier: DonorsChoose is the best organization I’ve seen when it comes to creating a natural alignment between our mission and a corporate partner’s business and social impact goals. For example, we have corporate partners who have hyper-local impact goals that match the geographic footprint of their customers, staff, or other stakeholders. We have the ability to focus partnerships as precisely as needed, down to the ZIP code or neighborhood.

I’m eager to continue responding to our partner’s domain-specific interests. We have partners looking to move the needle on racial justice and representation. Others focus on student mental health, STEM and workforce development, or climate change. Because of our model and the way investing in education can address all of these areas, we can meet our partners’ goals while also fulfilling the most urgent needs of our teachers.

I’m also focused on building partnerships that can help lift up the voices of our teachers. We are in the midst of a crisis when it comes to the sustainability of the teaching profession. For example, we recently surveyed our teacher community—tapping into the nation’s largest single audience of teachers of color—to generate the findings that led to our report on the Black male educator experience. We’re able to offer a more detailed look at what many of us know at a high level: we are not supporting our country’s teachers as we should. We’re just getting started on the work we can do here, and many of our corporate partners are excited to join us.