In 2000, Charles Best was a history teacher in a New York City public high school, spending his own money buying supplies for his students that the school couldn’t provide. Then he had an idea. “My students and I just wanted a way for teachers, like myself and my colleagues, to be able to tell the world about the books we wanted, and the art supplies,” Best told CNBC’s “On The Money” in an interview. In one of the earliest examples of crowdfunding,