GO Campaign

GO Campaign is a national nonprofit organization based in Santa Monica, California that raises awareness and funds to help orphans and vulnerable children throughout the developing world. The organization supports projects at the grassroots level that bring direct relief to children in need of shelter, education, food, clothing, and medical care. Particular emphasis is given to projects that focus on education, and those developed to help local programs and youth stand on their own through vocational training and income-generating activities.

GO Campaign actively works with youth in the U.S. to help foster the next generation of philanthropists and social activists - encouraging youth to actively become part of the solution by offering awareness building and fundraising tools and easy ways for them to take action.

Thanks to a private gift covering operating expenses, 100% of all donations to GO Campaign go to projects serving children, and donors are allowed to choose the project they want to support.

Background

Former attorney and successful Hollywood screenwriter Scott Fifer founded the organization in 2006 after taking a volunteer vacation in Tanzania. Originally established as the TunaHAKI Foundation to help Tanzania’s orphans and vulnerable children secure a better future, support for the nonprofit quickly outpaced its initial goals. In 2008, TunaHAKI Foundation officially changed its name to GO Campaign and expanded its reach throughout the developing world. Fifer is a contributing blogger to the Huffington Post. GO's Board of Directors includes Fifer, Jill Goldman, Victoria Strauss Kennedy, Daryl Offer, Rami Ghandour, Tony Horton, Alexandra Vorbeck, Julie Milligan and Louise Hamagami.

GO has funded children's programs in Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Cambodia, China, Haiti, Liberia, Peru, Ghana, Guatemala, Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Namibia, Malawi, Laos, South Africa, Vietnam and other developing nations.

In 2010, Malawi's William Kamkwamba, author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, was one of four winners of GO Campaign's inaugural GO Ingenuity Award, a financial grant that allows inventors and artists to share ingenuity and invention with youth in developing nations.

GO Campaign is also a founding member of the Coalition for a Sustainable Africa, a coalition of several nonprofits actively working in Africa.

Events

The GO GO Gala is GO's annual Hollywood fundraiser. Hosted annually by Ewan McGregor and sponsored by [Beachbody] and other corporate sponsors, the event brings together celebrities, project partners from the field, social activists, supporters and top rate entertainment. Honorary Gala Committee members have included Edward Norton, Evangeline Lilly, Lisa Kudrow, Diablo Cody, Mike White, Djimon Hounsou, Toni Collette, Octavia Spencer, Julie Christie, Jesse Metcalfe and others. Each year, GO Campaign presents an honoree with the Giving Opportunity Award at the Gala in recognition of their work for children throughout the developing world. Past recipients have included Cameron Sinclair, founder of Architecture for Humanity, Blake Mycoskie, founder of TOMS Shoes Lauren Bush-Lauren and Ellen Gustafson, founders of FEED Projects, and UN Human Rights Advocate Chris Mburu from the HBO documentary "A Small Act". The 2011 gala included an online auction including a set visit to the Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn movie set and meeting with the film's star Robert Pattinson which sold for $80,000. In 2011, Sumner Redstone donated $100,000 to GO Campaign for the building of two new schools in Cambodia.

Smaller events have included GO Rocks at the Roxy where youth bands take the stage along with accomplished artists such as Glenn Frey, Ziggy Marley, Don Was and Dennis Quaid, and hosted events at Soho House West Hollywood.

External links

• GO Campaign official site
• Huffington Post