Harry Potter Alliance
The logo of the Harry Potter Alliance
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| Motto | The Weapon We Have Is Love |
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| Founded | 2005 |
| Founder | Andrew Slack |
| Type | Charity |
| Focus | Human rights, Education, and Literacy |
| Location |
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| Website | http://thehpalliance.org/ |
The Harry Potter Alliance (also known as the HPA) is a nonprofit organization run primarily by Harry Potter fans. It was founded by Andrew Slack in 2005 to draw attention to human rights violations in Sudan. Since then, the organisation's campaigns have focused on topics such as literacy, United States immigration reform, economic justice, gay rights, sexism, labor rights, mental health, body image, and climate change. They have received recognition from many popular figures in the Harry Potter community and have been the subject of multiple academic studies on fan activism and civic engagement among youth.
The Harry Potter Alliance was founded in 2005 by comedian Andrew Slack and the wizard rock band Harry and the Potters, initially collecting donations for Amnesty International at their shows. In 2006, the organisation partnered with Walmart Watch to create a series of YouTube videos about the "Dark Lord Waldemart" in order to educate fans about Walmart's labour practices. The three videos have been viewed nearly three and a half million times total.
In 2007, the Harry Potter Alliance broadcast a special edition of PotterCast, a popular fandom podcast, called "Becoming Dumbledore's Army: Harry Potter Fans for Darfur," to educate fans about genocide in Darfur. They partnered with STAND, a student branch of the Genocide Intervention Network, and asked members to participate in the annual STANDFast project by giving up one luxury for a week and donating the money they saved to STAND to benefit civilians in Darfur. The effort raised $15,000 for STAND. They also joined the 24 Hours for Darfur project, which sought to make a 24-hour video of individuals speaking out against the genocide in Darfur, by asking members to submit videos as fans. When CNN.com's asked for submissions of fans showing their love for Harry Potter to their iReporter site, the Harry Potter Alliance asked members to upload submissions showing their love for Harry Potter while holding signs that said, "Save Darfur." Then, in 2008, the HPA asked members to withhold support for sponsors of the 2008 Summer Olympics who were "implicitly funding the genocide in Darfur through overseas investments."
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