July 31 has always been a special day for the Harry Potter fandom since both J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter celebrate their birthday on that day. We’re hoping to give these two the best birthday present ever by raising awareness and collecting donations for a few incredible charities.
This gift seemed to be the perfect fit for these two because of how important philanthropy is to J.K. Rowling. In 2000, she created the Volant Charitable Trust, which is dedicated to fighting poverty and social inequality, especially for women and children. She went on to start Lumos in 2005 with the goal of raising money to keep children with living relatives out of orphanages and return them to their families. Rowling has been involved with Amnesty International and the Multiple Sclerosis Society Scotland. She is also the president of Gingerbread, a charity for single-parent families. In 2010, she founded the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic in memory of her mother, who suffered from MS. She has also contributed to multiple other charities that she feels strongly about over the years, including Comic Relief, Maggie’s Centres, the UK Labour Party, and Doctors Without Borders. J.K. Rowling lost her billionaire status in 2011 after donating $160 million to charity, 16% of her net worth. So with J.K. Rowling’s philanthropic spirit in mind, we wanted to support a few charities as well in her and Harry’s honor.
The charities we chose to feature in this campaign strongly support and reflect the same positive values and messages that the Harry Potter series represents. They are also smaller organizations that don’t typically get as much attention and publicity. We’re hoping to thank J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter for all the magic they’ve given us over the years by collecting donations as well as raising awareness for the Harry Potter Alliance, Project Purple, the Protego Foundation, and the Trevor Project. Below you’ll find information on each of the four charities and links to their donation pages.
The Harry Potter Alliance
The Harry Potter Alliance turns fans into heroes. We’re changing the world by making activism accessible through the power of story. Since 2005, we’ve engaged millions of fans through our work for equality, human rights, and literacy.
Our Vision: A creative and collaborative culture that solves the world’s problems.
Our Values: We believe in magic. We believe that unironic enthusiasm is a renewable resource. We know fantasy is not only an escape from our world, but an invitation to go deeper into it. We celebrate the power of community—both online and off. We believe that the weapon we have is love.
DonateAside from practically sharing a name with the series itself, the HPA is a clear choice for this campaign because of the work it does. This charity is specifically designed to bring fans of
Harry Potter together to support causes they feel strongly about. The group typically has multiple great campaigns running at once, so fans have a variety of causes to support.
Project Purple
Project Purple is a Connecticut-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization created to raise awareness, support patients and families affected by the disease, and fund research efforts to defeat pancreatic cancer... Project Purple supports patients struggling with medical, pharmaceutical, and everyday living expenses related to their fight against pancreatic cancer [and] funds research for early detection and finding a cure for pancreatic cancer. We are currently funding research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Tufts Medical Center, and University of Nebraska Medical Center.
DonateProject Purple holds a really special place in the hearts of many
Harry Potter fans due to its work with pancreatic cancer. For those who may not know, pancreatic cancer was the illness that eventually took the lives of multiple
Potter actors, including Roger Lloyd Pack (Barty Crouch, Sr.) in January 2014, Alan Rickman (Severus Snape) in January 2016, and Sir John Hurt (Garrick Ollivander) in January 2017. Pancreatic cancer is typically asymptomatic in the early stages, so in most cases, by the time it is detected, the disease has already spread and is almost always fatal. Rickman was only diagnosed with cancer just five months before his death, in August 2015. While Hurt was diagnosed 19 months before his death, in June 2015, his situation was atypical. After detection, only 25% of pancreatic cancer patients survive one year. Project Purple hopes to find a way to detect pancreatic cancer earlier as well as find better treatments for those with the disease. It also helps cover the medical expenses of those already fighting pancreatic cancer.
The Protego Foundation
The Protego Foundation fights to end the abuse of the creatures in the no-maj world inspired by the Wizarding World. We are a group of activists empowering all magical persons to get active for animals. Launching in 2015 as the Fwooper Foundation, relaunching as the Fantastic Beasts Foundation in 2017, and finally becoming the Protego Foundation in 2018. We have been inspired by the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts worlds to compare how magical creatures in the Wizarding World and how the animals in the muggle world are treated. Our goal: a wizarding fandom that is more considerate of the rights, feelings, and treatment of all creatures regardless of species, size, or magical ability.
DonateAnother organization inspired directly by the wizarding world and all the incredible magical creatures mentioned in the books, the Protego Foundation hopes to change how animals in the Muggle world are treated. It typically has a variety of campaigns running that support different endangered species and other ongoing issues, like the overpopulation of animal shelters. It is currently spearheading a petition to change the butterbeer recipe at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to contain only vegan ingredients.
The Trevor Project
Founded in 1998 by the creators of the Academy Award-winning short film TREVOR, the Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning (LGBTQ) young people under 25. The Trevor Project offers accredited life-saving, life-affirming programs and services to LGBTQ youth that create safe, accepting and inclusive environments over the phone, online and through text.
DonateWhile not directly connected to
Harry Potter, the Trevor Project helps provide support to LGBTQ teens who are struggling. One of the prominent themes in the
Harry Potter series is to be open and accepting of everyone without judgment. J.K. Rowling has firmly come out to say that wizards don’t typically discriminate over sexual orientation or other lifestyle preferences and that Hogwarts was a fairly safe place for them. She also later revealed that she always thought of Albus Dumbledore, one of the greatest and most powerful wizards in the series, as gay. The
Harry Potter fandom has always tried to be a welcoming place for everyone and tends to have a fairly large LGBTQ community within it. It is important that resources like the one the Trevor Project supplies are around to continue to support struggling teens during difficult times.
In order for our efforts to reach as many people as possible, we have started the #ThankYouForTheMagic Birthday Campaign through a crowdfunding website called Daycause. The site allows participants to sign up to support our goal by committing to send out a tweet or Facebook post informing others of the fundraiser all at the same time on July 31. This will help us raise as much money as possible for these incredible charities so we can make J.K. Rowling and Harry’s birthday as magical as possible!
After you’ve made a donation, click the “Tweet” button below to share your support for the campaign. Even if you are unable to donate at this time, please commit to supporting our Daycause campaign in order to spread as much awareness for these charities as possible.
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