About Us

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The Giraffe Heroes Project moves people to stick their necks out for the common good, and gives them tools to succeed.

The world needs people who stick their necks out for the common good. The Giraffe Heroes Project has been a pioneer in finding and honoring such people. We call them “Giraffe Heroes.” They are men and women, young and old, from every ethnic and economic background, and they’re tackling every public problem you can think of, from environmental pollution to gang violence. Others see, hear or read these stories and are moved into action themselves, helping solve the public problems of most concern to them.

You can nominate a Giraffe Hero, and if our Board of Directors agrees with you, we’ll tell the world that hero's story

The Project's leaders write books, articles and blogs, and give speeches and workshops, offering people both the inspiration and the practical tools they need to meet the community and global challenges they care about.

Since 1991, the Project has also been developing and distributing classroom materials for character development, service learning, civic engagement, experiential learning and literacy. Giraffe curricula help young people build lives as courageous and compassionate citizens. Using the compelling stories of Giraffe Heroes and a unique coaching framework developed for a wide age-range, Giraffe programs have helped over half a million kids create and carry out their own initiatives to solve public problems of concern to them. In the process they learn critical academic and life skills, as well as how to be active and successful citizens in their communities and beyond. Much of the curricula is now available to teachers as free downloads on the Project’s website.

Giraffe Heroes International (GHI) is the Project’s fast growing global arm. At the end of 2019, GHI comprised nine independent affiliates in India, Nepal, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Singapore, South Africa and Argentina. In addition, in December of 2017, GHI launched Giraffe Heroes Europe, an ambitious expansion of the Giraffe Heroes movement to an entire continent. GHI has shut down its affiliate in Egypt because of threats by the military government there.

All GHI operations are modeled on the same activities that have worked so well for the US-based Project for over three decades—finding local and regional Giraffe Heroes and telling their stories—and getting their stories told—in both traditional and social media. These stories inspire others to stick their necks out too, helping solve the public problems that concern them most, including corruption, injustice, poverty, crimes against women, poor leadership, environmental degradation, tribal violence and much more.

The Project also has a large global audience online. From a base operation near Seattle WA, the Project reaches around the world, via its website at www.giraffe.org; its Facebook Page; its Heads Up e-zine, and its blogs and Op-Eds.

Descriptions of all the Project’s programs are at www.giraffe.org. And if you scroll down from the "About Us" header, you’ll find Giraffe FAQs, notes on our donors, our most recent 990, a history of the Project, our Privacy Policy, our latest Annual Report, descriptions of our Board and staff, and “25 Reasons to Support Us.”

Subscribe to Heads Up, our once-in-a-while-emails

You can be the first person on your block to know who the new Giraffe Heroes are. Just subscribe to Heads Up, our only-when-it-matters emails. The Giraffe Heroes Project is compliant with the new privacy rules established by the European Union. We invite you to check out our Privacy Policy here. We protect your data and we don’t sell or lend our subscribers’ addresses to anyone. Ever.

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