HPA Celebrates End of an Era with Harry Potter Generation
Brings fans together to make real change with the series that has impacted millions


Boston, MA – The Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) and its members have been busy with its largest undertaking ever over the past nine months: the Deathly Hallows Campaign. The organization tackled seven horcruxes, or real world evils, each with various successes. The campaign brought thousands of members of the Harry Potter Generation together to make real changes in our world inspired by the novels they love.

On June 12, our seventh and final horcrux was announced. Poised to trigger wars over water, genocides around refugees, poverty, disease, drowning of entire nations, and the death of millions through increasingly brutal “natural” disasters, the Climate Crisis is a human rights issue that simply cannot be ignored. Together, HPA members will work together with Splashlife, a cutting edge online community for young people, by submitting art and ideas that can help change the Climate Crisis for good.

Many of our campaigns have continued past their original time span. Not In Harry’s Name, our first DHC campaign, is still going strong and discussions with the Warner Bros. CEO Barry Meyer continue. Additionally, our partnership with Dear Mr. Potter: Letters of Love, Loss, and Magic has been an enormous success. As of the end of the preorder period on July 30, nearly 3000 Dear Mr. Potter books had been sold, raising thousands of dollars for the HPA.

“The Deathly Hallows Campaign which started with the release of Deathly Hallows Part One and will end with the release of Deathly Hallows Part II is a cap to an amazing 6 years of the Harry Potter Alliance sending five cargo planes to Haiti, winning the Chase Community Challenge, working against genocide, and more,” said HPA Executive Director Andrew Slack. “We are witnessing the Harry Potter Generation, which grew up on a book series, applying the message of that series toward changing the world. We will convince Warner Bros. to no longer use child slavery in the production of Harry Potter chocolate.”

The HPA is partnering with Splashlife by running two concurrent competitions, one for art and one for ideas, demonstrating how young people can fight the Climate Crisis. The deadline to submit an entry to the contest is July 20 at 11:59 p.m. and voting ends on July 30 at 11:50 p.m.

Winning entries will be reviewed by our Advisory Panel of prominent public figures:

* Jason Alexander, actor best known for his role on Seinfeld;
* Evanna Lynch, Harry Potter actress;
* Bill McKibben, hailed by the Boston Globe and Time Magazine as the most important environmentalist in the US;
* Christina Lurie, the co-owner of the Philadelphia Eagles who has announced a major initiative to green Lincoln Financial Field;
* Melissa Anelli, best selling author of Harry, A History;
* Ray Cooper, former president of Virgin Records America;
* Andrew Slack, writer/comedian and creator, co-founder, and Executive Director of the Harry Potter Alliance and Imagine Better;
* Jamie Catto, critically acclaimed filmmaker, musician, and social media innovator;
* Jonathan Prince, Television producer;
* John Green, best selling young adult author and famous YouTube vlogger;
* Hank Green, Head of Ecogeek, co-owner of DFTBA Records, and famous YouTube vlogger;
* Harry and the Potters, indie wizard rock punk sensations;
* The Whomping Willows, prominent Wizard Rock band;
* Shawn Ahmed, prominent YouTube celebrity and youth organizer;
* Alan Lustufka, co-owner of the online YouTube based record label, DFTBA Records; and
* Dan Brown, prominent YouTube celebrity.


The Harry Potter Generation expresses itself in many forms. One way is through the highly successful Dear Mr. Potter: Letters of Love, Loss, and Magic, organized by 16 year old Lily Zalon. The book is a collection of letters and artwork from fans of the Harry Potter series. All sales of the book are benefiting the HPA. All preorders are eligible to win an autographed copy of Dear Mr. Potter by actor Rupert Grint, who portrays Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter films. Also included in the book are letters from Harry Potter actress Evanna Lynch, best-selling authors Melissa Anelli and John Green, and fans from across the world. The books will be available for purchase at the upcoming Orlando-based convention LeakyCon and online through the HPA.

Additionally, the Harry Potter Generation wants to see that it’s favorite characters are being utilized in ways in line with the themes of the series. As a result, for nine months the HPA has been working to make all Harry Potter chocolate Fair Trade through its campaign Not in Harry’s Name. Recently, this campaign made great strides when Luna Lovegood actress Evanna Lynch added her signature to the organization's petition to Time Warner, the parent company of Warner Bros., which produces the Potter films. In addition, U.S. State Department Ambassador Luis CdeBaca offered his support of the campaign. Warner Bros. CEO Barry Meyer has responded to the campaign stating, "We welcome any specific information you have that would be contrary to our ethical sourcing activities." The HPA is currently working with the corporation on this issue and hopes to see the change made in the near future.

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The HP Alliance (www.thehpalliance.org) is a 501c3 nonprofit that uses parallels from Harry Potter to inspire hundreds of thousands of Harry Potter fans to act as heroes in our world. To date, the HPA has sent five cargo planes to Haiti, donated over 88,000 books across the world, made profound strides for the anti-genocide, LGBTQ, and media reform movements. With a staff of over 50 volunteers, 85 chapters, and with the Internet/social media as “it’s turf” the HPA won the $250,000 first place in the Chase Bank Community Giving Contest.

Covered by many major publications and praised by JK Rowling in the Time Magazine article that named her “Runner up to Person of the Year,” the HPA has been named the premier model of civic engagement for the twenty-first century by USC’s Provost Professor Henry Jenkins in a MacArthur funded study on participatory culture and civic engagement. The HPA is currently expanding it’s model of “cultural acupuncture” as it brings together over 20 fan communities of blockbuster books, television shows, and movies, the world’s most prominent YouTube celebrities and New York Times best selling authors in an unprecedented network that takes a bottom up approach to harnessing the energy of popular culture, modern myth, and social media for social change.