All Hands and Hearts has completed 149 programs across 26 countries. It was founded because one story made a distant disaster personal.
When It Became Personal
David Campbell was a technology executive with decades of business management experience and a vast network in Silicon Valley. After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, a friend mentioned he had dined on a hotel patio just one week before the wave hit. Everyone on that patio was killed. That remark turned a distant tragedy into something immediate.
Campbell flew to Thailand packed with supplies and used his business network to recruit volunteers and raise funds. He co-founded HandsOnThailand.org, which brought over 200 volunteers and hundreds of thousands of dollars to rebuild five Phuket fishing villages.
Volunteers Without Bureaucracy
The experience showed Campbell that willing volunteers and donated resources could accomplish remarkable things when freed from excessive process. In 2005, he launched All Hands Volunteers (later renamed All Hands and Hearts) with a core principle: deploy volunteers to disaster zones with minimal bureaucracy.
Twenty Years of Rebuilding
Today, the organization's volunteer community exceeds 70,000. Over 20 years, it has provided relief to over 1.4 million people through programs in 26 countries. Current operations include hurricane relief in Florida, recovery work in Jamaica, wildfire response in Los Angeles, and school rebuilding in the Philippines.
Learn more on our All Hands and Hearts page.
