About Us

The Genocide Intervention Network empowers individuals and communities with the tools to prevent and stop genocide. Our members envision a world in which the global community is willing and able to protect civilians from genocide and mass atrocities. As part of the anti-genocide movement, we raise both money and political will for civilian protection initiatives around the world.

If you are a member of the news media, be sure to visit the Genocide Intervention Network press room.

Read more about our background, see our list of endorsers or contact our staff and representatives.

For information on the civilian protection initiatives that the Genocide Intervention Network funds, visit our fundraising section.

GI-Net History

Genocide Intervention Network (originally the Genocide Intervention Fund) was created by students at Swarthmore College in the fall of 2004 to give concerned Americans the opportunity to help protect civilians from genocide. GI-Net's founders believed that private contributions in support of peacekeepers in Darfur, Sudan, the site of the twenty-first century's first genocide, could protect civilians and inspire policymakers to take action. With the help of high-profile endorsers, GI-Net established a program in collaboration with the African Union, which leads the only peacekeeping force currently in Darfur. GI-Net's landmark program allows average Americans to have a direct impact on the ground by helping to fund civilian protection — specifically, to protect women and girls in refugee camps in North Darfur. In the long term, we believe empowering individuals to stand against genocide will build the political will necessary for the international community to recognize its responsibility to protect the victims of genocide and mass atrocities.

Fundraising for Civilian Protection

To date, the Genocide Intervention Network has raised $500,000 from individual private donations for civilian protection in Darfur; more than half of every donation we receive goes directly to civilian protection in Darfur. Coupled with targeted advocacy campaigns — in which members demonstrated their personal commitment to the cause by explaining how much money had been raised by the legislator's own constituents — GI-Net members helped pass the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act in 2006, and advocated for an increase of $50 million in funding for the African Union peacekeepers. Also in 2006, GI-Net exposed a paid lobbyist working for the government of Sudan in Washington, and with overwhelming pressure from our members, he was forced to step down.

To learn more about our organization, visit our background page.

Projects & Campaigns

STAND, a nationwide, student-led division of the Genocide Intervention Network, mobilizes high school and college-age young adults through more than 800 campus chapters. Formed out of the rapidly-growing student movement to protect Darfur, STAND works to unify this anti-genocide movement under one message by providing students with informational, educational and organizing resources, empowering them through an extensive network of impassioned student activists and advocating for a change in the world's mentality towards genocide. In 2006, as part of its "Time to Protect" campaign, STAND students raised more than $100,000 for civilian protection in Darfur. In 2007, STAND activists dramatized the link between China's economic and diplomatic support of Sudan and the Darfur genocide by forming a human chain spanning 12 blocks in New York City, and calling on the state of New York to "break the chain" and divest from Sudan.

Our targeted divestment campaign coordinates grassroots activism and lobbying to divest funds from the most egregious, worst-offending companies without doing harm to innocent Sudanese civilians. Since the Sudan divestment movement began in April 2005, dozens of states, cities and universities — and numerous companies and individuals — have placed restrictions on their Sudan-linked investments. California, the first US state to adopt the Genocide Intervention Network's targeted divestment model, is home to the two largest public pension systems in the country. Currently, GI-Net is overseeing active campaigns in dozens of universities, cities, states and countries across North America and Europe.

Without the political will, policymakers will never take the actions needed to stop genocide. Our toll-free hotline provides members of the growing anti-genocide constituency an easy way to contact their elected officials. Without being put on hold or having to look up the number, callers have the option of being connected directly with their members of Congress, governor or the president. Before being connected to the relevant office, callers hear an up-to-date briefing about the specific actions elected officials must take to stop genocide. Since launching in February 2007, the hotline as generated hundreds of calls as part of campaigns targeting a particular state or district.

Our widely-used congressional scorecard on Darfur grades each member of Congress on his or her record on ending the Darfur genocide. The Darfur scorecard empowers citizens with the tools and knowledge to more effectively pressure their elected officials to transform "Never Again" from a promise we make into a commitment we keep.