LeakyCon 2011

LeakyCon is a charity conference thrown by the staff of The Leaky Cauldron, the web's online destination for Harry Potter fans. LeakyCon focuses on community and spirit, and fostering unity within our fandom. Our first conference took place in Boston in 2009, and was an incredible success that has allowed us to donate several thousand dollars to worthwhile causes. Leaky, in association with LeakyCon and its yearly charity album, Jingle Spells, has donated more than $20,000 to non-profits in the past two years. We hope to use LeakyCon 2011 to render that figure miniscule.

Check back soon for full bios on the people bringing you LeakyCon 2011!

LeakyCon 2011 will benefit two charities: The Harry Potter Alliance and Book Aid International.

Both organizations are close to our heart and have done phenomenal work in the areas of literacy and community action.

The Harry Potter Alliance has worked for the past four years to motivate and inspire youth around the world to get involved in various social issues that face the world today. From the struggle for universal equal rights to alerting the world to the dangers of global warming, poverty, and genocide, the Harry Potter Alliance has been a champion of grassroots, community activism in response to these vast issues. Their successes include raising funds for the protection of thousands of women and children in Darfur and Burma and collecting and donating thousands of books for a youth village in Rwanda. In early 2010, efforts by the Harry Potter Alliance and a network of related fandom communities raised more thean $123,000 for the Haitian people through Partners in Health. This past July, the HP Alliance was awarded $250,000 through the Chase Community Giving Challenge on Facebook. The HPA entered the four-week contest which looked for the most promising local charities from across the globe, and won the challenge with 38,000 votes. Through the winnings, the HPA will be able to improve literacy, LGBT rights, and build an online coalition of fandoms, YouTubes, and organizations.

More about the Harry Potter Alliance can be found on their official website.

Book Aid International is a long standing global charity dedicated to promoting literacy for disadvantaged peoples in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since 1956, their work has centered on fostering access for families and communities to life-chaging objects — books. By developing libraries, they work to provide aid to the 153 million functionally illiterate adults in Sub-Saharan Africa. Their efforts have made it possible for hundreds of thousands of books to be donated to the region, providing access to knowledge for millions. Leaky has supported several of the worth-while endeavors of this organization for several years, and we are proud to continue this tradition.

More information can be found on the Book Aid International website.