I met, and fell in love with, kids in need, kids who were falling through the cracks but who had so much potential.
As part of our series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Scott Fifer, Founder & CEO of GO Campaign.
A former US Senate aide, Wall Street attorney, and Hollywood screenwriter, Scott Fifer founded GO Campaign in 2006 to help 20 children in Tanzania and, since then, the organization has improved the lives of nearly 500,000 children across the globe. From East Africa to East L.A., he spearheaded a movement that strategically invests in community leaders working to open opportunities for vulnerable children. Scott is living proof that anyone can be a part of real, sustainable change. His selfless spirit has inspired thousands, connecting them directly to hundreds of projects in 40 countries.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I took a trip to Tanzania in 2005 that fundamentally changed my trajectory. I volunteered for a month at an orphanage in Kilimanjaro, and it was the most transformative experience of my life. When I returned to Los Angeles, I couldn’t stop thinking about those kids and knew I could do more to give them a better chance. They gave so much to me in that month — it was such a rewarding and heart-opening experience — I wanted to repay them. The original plan was just to help those 20 kids. I had no idea it would grow, take over my life, and lead to an entire career change.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
I don’t think there’s one most interesting story, but there are countless interesting moments that have made my life extraordinary. When I needed a place to stay in London to avoid spending money on a hotel, someone said, “You can stay with my friends,” and I found myself on the doorstep of actor Ewan McGregor, who made me feel completely at home. Yet the next day, I might find myself feeling equally comfortable in some of the world’s largest slums, interacting with kids who inspire me to keep growing the organization in new and exciting ways. I’ve waded through lowland marshes visiting marginalized communities, and I’ve fundraised for special needs children at the glacial top of Mount Kilimanjaro. This job has exposed me to a variety of people and places I never could have imagined.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I let a budding documentary filmmaker follow me around for a year as I first started fundraising and growing the organization. You can imagine how weird it felt to have cameras following me asking questions, and even weirder for the kids in Tanzania whom I’d just met. Then at some point, the filmmaker decided he needed the story to be more “juicy,” so he changed the narrative and tried to paint me as a failure. I soldiered on, and I just celebrated a 20-year reunion with those “kids” who are now adults and family to me. The organization has gone on to help nearly 450,000 children around the globe. The lesson: Don’t let anyone else control your narrative, and never let critics derail you from the mission.
Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?
We’ve found, and partnered with, incredible local heroes in 40 countries around the world, giving opportunities to children and young adults that continue to transform lives. From rehabilitating abandoned special needs children back into society in East Africa, to nurturing the education of foster youth in East Los Angeles, I’ve seen firsthand the powerful results that come when you take the time to support children in need.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
One of the first kids I met in 2005 in Tanzania was sleeping on the streets and probably wouldn’t have made it past elementary school. Today, he just graduated from a U.S. college with a degree in Mandarin, and has returned to Tanzania to work for a Taiwan-based media company. Watching him walk across that graduation stage was one of the proudest moments of my life. Another young person — a Kenyan orphan from an early project we supported — just graduated from medical school and is on his way to becoming a doctor in Nairobi. He grew up with nothing, and now he’ll save lives. I saw them both on my recent trip to East Africa and couldn’t be more proud. Both will pay it forward in ways I can’t even imagine yet.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
1) Community: Help raise awareness. Join our campaign to lift up these local heroes and cut through all the red tape. Help us raise awareness and funds for their critical work.
2) Society: There is so much division in our world, but we can all agree that children deserve the best chance at life. Let’s come together and focus our efforts on the next generation.
3) Politicians: Listen to people on the ground. Focus on grassroots leaders and organizers. They know best how to solve their problems. Get out of board rooms and legislative halls, and get into the streets, the churches, mosques, temples, and schools. Listen to the people who put you in office. That’s how we’re going to change the future for our children.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Leadership is holding an unwavering vision while remaining radically humble about how to achieve it. I knew GO Campaign needed to help vulnerable children, but I had to learn that the people on the ground — our Local Heroes — know their communities better than I ever will. Great leaders set the direction but empower others to determine the path. That’s why I’ve stayed in this role for 20 years: I’m not building an organization for me, I’m building a platform for hundreds of Local Heroes to do their best work.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
- Start with 20, not 200,000 — and that’s more than enough
When I founded GO Campaign in 2006, my only goal was helping 20 street children I met at an orphanage in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. I had this naive idea that real impact required massive scale immediately. I wish someone had told me that starting small isn’t just okay — it’s essential. Those 20 kids taught me everything about what works and what doesn’t. One of those original 20 — a kid who barely spoke English when I met him — is now working for a multinational company back in Tanzania. Nearly 20 years later, we’ve helped over 450,000 children across 40+ countries, but it all started because I committed fully to 20 kids in one village. The lesson: You don’t need to change the world on day one. Start by changing one community, or even one life. Scale comes from depth, not breadth. - Listen more than you talk — the communities know what they need better than you do
Coming from Wall Street law and Hollywood screenwriting, I thought I needed to arrive with all the answers. The turning point came when I shut up and started listening. Our “Local Hero” model emerged from this humility: we find dedicated leaders already embedded in their communities, and we ask them what they need, not tell them what we think they should want. A monk educating girls in Cambodia has different needs than an ex-con-turned-therapist helping juveniles in Watts. Both are experts in their communities. I’m just the connector bringing resources to their vision. The most effective aid comes from supporting existing solutions, not imposing external ones. - Leaving a successful career doesn’t mean starting from zero — your past prepares you in unexpected ways
When I left Hollywood screenwriting to start GO Campaign, people thought I was crazy. “What does a screenwriter know about running a nonprofit?” But storytelling turned out to be everything. My ability to craft compelling narratives helped attract donors, celebrity ambassadors like Robert Pattinson and Lily Collins, and media attention. My Wall Street legal background taught me due diligence and financial rigor. My Senate aide experience gave me an understanding of policy and how to navigate bureaucracy. None of it was wasted. Whatever you did before, those skills transfer in ways you won’t expect. Your unusual background might be your biggest advantage — it certainly was mine. - When crisis hits, throw out the rulebook and do what’s right
From 2006–2019, GO Campaign had a strict philosophy: we funded sustainable, long-term projects but never created dependency by paying for recurring needs like food or school fees. We “taught people to fish,” we didn’t “give them fish.” Then COVID-19 hit in 2020, and children from East LA to Mumbai were going hungry during lockdowns. I had to make a choice: stick to our principles or feed kids now. We pivoted immediately, funding emergency food relief, launching “Safe Zones” in Watts when LAUSD schools closed, meeting immediate needs. I wish someone had told me earlier that principles are important, but survival trumps everything. The best organizations know when to be flexible. We saved lives by breaking our own rules, and we’d do it again. - The right partnerships can do in one day what you’d spend years trying to build
For years, Jennifer Maddox — a CNN Hero and retired Chicago police officer — ran an after-school program for at-risk youth out of an apartment building basement, then worked the night shift at the police department. She dreamed of a real community center but couldn’t afford property on Chicago’s South Side. In 2020, the Beachbody Foundation donated $1 million to GO Campaign to buy an abandoned Walgreens next to violence-plagued Parkway Gardens for Jennifer’s organization, Future Ties. That single partnership accomplished what would have taken Jennifer 20+ years to achieve alone. I learned that sometimes the fastest path to massive impact isn’t grinding harder — it’s finding the right partner who shares your vision and has the resources to accelerate it. Never be too proud to ask for partnership. The children can’t wait for you to do it all yourself.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“I met, and fell in love with, kids in need, kids who were falling through the cracks but who had so much potential.” — My own words, but they’ve become my North Star This isn’t a famous quote from Gandhi or Mother Teresa — it’s what I wrote when reflecting on why I started GO Campaign. But it captures everything that matters in this work: falling in love with the kids. In 2005, I spent a month volunteering at that orphanage in Tanzania. Those 20 children weren’t statistics or causes — they were brilliant, funny, resilient human beings who deserved every opportunity I’d been given by accident of birth. Meeting them changed how I see the world. International aid is full of well-intentioned people, but it often falls short because it’s too abstract, too bureaucratic, too disconnected from actual children. That quote reminds me this isn’t about building an organization or raising millions. It’s about specific kids — the ones nobody else is helping but who have extraordinary potential. That’s why every GO Campaign grantee is someone I’ve met, whose eyes I’ve looked into, whose story I know. That’s why we go back to Tanzania, to Watts, to Cambodia, to Chicago — not just to sign grant agreements, but to stay connected to the human beings behind the mission. When you love the work that deeply, you find a way. You leave Wall Street. You leave Hollywood. You start a nonprofit with no experience. Because once you fall in love with kids who need you, nothing else matters quite as much.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
I’d like to meet with MacKenzie Scott. She’s arguably the most effective philanthropist of our time, and I believe we have similar philosophies. I’d want to discuss her trust-based philanthropy model and how GO Campaign could scale our Local Hero approach with that level of resourcing. I believe we’re already doing what she values — funding grassroots leaders with minimal bureaucracy — we just need to do it at 10x the scale. She could make me even better at my job, and I think hundreds of thousands, even millions of children, would benefit from a brainstorming session between me and Ms. Scott.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I’d inspire every American worker to give just $1 monthly to grassroots organizations like GO Campaign. That’s $1.8 billion annually — enough to transform millions of children’s lives by funding the local heroes already doing the work. One dollar. That’s less than a cup of coffee, but collectively, it could change the world.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
They can visit our website at www.gocampaign.org, and find us on Instagram (@gocampaign), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/theGOCampaign/), and YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/gocampaign).
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Social Impact Heroes: Scott Fifer Of GO Campaign was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.