The Harry Potter Alliance to Change Its Name: Vote Now!

The Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) has been a long-standing community of volunteers comprising more than just Harry Potter fans. In the 15 years since the charity initiative was established, its members have carried out an incredible variety of actions to help people and to better the world. In light of its growth across fandoms, the HPA is now taking the step to change its name to something that reflects its true reach. And it needs your vote on just what that new name should be.

Since its beginnings, the HPA has “donated books, influenced legislation, trained thousands of leaders, and most importantly, become a community of friends and world-changers” through the power of stories. The group of volunteers has been so successful that it began working with other popular fandoms nearly ten years ago:

While Harry Potter has been our home base, we’ve been organizing outside of Harry Potter since 2012! Over the years, we’ve worked with fans of The Hunger Games, Star Wars, Marvel, Wonder Woman and so much more. Our Fandom Forward toolkits provide a brief window into those efforts, and we want to continue to grow that work because we believe that every story, every fandom has the power to change the world.

Rather than shying away from addressing the elephant in the fandom, the HPA has been very transparent about whether it is really the author’s controversial statements on transgender people or the treatment of people of color in her books that are the true reasons for this change.

These factors definitely weighed heavily in the decision, but also Wizard Activists have been talking about a name change since at least 2012.

The Alliance is not changing its entire profile, only its name, in order to accurately reflect the work it has been doing for many years anyway:

We’ll still do lots of Harry Potter-related actions — we’ll always love the [B]oy [W]ho [L]ived — but we will also be working with new organizers to mobilize fans across other stories we love. In order to do this work authentically and to be welcoming to all, the time has come: we’re changing our name.

And the Harry Potter Alliance needs your vote to figure out what the new name will be. This step comes after an earlier survey in January and after gathering input from members, donors, and partners. If you have a minute, go ahead and help out this wonderful organization with your vote on this online form. It only takes a few seconds to complete, and you can leave your email address to get notified about the new name when the decision has been made.

For more information on the (for the time being, so-called) Harry Potter Alliance, check out its official website, where you can also learn more about how to volunteer.