As Peace First’s CEO emeritus and Co-Founder Eric Dawson begins his next chapter and gives way for new leaders to shepherd the organization into its next phase, we have built a fund in Eric’s name that honors his commitment to young people’s leadership and helps ensure Peace First is financially secure as a post-founder organization. There is perhaps no more meaningful way to honor Eric’s deep commitment to Peace First and his strongly held belief in the power of young people than to help set up the next executive leaders for success. Our goal is to raise $1,000,000 through the Founders’ Fund.

Eric recognized that for Peace First to realize its global, youth-led potential, new leadership representing diverse perspectives was required and he made the decision to step down from Peace First in June 2022. After a months-long search, led by Peace First’s Board of Directors Isaac Cudjoe was selected as the Co-CEO- of Storytelling and Fundraising, and Xochilt Exue Hernandez Leiva was selected as the Co-CEO of Program and Technology. Isaac and Xochilt surfaced from hundreds of applicants as strong individual candidates, but it is their chemistry together that gave the Peace First Search Committee and Board of Directors the confidence and faith in their ability to lead Peace First.

Peace First's Impact to Date:

Since 2017, Peace First has undertaken a deliberate strategy to accelerate our reach and impact across the globe:

• More than 26,000 individuals have joined our online community.

• Over 11,719 projects have been launched in 164 countries.

• 1,000 mini-grants were distributed in FY2021 alone.

• 2,068 projects have received support directly from Peace First. 46+ projects have been further accelerated and received second-stage grants and additional training.

• Over 1.5 million individuals have been impacted by youth-led projects worldwide.

As a result, Peace First is able to serve young people better and faster. Our community is more accessible than it ever has been before:

• Our board is made up of 50% young people.
• We have seven youth fellows on staff working across six regions.
• 73% of the young people in the Peace First community have lived experience with the specific injustice they are solving.

• 90% of our projects are not in English. Arabic, Spanish, Hindi, and French are the most common non-English languages.
• 82% of our community faces significant barriers, including economic challenges, violence, and housing insecurity, for whom our resources are transformative.