PLAYING FOR CHANGE FOUNDATION
Music: the heartbeat of social change
Playing For Change Foundation believes music and culture serve as the most powerful resource to bring communities together and solve the world’s greatest challenges.
Founded in 2007, PFCF was established to create positive change through music and arts education. Our work engages marginalized youth in diverse communities around the world, primarily located in low and lower-middle income countries. These communities are home to great cultural wealth, which we use to create educational and social opportunities. Â
Local Leadership
Social Impact
Transparency
Our Model is simple
Listen to the Community
Create cross-sectional opportunities through music and arts. Identify challenges affecting our locations. Position our local leaders with the resources they need to drive sustainable and lasting change.
Define new normals.
Define new futures.
Countries & territories
Partner organizations
Hours of Music Instruction Annually
Weekly students
Staff & collaborators
Program investement in the last 2 years
The team
Our team spans over 20 different countries and includes teachers and admins on the ground, staff and board members in the USA and around the world.
Our programs are organized to combat systematic social and economic disparity. Across many communities, our programming serves as the only access point to cultural and creative educational activities. We identify strong local leaders and empower them with the resources and strategies to drive positive change in their communities.
Music brings joy to children and allows them to express themselves creatively and emotionally, fostering empathy, cultural understanding, and emotional intelligence—ultimately helping to build a more compassionate and harmonious world.
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The diversity of challenges and the solutions brought forward reflect the diversity of the communities we serve across 5 continents. Here are a few snapshots of our impact globally:
In Jordan, Syrian refugee youth in the Zaatari Refugee Camp suffer trauma from war and displacement from their homes. Our program allows healing through music and our music studio provides a vital outlet for creative expression.
In Brazil, our team rapidly mobilized emergency relief efforts after the deadly floods in 2024 that displaced over 1,000,000 people. We procured more than $3,500,000 in donations and health supplies that reached 250,000 of the most vulnerable victims of the flood.
In Nepal, brick by brick we helped build a school that ensures girls have equal access to education and fights caste discrimination within classrooms. Our school has a 100% graduation rate, the only school in the Udayapur region to boast this success.
Stories like these can be found at each of our programs around the world. Please visit the Programs page to dive deeper on each location, and visit the Impact page for more stories of positive change.
OUR PARTNERS AND COLLABORATORS
VIDEO OVERVIEW
HOW IT ALL STARTED…
The idea of Playing for Change began two decades ago, as Grammy-winning music producer and engineer Mark Johnson decided to “take the studio to the streets” and started the production of a global version of the song Stand By Me, using a mobile recording studio and a simple camera set up. Mark received the support of producer and philanthropist Whitney Kroenke and together they founded the Playing For Change movement in order to connect, inspire and change the world through music.
In November 2008, the video of Stand By Me around the world was posted on Youtube and went viral in a just few days. In 2009, the second PFC documentary, Peace Through Music, was premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Since then Playing For Change has produced hundreds of music videos and inspired millions of people around the world through the power of music. The Playing For Change Band, a tangible, traveling representation of our mission, featuring musicians from different continents, has been playing over 400 concerts in more than 25 countries over the last decade.
Playing for Change has reached 2 Billion views on Youtube, covering classic songs and creating original songs, featuring world class artists and shining a light on talented unknown musicians.
Here are some of the artist that have been performing on Playing For Change videos: Keith Richards, Ringo Starr, Bono, Manu Chao, Jack Johnson, Tom Morello, Sara Bareilles, Robbie Robertson, Cats Stevens, Ben Harper,Toots Hibbert, Stephen Marley, Bunny Wailer, Buddy Guy, Keb’ Mo’, Ernest Ranglin, David Crosby, Dr. John, Lila Downs, Toto la Momposina, Manuel Galbán, The Doobie Brothers, Toumani DiabatĂ©, Tinariwen, Warren Haynes, James Gadson, John Densmore among many more…