About
All Hands and Hearts (legally All Hands and Hearts Smart Response Inc.) is a volunteer-powered disaster relief organization headquartered in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts. It helps communities recover after natural disasters, with a particular focus on getting children back into safe schools, and has worked alongside communities in 32 countries.
Mission
The organization states that "All Hands & Hearts helps communities recover after disasters and gets children back in school." It emphasizes that the people living their recovery should lead it, tailoring each program to the community's own culture and priorities rather than applying one-size-fits-all solutions.
History
All Hands and Hearts traces its roots to two responses to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Entrepreneur David Campbell traveled to help after the tsunami and, following further work after Hurricane Katrina, established All Hands Volunteers to mobilize volunteers for immediate and long-term recovery (the organization's IRS tax-exemption ruling dates to 2005). Supermodel Petra Nemcova, who survived the tsunami in Thailand with severe injuries, founded the Happy Hearts Fund to rebuild safe, resilient schools in disaster-affected areas. In 2017 the two organizations merged to form All Hands and Hearts, combining rapid volunteer response with long-term school rebuilding.
What they do
- Emergency response after floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and wildfires, including debris clearing, damage repair and distribution of emergency supplies.
- Recovery and resilience programs that repair and rebuild homes, schools and community infrastructure to safer, more disaster-resilient standards.
- Education programming centered on rebuilding safe schools so children can return to the classroom.
- Recent and active programs include Nepal flood relief, Colombia earthquake relief, Texas flood relief, North Carolina Hurricane Helene relief, California wildfire relief and Ukraine crisis relief.
Scale and impact
Figures published by the organization include more than 276,000 homes supported after disaster, more than 125,000 children returned to safe classrooms, 380 schools supported worldwide, more than 1.5 million lives directly impacted, and community partnerships in 32 countries.
Financials
According to ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, for the fiscal year ending August 2025 All Hands and Hearts Smart Response reported total revenue of 16,288,362 dollars (97.5 percent from contributions), total expenses of 13,406,255 dollars, and net assets of 7,975,228 dollars.
Governance
All Hands and Hearts Smart Response Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit (EIN 20-3414952) headquartered in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts.
