Our Story

At the turn of the century, in 1998-2000, Donna Goodman had developed a series of hands-on learning lessons and teacher training program entitled Mother Earth and me. Ann Smith, who at the time was Executive Director of a 40 year old UN associated NGO by the name of Global Education Associate (GEA), had a Japanese intern who wanted to start and Earth Child program for focus on young children and the Board of Directors decided to move in this direction. When Donna and Ann got together through the Millionth Circle movement and learned about one another’s work, Ann invited Donna to join GEA to transform Mother Earth and me into her newly formed Earth Child program and to serve as a United Nations representative on behalf of GEA, which was the beginning of the beginning.  In 2001, the GEA Board changed priorities and voted against continuing programs for children and then Earth Child was homeless, at which Donna decided to incorporate Earth Child into an institute dedicated to working for and with the children of the world in December 2002.

As a result of a wonderful opportunity in 2003 for Donna personally to join UNICEF’s partnership between Adolescent Participation and Development and Water and Sanitation to develop the first interactive online game for Water and Sanitation, which came to be titled Water Alert! which led to recruitment of Donna to a position as Program Advisor, Water, Environment and Sanitation for many years to come. Meanwhile, Ann had retired from GEA and was living in Florida and developed a partnership with the Girl Scouts to partner with Earth Child Institute. She led programs and led a Board of Directors in Florida.  Meanwhile, in 2005, the United States Internal Revenue Service, approved 501(c) status to Earth Child Institute and the ball was rolling.

In 2010, after separating from UNICEF,  Donna took the lead, establishing an Earth Child Institute office in 777 United Nations Plaza, partnered with NYU’s Masters Program on Environmental Education and SUNY New Paltz, to attract interns and young professionals to the team, while applying for UN accreditation, first with the Department of Public Information in 2011 and the Economic and Social Council in 2012.

Earth Child Institute was accredited as a Civil Society Observer to the UNFCCC shortly after. As UNICEF, UNFCCC and other UN and private sector partners, such as the United Nations Federal Credit Union (UNFCU) who supported the Global Action Classroom for a number of years, Turner Broadcasting's Cartoon Network for development of public service spots, and Swarovski who invited ECI to be its implementing partner of the Swarovski Waterschool in the Amazon region of Brazil, along with others. These collaborative consultancies related to environmental education, child participation, water, sanitation, climate change and disaster risk reduction, ECI began to stand on its own with a strong voice for children and creating a platform for the voices of children themselves from more than 100 countries over 23 years.  

Today, Earth Child Institute is led worldwide by young people themselves, as you can see in our leadership profiles, the next generation in USA, Brazil, Ghana and Costa Rica are leading the next chapter which we hope will be with you, helping us toward a sustainable future for all.