260 million children around the world do not go to school.

If nothing changes by 2030, more than half of the world’s children won’t have the basic skills to get an entry-level job or participate in society.

Theirworld, a global children’s charity, is committed to ending the global education crisis and believes education is a human right. It's a unique organization which uses advocacy, campaigning and partnerships to mobilize support for global education funding partners; helping to raise money so it can be spread to initiatives where it’s needed most.

Our campaign objective was to drive awareness of the education crisis during the UN General Assembly to support the mobilization of the political and financial resources needed. Specifically, on behalf of Theirworld, we wanted to call on donor countries to commit to two funding vehicles:

Education Cannot Wait (ECW)

International Finance Facility for Education

To get the attention of world leaders, we brought THE INFINITY CLASSROOM to them at the United Nations 74th General Assembly in NY, the most important stage in the world. Leaders would be in session discussing priorities and making financial commitments to world issues.

We knew we needed something that would drive home the gravity of the situation and represent the incredible number of children at risk - but achievable in a small space due to the confines of activations at the UN. A space big enough for a classroom.

We built THE INFINITY CLASSROOM - a 10’ X 10’ X 15’ room on the main UN plaza, filled it with empty desks, and covered the walls with mirrors. This created the effect of nearly infinite rows of desks.

This visually depicted what the number of unenrolled children looks like and left viewers with a powerful story to share.

The United Nations General Assembly was the perfect place to target a very specific group:

-Heads of Government (President/Prime Ministers of any country attending the General Assembly with voting power)

-Finance & Education Ministers (Senior officials from individual countries who impact how their country allocates funds)

These are figureheads that make up the 193 Member States, who all have one vote to designate on numerous actions, including budgetary questions.

This exclusive audience is a tough one to target. Reaching them prior to the event is not easy, and we had to keep in mind that when world leaders are present at the General Assembly, they are debating and voting on a number of significant global topics, education being only one of them.

We needed something that would be attention-grabbing and relevant to a globally diverse audience, coming from many different cultural backgrounds and speaking various languages.

The Infinity Classroom ran on the United Nations main outdoor plaza from September 22 to October 5 during the United Nations 74th General Assembly in NYC. It was amplified by billboards in Time Square and made into an online video for a wider reach. To increase scalability, the structure was purposefully designed to allow travel to other world stages such as Davos and other events at the World Bank.

We drove awareness of the education crisis during the UN General Assembly to support the mobilization of political and financial resources. In total, during the week $2.3 billion was committed to education, making it the single largest mobilization for education in one day. Specifically, on behalf of Theirworld, we had donor countries commit to two funding vehicles:

$200M for Education Cannot Wait (ECW)- which serves children in conflict and emergency services

$600M for International Finance Facility for Education (IFFEd) - who leverages billions in new financing for education in countries around the globe

See attached reference image for breakdown of the investment pledged by country.

Theirworld mobilized several million dollars in grants to support refugee education in Greece; funding was disbursed through partners to support education in Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, and Syria. And since the funding was mobilized, ECW funds are being used to support Mali and Niger.