



Clint Borgen is one of the leading figures in efforts to bring U.S. political
attention to severe poverty. The president of the Borgen Project has quickly
built the organization into a major political force for humanitarian issues and
mobilized people around the world to join the strategic drive to hold political
leaders accountable for poverty.
Borgen's introduction to relief work began as a 21-year-old volunteer in the
Kosovo refugee camps during the Kosovo War and ethnic cleansing. In a
region where 900,000 people were forced to flee for their lives and 10,000
people were systematically killed, Borgen realized how little effort is needed to
improve life for thousands of people, but was deeply disappointed to realize
how little is typically done.
The former firefighter went on to intern at the United Nations in Europe and
after traveling extensively published Geneva Nights before graduating from
college. With increasing visibility, Borgen was soon appearing as a foreign
policy expert on radio talk shows throughout North America.
Bothered by the growing lack of attention from U.S. leadership on
humanitarian issues, Borgen started developing an organization capable of
generating political pressure. However, just out of college and needing startup
funding, the organization almost never came to be. In a last effort move that
has become symbolic of the organization's focused and ambitious persona,
Borgen hopped a plane for the quick cash of Alaska's Bering Sea.
Living on a fishing vessel docked in the Aleutian Islands, Borgen developed
and launched the organization from a make-shift office on the boat's kitchen
table. It was from this humble beginning in one of the most treacherous
oceans on earth that the Borgen Project was born and grew into a global
campaign aimed at getting poverty on the agenda of Congress and the White
House.








