Darell Hammond

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, KaBOOM!
Movement: Community-Built Play Spaces

In August 1995, Darell Hammond noticed a small item in the Washington Post—two children in southeast Washington, DC had suffocated while playing in an abandoned car. Determined to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening in America again, Darell began a national campaign to support the right of every child in America to have safe, accessible places to play. As a result, he founded KaBOOM! to address the need for leveraging partnerships between local communities and corporations to organize, raise a portion of funds, and volunteer time to build playgrounds. Studies show that kids who play do better in school, are healthier and more confident, and have better social skills. KaBOOM! has used this information to help communities build over 1,700 new playgrounds and improve even more existing playgrounds, providing more than a million at-risk children with a chance to explore creatively in a challenging, safe, play space. Darell points out that a community-built playground promotes collaboration among private citizens and business leaders and empowers the community to initiate further work, thus serving as a movement-building tool. He brings the spirit of community into all of his efforts to ensure that no child will ever feel unwanted, unappreciated, or unloved. “When we build a playground in a community, the community turns around and thanks us, but when a community does a build they turn around and thank each other.”

Darell takes great pride in his staff, as well as the corporate partners he has mobilized, the communities he has inspired, and the thousands of kids who now have fun, safe places to play. Darell’s work on behalf of KaBOOM! has led to extensive national recognition for the organization. Darell and KaBOOM! have been profiled in People, Washingtonian, Fortune, Fast Company, and Worth magazines, The Non-Profit Times, the Chronicle on Philanthropy, and Crain’s Chicago Business.  Darell has also received the President’s Volunteer Service Award, the Jefferson Award for the Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, and NYU Stern’s Satter Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award. In addition to his work with KaBOOM!, Darell has served on the Board of Directors of Independent Sector and Hands on Network and in 2003 was elected as an Ashoka Fellow for being a leader in social entrepreneurship.

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