J.K. Rowling’s charity Lumos began in 2005.
The organization was originally established as the Children’s High Level Group, following concerns about children living in institutions and orphanages. Rowling became involved after reading a newspaper article describing children in residential care, including images of children confined in cots. The charity later adopted the name Lumos, taken from the light-producing spell in the Harry Potter books.
Lumos works to end the institutionalization of children and to support family- and community-based care. Its programs have operated in countries including the Czech Republic, Moldova, Bulgaria and Ukraine, with an emphasis on helping children move into safer family settings and improving child-protection systems.
The charity’s name is sometimes mistaken for a Harry Potter organization, but it is a real-world nonprofit. Rowling’s connection is as founder and major supporter, while the group’s work concerns children’s welfare rather than fiction publishing.