J.K. Rowling’s charitable organization for children in institutional care is Lumos.
Rowling founded Lumos in 2005 under its original name, the Children’s High Level Group. The organization works to end the institutionalization of children and promote family-based or community-based care. It later adopted the name Lumos, inspired by the light-producing spell in the Harry Potter books.
The charity’s work focuses on systems in which children may be separated from families and placed in residential institutions. Lumos argues that children generally develop better when they receive support in families or appropriate community settings rather than growing up in large institutions.
Lumos is distinct from Rowling’s literary publishing work and from other British charities with broad child-welfare missions. Its name is especially recognizable to Harry Potter readers, but the organization’s programs address real-world child-protection and social-care systems.