21st Century Leaders Overview

Founded in 2003, when Charlottedi Vita MBE was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador to the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, 21st Century Leaders leverages the support of its celebrity patrons to raise funds through high profile celebrity product design and sales, in addition to event partnerships with other charities worldwide.

21st Century Leaders’ mission is to assist and encourage a generation of influencers – Royalty, Nobel peace prize laureates, and well-known leaders in the fields of film, music, fashion, art, sport and literature etc - to raise awareness and funds for international development causes, thereby leading the way in promoting positive environmental and sustainable human development solutions.

You may be interested to see the Interviews with Joseph Fiennes and Ewan McGregor from when Charlotte first started this project. Their early encouragement made a huge difference to engaging our 21st Century Leaders, which now include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sir Bob Geldof, Sir Ben Kingsley, Sir Roger Moore, George Clooney, Nicole Kidman, Danny Boyle, David Bowie and Coldplay - to name just a few - and the campaign has grown to include contributions from over 750 Leaderswhich have enabled us to raise funds for multiple charitableprojects. For a full list of the leadersplease click here.

Another short film you might like to see is this 9-minute mini-documentary featuring Minnie Driver, which was aired on UK television. The film is great fun and really brings the project to life, explaining what we’ve accomplished.

For full information on 21st Century Leaders’ achievements and current activity, please see

The 21st Century Leaders Awards

The 21st Century Leaders Awards are designed tohonour individuals who exemplify the power of one person to effect positive change. The inaugural award ceremony was held in Doha on 30th October 2009.

The event was a significant success and the next awards are planned to take place Dubai in 2017 and thereafter twice a year on Vamizi Island, Cabo Delgado, Northern Mozambique.

You may be interested to see this mini-documentary,which chronicles the 21st Century Leaders Awards and Art Exhibition in Doha. The 2009 awardees were Sir Ben Kingsley CBE, Josh Hartnett, Venus and Serena Williams, Danny Boyle and Christian Colson,and Monica Yunus.At the ceremonyHESheikhaHanadi Bint Nasser BinKhaled AlThani awarded three women from the region with 21st Century Leader Unsung Hero Awards.

The inaugural launch event received a significant amount of press coverage, which can be seen here: Doha 21st Century Leaders Awards Press Book

For further information on the content of the event, please see

Whatever It Takes Celebrity Merchandise “Merchandise with Meaning”

The first level of engagement for our leaders is to design and donate their own unique symbol of hope for the 21st century, a simple self-portrait and signed message of hope. This has enabled 21st Century Leaders to launch a unique cause-related artwork campaign,Whatever It Takes.

The celebrity artworks are featured on socially and environmentally responsible Whatever It Takes products.

Whatever It Takes is a unique artwork project because the artwork of our celebrity leaders is used to create products as varied as tableware, apparel, bags, jewellery, watches, stationery, phone and computer accessories etc. These products are sold worldwide, raising royalty revenue for charitable projects, whilst creating employment opportunities in poor communities. Whatever It Takes‘ existing distribution network covers 40 industrialised markets and 105 retail clients, selling products in over 4,600stores, includingMacy's Backstage, Park Hyatt, Century 21, Hot Topic, Bealls, Virgin Megastores, Meijer, Priceline, Waitrose, WH Smith and Carrefouramongst others.

Whatever It Takes has so far raised over $11.8millionin royalties from the sale of Whatever It Takes products, to tackle poverty alleviation and to protect our environment, whilst also providing production opportunities in 7 countries in which Whatever It Takes encourages social and environmental improvements in numerous factories engaged by our licensees.These production facilities are based in: China, Taiwan, Japan, UAE, Italy, Russia and USA

To learn more about the Whatever It Takes campaign and our achievements so far,please take a look through our website

All Whatever It Takes celebrity merchandise is produced under ethical working conditions and all materials and methods of manufacture are as environmentally sustainable as possible. 21st Century Leaders takes its core understanding of good labour standards from The International Labour Organisation and uses The Ethical Trading Initiative’s Base Code as a tool to assess standards of working conditions. The Whatever It Takesprogramme works with the most respected auditing bodies in the world to help our manufacturing partners build up to and improve on the ETI Base Code. Licensees are expected to make continual improvements to the ethical profile of their manufacturing process with every production run. We work with licensees to analyse the environmental impact of their production process,looking at the product profile from raw materials up and where possible finding environmental and sustainable alternatives to the common damaging components of manufactured goods.

Trade plus Aid

Charlottedi Vita founded Trade plus Aid in 1990 to alleviate poverty in developing countries by means of job creation, capacity building, and skills development through entrepreneurial innovation. Trade plus Aid Africa now instigates innovative carbon livelihood programmes, which bring income to rural communities and help reduce carbon emissions to alleviate global warming.

The primary environmental programme is a roll-out of bio-digesters in rural areas of Southern Africa, providing a simple to operate, sustainable alternative energy source with a low carbon footprint. This technology saves money, helps prevent deforestation, improves health and hygiene, and decreases pollution of local water sources, whilst generating self-sufficient and sustainable income for social development programmes. For more information please see this short film.

Fundraising Partnership Achievements to date – total $104.78 million

  • Gathering the unique artworks and signed messages of hope from over750 licensable leaders celebrated in their field, to launch Whatever It Takes, a charitable brand and global ethical product design campaign now with over 178products, selling products in partnership with over 105 retail clients, in over 4,600 stores, across 40 markets worldwide raising over $11.8 million in royalties to date for charitable projects.
  • Engaging ourcelebrity leaders’attendance and celebrity auction prizes for the Royal Family of Qatar’s charity Reach Out To Asia. The first event generated$36.7 millionthrough an auction and pre/post-event sponsorship at the ROTA Royal Gala Dinner held in November 2006. In early 2009, The Royal Family of Qatar asked 21st Century Leaders Foundation to assist them with a second event, which raised a further $25 million. (October 2009)
  • Assisting The Governor of Rio to raise$4 millionin Rio deJaneiro at the Saúde Crianca Renascer Gala Dinner (The Children’s Health Association), held at The Governor’s Palace. (August 2008)
  • Assisting Lord Mervyn Davies CBE, then Chairman of Standard Chartered Bank, to raise$962,000in New York for the Seeing is Believing initiative. (October 2008)
  • Assisting HRH Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned to engage the assistance of 21st Century Leader Sir Bob Geldof, for Al Jazeerah TV’s first regional telethon, which raised$24 millionfor the Fakhoora Fund during the 8 hour televised appeal. (January 2009)
  • Assisting the Royal Family of Qatar for The Social Development Centre’s 8th Charity Gala Dinner, by introducing 21st Century Leaderscontacts who created andsupplied special auction prizes which generated $755,000.(March 2013)

21st Century Leaders UAE

21st Century Leaders was registered in the UAEin April 2010as the first international foundation in Masdar UAE’s first ever zero waste carbon neutral city.

Charlottedi Vita MBE, Founder & Director of 21st Century Leaders

Finally, please review articles,which profile Charlotte and her work, and the oration given by the Dean of Huddersfield University, Patrick Stewart, when Charlotte received her honorary doctorate in 2004. These can be found here: