Sasha Chanoff

Jewish Values

“The Jewish narrative is marked by cycles of human despair and spiritual redemption. This narrative is part of my cultural DNA and has greatly influenced my work around refugee rescue, relief, and resettlement.”

Global Impact

RefugePoint is a nonprofit organization that partners with refugees to access life-changing solutions and transforms how the world supports them. For refugees who must remain in the country to which they have fled, RefugePoint helps them to become self-reliant so they can achieve social and economic stability. For refugees who are not safe in the country to which they have fled, RefugePoint helps them relocate through resettlement or other pathways to safety. RefugePoint also influences global policy and practice to improve how the world supports refugees.

Since its founding 2005, RefugePoint has helped more than 180,000 refugees access resettlement and other pathways to safety in 442 locations across 83 countries throughout Africa, Central America, South America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. RefugePoint has assisted thousands more to achieve self-reliance and inclusion in their host communities. Through its Urban Refugee Protection Program in Nairobi, Kenya, RefugePoint has served 8,319 refugees, 60% of whom have graduated from the program or reached self-reliance.

Based on this success, in 2018, RefugePoint, together with the Women’s Refugee Commission, launched the Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative (RSRI), a strategic initiative that aims to transform the way the world responds to refugees and other forcibly displaced populations, creating a future where the journey from displacement to self-reliance is accelerated and marked by dignity, opportunity, and inclusion. So far, the RSRI has reached more than 2,000,000 refugees with self-reliance programming and it is expected to reach millions more through partner agencies in the coming years.

RefugePoint is recognized for creating new models for humanitarian response and influencing the field to expand solutions for refugees. In addition to the important work of providing direct services to refugees, RefugePoint also works strategically to influence global refugee policy and practice. To accomplish this, they partner closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), governments, NGOs, and community-based organizations to build capacity and improve systems related to refugee resettlement and self-reliance. RefugePoint has capitalized on opportunities to disseminate best practices, led and joined global policy dialogues, and trained other NGOs and UNHCR staff on resettlement, family reunification, and child protection.

Biography

Sasha Chanoff is the Founder and CEO of RefugePoint, a humanitarian organization that partners with refugees to access life-changing solutions and transforms how the world supports them.

As a visionary, a social entrepreneur, and a successful fundraiser, Chanoff has strengthened refugee resettlement and self-reliance alliances with the U.N. Refugee Agency, non-governmental organization (NGO) partners, and governments.

Prior to founding RefugePoint, Chanoff worked as a Refugee Job Developer at the Jewish Vocational Services in Boston, where he provided employment services to newly arrived refugees. He later became an Operations Officer and Cultural Orientation Trainer at the International Organization for Migration, working across Africa, and was a consultant for UNHCR in Kenya. In Africa, he conducted emergency evacuations for Congolese refugees, bringing them from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the U.S. for resettlement. He also organized, supervised, and implemented group resettlement efforts for Somali and Sudanese refugees to the U.S., Canada, and Australia.

Chanoff holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a master’s in Humanitarian Assistance from the Tufts University Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the Friedman School of Nutrition, Science and Policy, a joint degree program implemented through the Tufts Feinstein International Center.

Chanoff was born in Finland and grew up in the U.S. His great-grandparents escaped pogroms and persecution in Russia, and their experiences helped motivate his work.

In addition to being the 2010 recipient of the Charles Bronfman Prize, Chanoff has received fellowships from Ashoka, the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, and Echoing Green. He is the 2013 recipient of the Gleitsman International Activist Award from the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. This award recognizes leaders who work to challenge injustices around the world and who inspire others to do the same. Chanoff was also honored by the White House in its Champions of Change program in recognition of World Refugee Day 2015. In 2018, the Isabel Allende Foundation honored RefugePoint’s work with its Espiritu Award. Together with Amy Slaughter, RefugePoint’s former Chief Strategy Officer, The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and their sister organization, The World Economic Forum, awarded Sasha their 2018 Social Entrepreneur Award, which identifies and recognizes the world’s leading social entrepreneurs.

RefugePoint and Sasha personally have garnered global media coverage on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, CBS’s 60 Minutes, CNN, NBC, BBC, Fox, The New York Times, and The New York Times Magazine. His work was also profiled in Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s Perspectives in Philanthropy: Next Generation Changemakers. He recently collaborated on the Warner Bros. film The Good Lie to focus attention on the humanitarian crisis in South Sudan, and worked with the film’s producers to create The Good Lie Fund to support Sudanese refugees. He also serves on the steering committee of New England International Donors, a philanthropic network. His 2016 book, From Crisis to Calling: Finding Your Moral Center in the Toughest Decisions, was written with his father, David Chanoff, with a foreword by David Gergen. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts with his family.

RefugePoint and Sasha personally have garnered global media coverage on ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, CBS’s 60 Minutes, CNN, NBC, BBC, Fox, The New York Times, and The New York Times Magazine. His work was also profiled in Morgan Stanley Smith Barney’s Perspectives in Philanthropy: Next Generation Changemakers. He collaborated on the Warner Bros. film The Good Lie to focus attention on the humanitarian crisis in South Sudan, and worked with the film’s producers to create The Good Lie Fund to support Sudanese refugees. He also serves on the steering committee of New England International Donors, a philanthropic network. His 2016 book, From Crisis to Calling: Finding Your Moral Center in the Toughest Decisions, was written with his father, David Chanoff, with a foreword by David Gergen. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts, with his family.