‘Learn-a-thon’: Hank and John Green’s lifelong learners support education and charity

From Nov. 3 until Nov. 21, Hank and John Green — brothers, authors and educators — are hosting their annual Learn-a-thon, a community fundraising effort that directly supports the Greens and their teams in producing accessible and accurate educational content across more than a dozen YouTube channels and podcasts. 

In turn, the Green brothers use these platforms to support real, charitable movements that do genuine good in a world that often seems heavy and complicated.

If you’ve never heard of Hank or John, allow me to kindly inform you that you’ve been living under a rock. And even if you’ve only ever heard of John as an author of young adult fiction or of Hank as the internet’s go-to guy for science questions, you’re still missing the full picture. 

Good news: I would love to enlighten you.

John Green skyrocketed into fame after he authored some of the most successful young adult novels of all time: “Looking for Alaska” in 2005, “Paper Towns” in 2008 and “The Fault in Our Stars” in 2012, which has sold over 50 million copies globally.

If you’ve only ever known John Green as an author, though, you might have noticed that his writing has recently shifted in genre and tone: His two most recent books, 2021’s “The Anthropocene Reviewed” and 2025’s “Everything Is Tuberculosis,” are nonfiction. 

The first discusses our human epoch and its planetary impact in a series of essays that has been praised for its blend of humor and complexity. The second is an examination of the history and treatment of the world’s deadliest disease, one which is now curable but still devastates many underdeveloped countries.

This hint at philanthropic efforts by John is one that echoes the work he and Hank have been doing for over a decade. Originally, they were just brothers passionate about content creation, making YouTube videos addressed to each other through a project called Vlogbrothers, which launched in 2007. They still make similar videos on their channel Dear Hank and John. 

Hank has also been supporting content creators directly since 2008, when he founded DFTBA — Don’t Forget To Be Awesome — which strives to help creators make a living through their content creation and to support individual art.

But the Greens began building a broader platform based on professionally produced, accessible education when they launched Crash Course in 2012, a YouTube channel that gives “crash courses” in history.

That same year, Hank and John co-founded Complexly, the company behind all of their educational programs, including shows like Crash Course, SciShow, Bizarre Beasts and PBS Eons. According to their website, Complexly has now made over 9,000 videos and podcasts that have been viewed more than five billion times. 

Here’s the kicker: supporting the production of accurate and accessible information would be a valuable and impressive effort in itself, but that’s not all that Hank and John are doing. 

The brothers primarily reach out through the medium of education, but they use their platforms to promote their various charitable efforts, including public health funding and environmental preservation. 

In 2019, Hank and John founded Good Store, which sells everyday items — the type of things that everyone buys anyway, like underwear and socks, cleaning supplies and coffee — and donates every cent of profit to charity.

Yes, you read that correctly: 100% of Good Store’s profits go to charity.

As of Oct. 1, 2025, Good Store has donated over $11 million to Partners in Health, which fights maternal mortality rates in Sierra Leone and tuberculosis in Lesotho, and Coral Reef Alliance, which works globally within our oceans.

But the Greens would not be able to make this kind of impact if it were not for the community of lifelong learners that they have fostered. 

People like us — university students and employees, researchers and journalists and career professionals, regular old citizens with bookshelves that reach from floor to ceiling — gather digitally within the Greens’ various educational platforms. We that support Hank and John are joined by our passions for education, informational accuracy and real, charitable good.

After nearly two decades of work, Hank and John Green have built a community of millions of individuals that trust them and their priorities. I am one of those people, and if you aren’t already, you should be too.

If you’ve looking for Christmas presents whose purchase will double as a good deed, check out Good Store — watch Hank's Nov. 5 video on it here. If you have the money to donate to Learn-a-thon to support education, go surf Complexly’s website.

But in this community, monetary donation isn’t the only way to support: If you’re passionate about lifelong learning and the good that the Green brothers are doing, all you have to do to be a part of this movement is watch some YouTube.