What Reach the World does

Reach the World is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, DC, with an additional office in New York. Founded in 1998, the organization runs virtual exchange programs that connect K-12 classrooms in the United States with volunteer travelers based abroad. Its core offerings are the Traveler Program, a 1:1 classroom-to-traveler pairing model, and the Explorer Program, a 1:Many broadcast format. Content is delivered through a combination of live video sessions (Zoom, Streamyard), recorded media (YouTube), and lesson-plan integration via Google Classroom. Reach the World is COPPA-compliant for K-12 student data and offers its programs free of charge to schools.

The organization supplements its classroom programs with GeoGames, a gamified geography application co-developed with the National Geographic Society Education Foundation and distributed through mobile app stores on iOS and Android. It has also produced expedition-themed educational content, most prominently the Endurance22 Expedition in partnership with the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, and operates a Travel Club offering that extends the product surface toward consumer-facing community and expedition content. The website is localized into French, German, Hindi, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish, supporting international traveler recruitment.

Reach the World's business model is donation-driven as a nonprofit, with no transactional pricing on classroom services and only nominal pricing on GeoGames mobile downloads. Go-to-market relies on a network of institutional partnerships — including the National Geographic Society Education Foundation, Peace Corps, Fulbright, the Gilman Scholarship program, the Explorers Club, the Royal Geographical Society, and Teachers College Columbia — which serve as low-cost distribution channels for both travelers and educator adoption. Pat Hedley chairs the board. Employee headcount is reported at 51–100.

Name

Reach the World

Legal name

Reach the World

Website

https://reachtheworld.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1998

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Reach the World is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit, founded in 1998, that runs virtual exchange programs connecting US K-12 classrooms with volunteer travelers abroad via live sessions, expedition content, and the GeoGames mobile app, operating through institutional and educational partnerships.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Educational Services / Virtual Exchange

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Educational Services (611)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Virtual World Language & Electives Providers (K–12) (EDAJADAK)

Keywords

• Virtual exchange education
• K12 global learning
• Educational nonprofit services
• Classroom travel program
• Geography learning games

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations and Fundraising: Reach the World operates as a nonprofit organization relying primarily on donations from individuals and organizations. The website prominently features a donation button and states 'Every dollar pledged helps students connect with travelers who will inspire them to become curious, confident global citizens.'

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Reach the World runs curriculum-aligned virtual exchange programs that connect K-12 classrooms with volunteer travelers around the world via online journaling and live video interactions. It complements these programs with the GeoGames educational app and livestreamed global expeditions, giving teachers and students standards-based access to international perspectives and cultures.

Product overview

Reach the World is a global education nonprofit offering virtual exchange programs that connect K-12 classrooms with travelers and explorers around the world. The core offerings include the Traveler Program (1:1) for personalized matching between individual travelers and classrooms, and the Explorer Program (1:Many) for broadcast-style expeditions to larger audiences. Key featured expeditions include the Endurance22 Antarctic expedition, Madagascar wildlife research, and South African elephant ecology studies. Supporting these programs are GeoGames (an interactive geography education game), Teacher Resources (curated classroom materials), and Itineraries (structured learning paths). The organization also operates volunteer programs including the Volunteer Editor Program and Local Hosts Program. All content is delivered through the reachtheworld.org platform via articles, livestreams, and video conferences.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• GeoGames: Interactive geography education game created in partnership with National Geographic Society Education Foundation, designed to teach geography through drag-and-drop gameplay on Planet Earth.

Products and services

• Traveler Program (1:1) A curriculum-aligned virtual exchange program that pairs a K-12 classroom with a single international traveler correspondent. The traveler posts regular online journals and engages with students and teachers over the course of a school year, bringing authentic global perspectives into the classroom. Designed for K-12 teachers and students.
• Explorer Program (1:Many) A group-format virtual exchange offering that connects a K-12 classroom with multiple international travelers simultaneously, enabling broader global exposure and comparative cultural learning. Designed for K-12 classrooms.
• GeoGames Reach the World's proprietary geography learning game, free to download on iOS, Android, and Chromebook, with a $0.99 in-app purchase that unlocks all trivia questions. Targeted at students, parents, and general geography enthusiasts.
• Endurance22 Expedition A livestreamed Antarctic expedition program produced in connection with the Endurance22 expedition, broadcasting real-time scientific exploration to K-12 classrooms via YouTube, StreamYard, and Zoom.
• Madagascar Expedition A livestreamed educational expedition focused on the wildlife and ecosystems of Madagascar, delivered to K-12 classrooms through Reach the World's expedition programming.
• Elephant Expedition A livestreamed educational expedition focused on elephant conservation and field research, delivered as part of Reach the World's expedition programming for K-12 classrooms.
• Volunteer Editor Program A volunteer contributor program recruiting individuals, including current and aspiring world travelers, students, and retirees, to produce educational content for Reach the World's platform in exchange for international publishing experience.

Quantifiable outcome

• GeoGames used by hundreds of schools and home users across the nation

Named customers2 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• National Geographic Society Education FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2011National Geographic Society Education Foundation co-created GeoGames with Reach the World. National Geographic serves as the dissemination partner for Reach the World's interactive GeoGames educational tool. The partnership was established when GeoGames was created, and National Geographic continues as the official dissemination partner.
• Peace CorpsminorGTM or Marketing PartnerPeace Corps is featured as a partner organization on the Reach the World travelers page, suggesting collaboration in recruiting volunteer travelers for virtual exchange programs.
• Fulbright ProgramminorGTM or Marketing PartnerFulbright program featured as a partner organization on the travelers page, suggesting collaboration in recruiting Fulbright scholars as volunteer travelers for virtual exchanges.
• Gilman ScholarshipminorGTM or Marketing PartnerGilman Scholarship program featured as a partner organization, suggesting collaboration in recruiting Gilman recipients as volunteer travelers.
• The Explorers ClubminorGTM or Marketing PartnerThe Explorers Club featured as a partner organization on the travelers page.
• Royal Geographical SocietyminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerRoyal Geographical Society is listed as a partner providing additional classroom resources for the Endurance22 Expedition program.
• Falklands Maritime Heritage TrustcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFalklands Maritime Heritage Trust partnered with Reach the World for the Endurance22 Expedition to Antarctica, which searched for Ernest Shackleton's sunken ship Endurance. RTW served as the educational partner, bringing the expedition to K-12 classrooms through virtual exchange content.
• Teachers College, Columbia UniversityminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearchers at Teachers College, Columbia University conducted studies validating GeoGames as a proven way to teach geography quickly and effectively, providing academic credibility to the educational tool.
• Exploring By The Seat Of Your PantsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnered with Reach the World for video calls from the field, such as Mai's Expedition to Madagascar live video call from Ranomafana National Park.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• TakingITglobal: TakingITglobal operates global citizenship and virtual exchange programs for K-12 youth, historically partnering with schools and using web-based collaboration similar to RTW's platform approach.
• Empatico: Empatico (a program of the NEA Foundation) provides free K-12 virtual exchange tools that match classrooms across countries for live video interaction — directly overlapping Reach the World's core virtual exchange offering.
• PenPal Schools: PenPal Schools runs project-based virtual exchange programs connecting K-12 classrooms globally — the same 1:many model and K-12 educator buyer that Reach the World targets.
• Generation Global: Tony Blair Institute's Generation Global runs moderated virtual exchange programs for adolescents worldwide, addressing the same global citizenship / intercultural learning outcomes that Reach the World's Traveler and Explorer programs serve.
• iEARN (International Education and Resource Network): iEARN facilitates K-12 virtual exchange projects across 140+ countries — a long-standing direct peer for global-education collaboration with similar teacher-recruitment and classroom-matching mechanics.

Emerging players

• Nearpod: Nearpod delivers interactive K-12 virtual lessons including virtual-reality field trips that approximate RTW's global-exploration use case, targeting the same U.S. K-12 teacher buyer with a freemium SaaS model.
• Outschool: Outschool offers live online classes — including world cultures and languages — to K-12 learners, addressing parts of the same demand for global/cultural enrichment that Reach the World's Explorer and GeoGames programs serve.

Broad incumbents

• Google for Education: Google for Education (Classroom, Meet, YouTube) dominates the K-12 EdTech stack and is integrated into Reach the World's product, representing a broad-incumbent peer with overlapping distribution and free K-12 offerings.
• National Geographic Society Education: National Geographic's Education division is RTW's dissemination partner on GeoGames and offers K-12 geography resources at scale — a broad incumbent and strategic partner with overlapping curriculum content.
• Microsoft Education (Microsoft Teams for Education): Microsoft Teams for Education provides virtual classroom infrastructure used by U.S. school districts — a broad incumbent whose capabilities overlap the live video conferencing layer of Reach the World's virtual exchange delivery.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/reachtheworldco
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCXedvZiq4SGk29TQ90jGukg
• Facebookfacebook.com/reachtheworld.org
• Instagraminstagram.com/Reachtheworldco
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/reach-the-world

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Reach the World