Ami Dar

Ami Dar was born in 1961 in Jerusalem

Ami Dar was born on January 7, 1961, in Jerusalem. He was the eldest of 3 children of a schoolteacher mother and a diplomat father. He grew up in Peru and Mexico, and in Mexico City he became aware of the gap between wealth and poverty.

In 1976 the family returned to Israel. From 1979 to 1982 he served in the IDF as a paratrooper. In 1985, while traveling in South America, he had the idea of using phones, computers and fax machines to help people connect and act on issues they cared about.

In 1988 he joined Aladdin Knowledge Systems, a software company in Tel Aviv, and served as its international marketing manager until 1992. In 1992 he became president and moved to New York City to set up the company's North American branch.

By 1995 he had founded The Contact Center Network, an early form of Idealist that sponsored local meeting spaces. In 1996 Action Without Borders launched the Idealist website, and Dar serves as its executive director. In 2025 it was announced that Idealist and VolunteerMatch would merge.