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New Charity Initiative, Massive Good, Fundraises For HIV/AIDS Through Commercial Purchases

No Comment By Meerat Oza
Published: Mar 15, 2010 1:41 pm
New Charity Initiative, Massive Good, Fundraises For HIV/AIDS Through Commercial Purchases

A recent fundraising initiative announced by the Millennium Foundation for Innovative Finance for Health has developed a novel method to raise funds for HIV and AIDS.

The program, entitled Massive Good, allows people to donate two dollars each time they purchase travel services, such as a plane ticket. This mechanism is called Voluntary Solidarity Contribution (VSC). During the VSC, an individual checks off a box during a commercial transaction, which simply adds two dollars to the final cost of the purchase.

Initial data suggest that Massive Good will raise approximately $1 billion during its first four years in operation. In addition, the project also aims to eliminate the disparity in medical coverage between the rich and the poor.

These monetary contributions support HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis medical efforts in developing countries. All funds are collected by the Millennium Foundation, and distributed by UNITAID, a World Health Organization supported institute dedicated to fighting these three diseases.

The Millennium Foundation for Innovative Finance for Health is a Swiss non-profit foundation dedicated to developing financial schemes to help fight HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. The organization works with UNITAID, which is a global health partnership dedicated to purchasing drugs and treatments for patients affected by these three diseases worldwide.

Nearly 85 percent of the UNITAID’s funds are used to provide health care to 93 developing nations. So far, UNITAID has been able to reduce the cost of HIV/AIDS antiretroviral drugs by 50 percent.

The Massive Good program utilizes an original fundraising mechanism that ultimately seeks to fulfill the humanitarian goals of UNITAID by providing a consistent source of funding.

For more information please see the Millennium Foundation for Innovative Finance for Health Web site.

Photo by MarinaAvila on Flickr – some rights reserved.
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