UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and President Bill Clinton are joining international recording artists Will.I.Am and David Guetta, celebrated South African singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka, and director Spike Lee, to launch MASSIVEGOOD, an fundraising movement that will enable travelers to make a “micro-contribution” toward major global health causes every time they purchase a plane ticket, reserve a hotel room or rent a car.
Leisure travelers in the U.S. will be able to contribute $2 to fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis and to improving the dismal state of maternal and child health in the developing world by clicking on MASSIVEGOOD icons on commercial travel websites like Travelocity and Accor Hotels and through travel agents.
Created by the Millennium Foundation, with the support of the global travel and tourism industry, MASSIVEGOOD has the potential to raise millions more for global health. Funds will be distributed to UNITAID, a funding mechanism for the purchase of drugs that has already saved millions of lives by lowering the price and increasing the availability of key treatments in poor countries – and will be dispersed to partners, including the Clinton Health Access Initiative.
MASSIVEGOOD is designed to mobilize new sources of innovative funding to achieve the three health-related Millennium Development Goals agreed to by the UN in 2000: to treat and fight life-threatening diseases, including HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis; to reduce childhood mortality; and to improve maternal health.
World leaders such as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg sent messages of support for MASSIVEGOOD, an initiative already backed by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
“When we look at the incredible response to the crisis in Haiti, we see how much people are willing to help. All they need is a simple way to give, and a way to know they are truly helping,” stated Dr. Philippe Douste-Blazy, chairman of the Millennium Foundation and of UNITAID, and special advisor for Innovative Finance for Development to the United Nations Secretary-General.
“Building on the success of UNITAID’s levy on French airline travel which supported the efforts of my Foundation to initiate hundreds of thousands of children on lifesaving HIV/AIDS treatment, MASSIVEGOOD empowers individuals to give small amounts to make a big difference in solving global health crises,” President Clinton said. “I’m proud to be a part of its launch today, and I am hopeful that this model of philanthropy will serve as an example of what other industries can do to improve lives around the world.”
The Millennium Foundation has established a “MASSIVEGOOD America Fund” at Charities Aid Foundation America (“CAFAmerica”), a U.S. registered tax-exempt charity that makes it possible for American donors to give safely and securely and obtain a tax deduction.