Area served Global Website Official website | Method Innovative Financing | |
Focus Health: HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis Location United States, UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Spain | ||
MassiveGood was the Millennium Foundation’s fundraising project which was launched in the United States on March 4, 2010. MassiveGood was made available later in 2010 in Spain. On November 4, 2011, the Millennium Foundation decided to discontinue the program. MassiveGood gave travelers the option to make a $2, €2 or £2 micro-contribution towards major global health causes when they bought an airline ticket, reserved a hotel room or rented a car. Funds were used to provide drugs to reduce child mortality, improve maternal health and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
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Origin
MassiveGood was developed by the Millennium Foundation for Innovative Finance for Health, an independent, non-profit Swiss foundation. The original idea was conceived by Jean-François Rial, the head of a French travel agency, after officials from George W. Bush's administration rejected the idea of a tax on airline tickets in the United States. The Millennium Foundation was created in November 2008 to develop new ways to finance health systems in low- and middle-income countries and was aligned with helping to achieve the three health-related Millennium Development Goals agreed to by the United Nations in 2000. The Foundation was headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
Fundraising
Donations received by MassiveGood were used to provide support to UNITAID, a global health initiative created in 2006 and hosted by the World Health Organization. Additional funding was aimed towards improving maternal and child health in the developing world. Supporters of the project included Bill Clinton, will.i.am, Samuel L. Jackson, Susan Sarandon, David Guetta, Spike Lee, Mary J. Blige, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Paul Auster and Brian Greene.