POLIO AND LOOSE DIMESUS President Franklin D Roosevelt (right) was 39 when he contracted polio and was never able to walk again on his own. This led him to found the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis in 1938 (later named March of Dimes), a philanthropic initiative to uncover the mysteries of polio. It raised money—literally urging Americans to send loose dimes—to sponsor clinical trials for Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine. Tested in a massive field trial in 1954 that involved 1.8 million schoolchildren known as “polio pioneers”, the Salk vaccine was licenced for use on April 12, 1955. By the 1960s, polio cases in America dropped from 45,000 to fewer than 1,000. March of Dimes has since adopted a global mission to combat a wide range of birth defects, and help mothers and premature babies.Image by (LEFT) THE DENVER POST VIA GETTY IMAGES GEORGE RINHART / CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES
CANCER AND A LONG RUNAthlete Terry Fox (left) had a vision: A world without cancer. After a bone cancer diagnosis required the amputation of his right leg, 21-year-old Fox embarked on a cross-country run in Canada on April 12, 1980, to raise money for cancer research, which he called the Marathon of Hope. Though he abandoned his run after 143 days when the cancer spread to his lungs, he raised over $24 million before his death in 1981. Marathons, 5K races, and charity walks have become popular fundraising events around the world, and Canadians continue to honour Fox’s legacy with an annual run in his name, now the world"s largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research. Considered a national hero, Fox has had many buildings, statues, roads, and parks named in his honour across the country. Image by (LEFT) BORIS SPREMO / TORONTO STAR VIA GETTY IMAGES SHUTTERSTOCK
FAMINE AND A CONCERT TICKETWhen the heartbreaking images of famine victims in Ethiopia were brought to the attention of the West by a BBC television report in 1984, the images of starving children moved the lead singer of the Boomtown Rats, Bob Geldof (second from left), and Ultravox"s Midge Ure to write the charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and assemble an all-star group to record it that November. After accompanying the first shipment of aid to Ethiopia funded by the sale of the song in the spring of 1985, Geldof returned home to London, determined to do more it led to the birth of the Live Aid all-star benefit concert. Paul McCartney, David Bowie, and Madonna played beneath a “Feed the World” banner on stages in London and Philadelphia, attended by almost 175,000 people at both venues, and raised an initial $80 million, transforming the purchase of records and concert tickets into meaningful charitable contributions, and prompting viewers worldwide to contribute. The concert gave rise to the trend of high-profile, celebrity-endorsed charitable efforts, and changed the nature of fundraising in the process. Image by NEIL LEIFER / SPORTS ILLUSTRATED VIA GETTY IMAGES / GETTY IMAGES
TUBERCULOSIS AND A GIANT RATBart Weetjens, a Belgian product designer, had kept rodents as a child, and known their acute sense of smell, intelligence and ability to learn. His NGO Apopo has been screening samples from clinics in Tanzania and Mozambique since 2013, harnessing the unique ability of African giant pouched rats to sniff out the TB bacteria in sputum samples, which often escape detection by the microscope lens. According to the NGO, one trained rat can evaluate 40 samples in 7 minutes, which a laboratory technician can process in a day. The WHO estimates that 1.8 billion people—close to one quarter of the world"s population—are infected with the bacteria that causes TB. In 2019, an estimated 10 million people fell ill with TB worldwide and health systems missed one-third of them. Undiagnosed patients can infect others with the airborne disease, which can be deadly if untreated. Image by YASUYOSHI CHIBA / AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
EBOLA AND A PHONE CONNECTIONWhen the Ebola virus exploded across West Africa in 2014, people around the world made relief donations using their mobile phones, establishing crowdfunding’s might to rally the world for a cause. Started by former wireless industry executives, the Mobile Giving Foundation (MGF) brought the technology and reach of mobile phones to registered charities as an innovative fundraising tool. MGF liaises between nonprofits, ASPs (Application Service Providers) and mobile carriers to allow non-profits to raise money. Making room for those who might only be able to make a small contribution, mobile donations have become a popular way to give and demonstrates the power of technology to enable philanthropy on a global scale. Image by JOHN MOORE / GETTY IMAGES
MALARIA AND A MODIFIED MOSQUITOPhilanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates have committed more than $2.9 billion in grants to combat malaria, their top priority. Their foundation recently partnered with Oxitec, a biotech company that develops genetically-modified male mosquitoes that kill off future generations of malaria-transmitting bugs. With the advent of Covid-19, Gates recently cautioned against the disruption of essential malaria prevention and treatment services in many parts of Africa. The pandemic has made it difficult for health workers to deliver supplies of essential malaria tools—like bed nets, anti-malaria medicines, and rapid diagnostic tests—that have been instrumental in cutting malaria deaths by more than half since 2000. In Benin, a country in West Africa, with one of the highest burdens of malaria in the world, the Foundation found innovative ways to distribute bed nets across the country, using smartphones, real time data collection, and satellite mapping. Image by JUDA NGWENYA / REUTERS
