Out of the slums and into philanthrocapitalism
February 24, 2009 – 10:26 am by Steven Niles
Watching the Oscars a night late loses a lot of the drama, but on the plus side, you can fast forward through the musical numbers. This year’s telecast didn’t hold a whole lot of interest for me anyway due to what I found to be a lackluster line up of nominees, but I am interested in eventually checking out this Slumdog Millionaire phenomenon.
The film is apparently quite inspirational. You too can aspire to one day strike it rich by appearing on a television game show and progressing through an increasingly difficult series of questions relying on your shockingly vast well of arcane trivia knowledge. Or, failing that, you can go on Fear Factor and eat an ox bladder.
But seriously, a little inspiration is a good thing, especially in times like these. And in particular, the success of Slumdog Millionaire has inspired a new awareness campaign by the U.S.-based non-profit pharmaceutical company called The Institute for OneWorld Health. Seeing the film as raising America’s interest in the developing world, OneWorld Health is increasing its efforts to raise awareness about neglected diseases afflicting the world’s poor.
“More than 1 billion people a year suffer from a neglected disease,” says Richard Chin, M.D., OneWorld Health. “Too frequently, it is children who live in rural areas, urban slums, or in conflict zones who die from otherwise preventable and treatable diseases. Films like Slumdog Millionaire are bringing new attention to the lives of the poorest among us and we hope this heightened awareness will move people to act on their behalf.”
OneWorld Health ran a full-page ad in the New York Times on Monday as part of a series of efforts to raise awareness about the need for life-saving medicines in developing countries. OneWorld Health will also unveil online advertising, social media initiatives, and visibility activities in partnership with other global health organizations, and participate in a special forum on philanthropy and global health organized by the United Nations, Committee for Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, and World Health Organization.
The importance of philanthropy appears to be on the rise industry wide. And it’s certainly not all to do with the success of a particular feel-good movie. In fact, the success of the movie may be attributable to a societal pendulum swing away from me-first consumerism reflected in the politics of the day and that may, in fact, be an outright reaction to the tightened economy.
Corporate philanthropy is one of the most effective tools when trying to turn around negative public perception. In a recent Reuters Blog, Matthew Bishop, one of the authors of “Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World,” writes: “Bankers keep telling us how sorry they are for getting the world into the current economic mess, but the public doesn’t seem to want to accept their apology. To show they mean it, the rich need to discover philanthrocapitalism and start to give back to society – for their sakes and ours.”
Bankers may be feeling the heat now, but the pharmaceutical industry knows all about that. For too long, the public has turned the cold shoulder, upset over costs, side effects, and aggressive marketing tactics. So called philanthrocapitalism may be the way to go.
In 2008, for example, Abbott’s employee giving in the United States set new company records both in terms of number of participating employees and total dollar contributions, despite the difficult economic times. Nearly 74% of Abbott employees participated in the company’s employee giving programs, up from 65% in 2007. Abbott employees contributed more than $12.6 million to non-profit groups in 2008, surpassing last year’s total of $12.3 million. This figure includes pledges raised through the company’s annual employee giving campaign, donations by employees throughout the year, and matching gifts from the Abbott Fund, the company’s philanthropic foundation.
Abbott’s employee participation is twice the rate typically seen with employee giving campaigns, which generally have 30% to 40% employee participation, according to JK Group Inc. http://www.easymatch.com, an organization that helps administer corporate philanthropic programs for Abbott and many other companies.
Meanwhile, Nobilon, Schering-Plough Corp.’s human vaccine business unit, has formed an agreement with the World Health Organization to provide access to pandemic influenza vaccine manufacturing technology to developing countries. The WHO Global Vaccine Action Plan seeks to expand influenza vaccine manufacturing capacity in developing countries and enhance the global supply for pandemic vaccines.
“The avian influenza virus is already affecting several developing countries, making pandemic influenza vaccine preparedness a global health priority,” says Fred Hassan, chairman and CEO, Schering-Plough. “Our collaboration with the WHO is most important because it is aimed at allowing many developing countries to gain access to proven influenza vaccine manufacturing platforms.”
Tags: Abbott, business, movies, philanthropy, Schering-Plough
