An equal chance at a healthy life

Access to essential medicines and effective technologies. Health systems that support the people who depend on them. The ability to make good choices about health and life. These basic elements of good health are so readily available in the industrial world . . . and so out of reach in countries struggling with poverty, famine, war.

Redressing this imbalance requires not just new resources, but new thinking. PATH's answer is the Catalyst Fund: a way to channel support from individual donors into some of the world's most innovative solutions.

Innovation funds: the catalyst for change

PATH launched the Catalyst Fund in 2005. It is our primary source of innovation funding—the money that allows us to support new initiatives, leverage major grants, and meet critical organizational needs. Such funds make up less than 4 percent of PATH's annual budget, and yet they are the spark for some of our largest and most effective programs.

In the past, innovation funding has come not only from individual donors, but also from institutional funding and interest income from major foundation grants. As the global funding environment has shifted, institutional and foundation sources have become more and more restricted—and it is individual donors who supply the flexibility necessary to act on important new ideas and meet emerging challenges.

Using individual gifts effectively

In the past year, the number of donors contributing to the fund increased by more than half. Through the Catalyst Fund, PATH has put a powerful resource in place to ensure that donors have the greatest impact possible on the lives of people around the world. To find out more about what you can do through contributions to the Catalyst Fund, read Funding Innovation, our report on PATH's use of flexible funding in 2007.

 

 

Photo: PATH (Mike Wang).