Fast Company and the Monitor Group honor PATH for the fourth year running

What if products and strategies for the developing world were designed just for the people who would use them? It’s a free-market concept infrequently applied to nonprofit causes, but it has been the foundation of PATH’s approach to global health for nearly 30 years. And it’s one of several reasons why Fast Company magazine consistently selects us as one of the world’s top social entrepreneurs.

For the fourth year in a row, Fast Company, in partnership with the global consulting firm Monitor Group, has named PATH one of the top “social capitalists” that are changing the world. Social capitalists are organizations that, like PATH, not only address social problems, but also seek to identify and change the systems or ideas that create the problem, often by applying business practices. Only nine other organizations have received the designation four times (every year since the award’s inception).

Fast Company selected this year’s top social capitalists from an original pool of nonprofits nominated by funders, academics, and other experts. The organizations were then evaluated on impact, entrepreneurial innovation, aspiration, and sustainability.

PATH received an “A+”—in part because of unique partnerships with the private sector. We enlist businesses in our cause whenever and however we can, in line with a set of guiding principles addressing the ethical issues associated with such collaborations.

In the December/January issue, Fast Company describes our ten-year collaboration with TEMPTIME Corporation to develop a vaccine vial monitor that indicates when vaccines have been exposed to too much heat: “TempTime Corp. and PATH, another winner, codeveloped a vaccine-vial monitor that changes color when exposed to heat, allowing health workers to know immediately whether the medicine inside has expired. This is a pressing issue in sub-Saharan Africa, where transport and storage conditions are often less than ideal. The monitor is profitable—and when the World Health Organization began requiring that all vaccination programs use time-temperature indicators, TempTime was sitting pretty as the sole producer of that technology.” Read more about our work with TEMPTIME Corporation and the vaccine vial monitor.

The issue also noted our work in stopping Japanese encephalits, the viral disease that causes more diability among Asia's children than any other. Among many other activities, we supported the Government of India's efforts to vaccinate more than 11 million children and adolescents from the disease. Read more about this exciting win for the children of Asia!

With today’s advances in medical and social sciences, the solutions to global health problems are at hand. PATH takes full advantage of resources available in both the public and private sectors to make sure today’s solutions benefit people the world over, no matter where they live. We’re thrilled to be honored as a social capitalist for this work.