Yep, why do you wish to start another NGO or non-profit charity/foundation?

The world has some 35000 international NGOs, million plus if you include country-specific domestic NGOs. Over a million charities were registered with the United States' IRS alone in 2007. Guidestar lists over a million active non-profits... small to large. Europe and Asia has numerous charities and non-profit organizations as well. These cover all subjects you mention, and many many more causes (some of which I empathize with, and some I strongly disagree with).

You mention that the non-profit you envision will be very transparent. Well, usually every charity is transparent, as US laws require them to be. Additionally, in my years of donating to non profits, I have found pretty much every president or leadership team of a non profit to be more than willing to be very transparent.

In summary...

what is wrong with current non-profits?

how will you do things differently?

why not volunteer with existing non-profits and NGOs to make the difference you wish?
colorado, Jul 29, 2008 @ 19:18

Hi



Although I admire your initiative, I do think that you have chosen areas that are unrealistic, for example, public Health, medical research, let me give you an idea of the price of bringing a drug to market, it is on average a 7-15 year process and costs 15+ million US dollars, do you think that as a small, unknown non profit organisation you can achieve this?



Also yes, pharmaceutical companies have done some terrible ethical things, but they are not all purely evil, destroying poor people in their quest for money. It is thanks to these "evil" pharmaceutical companies that when we go to the doctor, or the dentist, or the chemist to get something to make us feel better, that there are products that exist, that there are vaccinations so that our children don't die from childhood diseases, that now someone diagnosed with HIV, cancer, or any other fatal disease can hope to live an extra 5-15 years then he would have been able to 10 years ago.



You want to bypass pharmaceutical companies, in order to do that you would have to become a pharmaceutical company yourself.



Good luck
DJ_Symcard, Jul 30, 2008 @ 18:29

Thanks for the reply...nothing like a little negativity to keep me motivated! Cheers mate.

Sorry its taken me so long to get back to you but I was busy trying to make a difference and rally people to an idea. We've now got a small but dedicated group of graduate students passionate about Global Health - a very diverse group of future researchers, activists and volunteers working to help support this growing movement.

Yes, isn't it great that there are so many non-profits and there are regulations to help them be transparent?! Its a beautiful thing; just like having many different kinds, types and specialized people, animals and plants.

Thanks for the great thoughts and comments. Hope all is well and you're still out doing your part too!

Phoenix

maverick, Nov 16, 2008 @ 10:17

Whats up DJ_Symcard!

Glad to hear you're  up on things in the drug market and willing to share. I spent a pretty good amount of time working in a vaccine testing center as a biostatistician - so yes, I know it takes a lot of money...sometimes/often for 'nothing'.

I'm not really sure where you read anything about an 'evil' pharmaceutical company in my post... or anything about 'by-passing' them to make drugs? The point was that there is a brain-drain in many of the sectors of public health non-profits/NGOs due to the higher pay in private industry and a displacement of workers/students who would rather take these lower paying positions IF they weren't strapped with financial obligations of their education....

Interesting....

Thanks again -we're doing great, though. Hope you're doing some good work too!

Phoenix

maverick, Nov 16, 2008 @ 10:25