Government and industry do only part of the job of maintaining and improving public health. Nonprofit organizations play a critical supporting role, here and abroad. These private groups subsidize the development and distribution of needed medicines, vaccines and equipment.
The nonprofit sector exists to provide essential goods and services to markets unable to pay for them, and to do so more efficiently than government agencies. In the health arena, nonprofit groups play key roles in a number of areas. They promote public awareness of specific diseases and medical issues. They raise money. They underwrite early-stage research; assure the quality of medical products; and distribute goods and services to people who need them.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the most prominent of the nonprofit groups focusing on public health. Since its founding in 2000, it has made a number of major health-care grants, primarily in the developing world.
And last month, the Gates Foundation announced that it was shifting its funding priorities and would devote one-quarter of its giving to a global program addressing the underlying causes of poverty in the developing world.
[Excerpt of article by Roberta Snow, The Philadelphia Inquirer]
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