It’s been a busy day, but you can’t be too busy for this day, right?! Usually I blog about first-world problems, or at least the kind of esoteric problems that plague a society where most people are literate. Especially during a season where I struggle to figure out what charities are best suited to receive gift donations on behalf of friends and family, I have to highlight that the Clinton Foundation is renowned for its efficient use of dollars. Very little of your donation goes towards overhead and operating costs, so you can feel good donating even if you’re not a devoted fan of Slick Willy (I am, but that’s another story…). Their development work in areas where populations experience staggering rates of HIV infection addresses the root causes of AIDS: poverty, lack of education, and abysmal infrastructure.
But my real sneaky purpose of this post is just to highlight an AIDS-fighting grantmaking foundation that resonates with me personally: the Mercury Phoenix Trust, established in honor of Freddie Mercury. He died almost 20 years ago of AIDS-related complications, and while we’re a lot further along in the fight for eradication than we were in 1992 I don’t believe another talent, great or small, should be lost to the world because of a preventable (and treatable) disease. It’s just a disease caused by a virus, people, and sweeping it under the rug will cost us a lot more Freddies.
www.mercuryphoenixtrust.com
www.clintonfoundation.org
