The WHO Foundation, created in 2020 to mobilize private donations for the World Health Organization (WHO), has called for increased individual giving to support the agency’s global health initiatives.
Speaking on the foundation’s fundraising efforts, CEO Anil Soni emphasized the importance of individual donations, highlighting that other UN agencies, such as UNICEF and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), receive significant contributions from private donors.
“Individual giving is critical for many international organizations,” Soni said.
“UNICEF raises over a billion a year. UNHCR $500 million per year.”
Since 2021, the WHO Foundation has raised $6 million from individual donors and $26 million from companies, including $5 million from Meta, the U.S.-based social media giant.
The foundation has built a community of 40,000 individual donors, a figure Soni believes needs to grow further to match the fundraising levels of other UN organizations.
Former UNICEF and Gavi vaccine alliance official Cernuschi—who spearheaded a small-scale donation campaign—acknowledged that convincing individuals to support WHO financially remains challenging.
“I thought my initiative might not even raise $200. It was more an act of solidarity than a fundraising campaign,” she said.
She also noted that while WHO primarily assists low-income countries, its work benefits people worldwide, including in wealthy nations, where most vaccines and medicines are produced.
Despite her commitment to WHO’s mission, Cernuschi expressed frustration with United Nations bureaucracy, calling for greater efficiency and agility in the organization’s operations.
“We all need to become more agile, more flexible, more impactful, more efficient,” she stressed.
However, she praised WHO’s ability to maximize impact with limited resources, noting that the agency saves thousands of lives daily across 194 countries—all with a budget smaller than that of a major city hospital.
“I call that efficient,” she concluded.