2015 Annual report

Our President/CEO and our Chairman of the Board

Our Annual Report is a time for reflection; for looking back at the progress we've made and setting resolutions for the future.

So... let's cast our minds back. In 2004, Bono, Jamie Drummond, Bobby Shriver, and Lucy Matthew launched an effort that joined with other partner activists around a simple, but audacious idea: Where you are born shouldn't dictate whether you live or die.

Today, more than seven million ONE members on every continent around the world carry that idea forward through hard-nosed government advocacy and campaigning for smart aid and policy change to benefit the world's poor.

Fifteen years ago, there were just 700,000 people in the world who had access to lifesaving AIDS medications. There are now 15 million people on treatment. New HIV infections and AIDS related deaths are both down to historic lows.

There are still more than 900 million people facing extreme poverty globally on a daily basis... But we are more than halfway toward our goal of eliminating extreme poverty by 2030.

That's amazing progress. One of the themes of 2015 for us was celebrating how far we've come, looking at the Millennium Development Goals which did so much to focus attention on what really mattered. And we celebrated our own birthday with friends, partners and some of our heroes in an event at Carnegie Hall that we will never forget. (Great pictures in this report).

But 2015 was also about what comes next. It's important to remember and celebrate, but we can't get complacent. This is exactly the time to step up and do more.

Last year, we supported the launch of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development: the world's 15-year action plan for eradicating poverty and fighting inequality. It's the biggest promise the world has ever made to itself. If we rise to the challenge, in 15 years' time, no one will have to face life below the extreme poverty line.

In 2016, ONE will urge world leaders to commit to replenishing the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. We'll continue to support women and girls through our Poverty is Sexist campaign. We'll link arms with partners and work toward a more connected world for everyone. And we'll raise a banner for nutrition, asking the world to fight for the 162 million children under five who suffer from stunting as a result of undernutrition.

Clearly, we are as ambitious now as we were back in 2004. There is still so much to do in our fight against extreme poverty and preventable disease — let's roll up our sleeves and make 2016 a remarkable year, together.

African Policy Advisory Board Member

These are exciting times for ONE in Africa. Our advocacy is as strong as ever: and increasingly, it's supported by a deep, strong network of very committed members and partners across the continent, whom we hope will lead the organization in making governments deliver on their promises.

Over the past two years, our membership in Africa has grown exponentially. To truly understand the increase: Africa membership grew from 300,000 in mid-2013 to 2.8 million today.

ONE now has more members in Africa than on any other continent, and Nigeria is now our second-largest country in terms of membership — behind only the United States.

The primary way we engage with our Africa members? Mobile. It's amazing that such a small device can reach such a large audience — and we tapped into that potential again last year for the Ebola campaign. More than 280,000 people signed the mobile petition in Africa before it was hand-delivered to leaders around the world.

In 2016, we'll look to further our engagement with our members in Africa, both through our global campaigns and through national actions. We know there is a growing desire for offline activities, and we're excited to see ONE launch the ONE Champions program in Nigeria this year. Champions are volunteers who engaged consistently and expertly in our advocacy work. In September last year, we joined with our partners from Action/2015 in Nigeria and South Africa to take part in a Global Day of Action. Hundreds of people converged at South Africa's iconic Constitutional Hill, which was previously a white prison where Nelson Mandela was held, and at the University of Lagos in Nigeria.

But the campaign that truly mobilized our members in Africa in 2015 was Poverty is Sexist. The Strong Girl song and video that we made in South Africa played across the continent. It was a powerful message about women and development expressed through great creative products that really stirred the imagination.

More than 700,000 people in Africa signed the Poverty is Sexist petition, including more than 600,000 new members. ONE presented the petition to five African Union Heads of State at the AU summit in Johannesburg, who later adopted a set of policy decisions to empower Africa women. ONE's African members were truly the force behind this campaign.

Bono said it best when promoting the "Strong Girl" remix: "ONE has more members in Africa now than in Europe. In truth, we should have called ourselves HALF because only now are we becoming truly ONE."

By Jamie Drummond

2015 was the year that the Sustainable Development Goals launched. Because of that, it was billed as a big year for the world — and the development community — up there with 2000 and its clarion call of debt cancellation and the birth of the Millennium Development Goals, and 2005 with the momentous Gleneagles summit.

So did we ensure the year lived up to billing? Did it get us on track to the eradication of extreme poverty by 2030, and the chance for all to live a life of dignity, or not?

The year certainly lived up to billing but not as perfectly as we would have liked, with unfinished business, subplots, twists and turns.

At ONE we had three overarching aims that went beyond ensuring the goals were agreed to: making sure they were focused, financed, and could be followed. So — how did we do?

Formally, at least, the goals are not very focused. We can now more easily see why. The politics of a truly global consultative process were too complex to permit the creation of a neat ten point plan. And this is, in the end, a good thing — the outcome is a more genuinely owned product, owned by all the citizens and nations of the world. If this new set of goals really belongs to all the citizens of emerging nations (indeed all nations), and is used as an accountability scorecard to hold our leaders accountable for delivery of basic needs and good governance, then the diffusion of the development agenda will have been well worth it.

Within the comprehensive package that is the Global Goals, there are focused subcomponents, most notably on getting infant mortality down to 12 per 1,000, getting child mortality down to 25 per 1,000, and maternal mortality down to 70 per 100,000. There are similar measurable targets on nutrition and agricultural productivity. Achieving these would mean that by 2030, millions fewer kids would die a year.

Another major outcome is the cross-cutting promise to empower women, notably by providing equal access to land and property rights, finance and education. It was with this in mind that we at ONE established the Poverty is Sexist campaign.

Another cross-cutting promise is for open government and transparent institutions. Corruption kills more kids than any killer disease — but the good news is there is a vaccine, and it's called transparency. Above all, the agreement to end extreme poverty and hunger by 2030 is no small matter. We campaigned for these dimensions to the new development agenda but were not sure we would get them in the final agreement. The inclusion of all is a breakthrough for campaigners to savour.

A key meeting here was on finance for vaccines in January — which achieved its target of raising $7.5bn. It was followed by a Financing For Development accord agreed in Addis Ababa in July 2015. This summit made some progress on areas where we lobbied with our partners: the Least Developed Countries. Calls for an increase in their direction, of 50% of global financing, were clearly heard and were echoed in calls for 50% of climate finance to be directed to LDCs.

At the G7 in Germany, for the first time ever the historic promise of 0.7% of national income to be dedicated to overseas aid was included in the main communique. Furthermore a series of European countries made significant pledges of increased aid — President François Hollande announced that France will increase aid by €4bn by 2020, Germany promised to increase aid by more than €8bn cumulatively by 2019 and Prime Minister Renzi pledged that Italy would become the fourth largest donor amongst G7 countries by its 2017 presidency. This is a real upturn in aid commitment. However, we should note some of these funds are already being redirected toward domestic refugee expenses, something which needs to be closely monitored. After the first year, refugee costs cannot officially be counted as ODA.

The most important shift in Addis was toward Domestic Resource Mobilisation with pledges to boost capacity that can help countries raise more resources themselves. This is plainly essential. But many LDCs will need external aid for the foreseeable future. When a country only has a few hundred dollars to spend per citizen per year on all services, it needs all the additional resources it can muster. A key component of the Addis accord was an agreement that all countries would strive to provide a package of essential services for their poorest citizens, a social safety net, financed by a mix of domestic and international resources. This is the kind of promise which, if realized, can eradicate extreme poverty; but campaigning groups that are too focused on sectoral issues like agriculture or health can fail to see the wood for the trees, and de-emphasize such cross-cutting effective efforts.

Finally we campaigned for the goals to be followed — and followable. At ONE we know a promise is only kept if loads of people know about it and hold leaders accountable for delivering. That's why we backed big efforts like Project Everyone, Global Citizen and Action/2015 to make the new Global Goals into a big brand, to make them as famous as possible. These are all experiments in building a global community of effective informed citizens who know about the goals and can work together around the world to help ensure they are scored.

Improved data to help citizens know whether the goals are being scored or not is key. Where data is lacking, gaps can be filled by new technologies, whether through interpreting images from low cost satellites, anonymised data from mobile phone companies, incentivizing citizens to report on the quality of local service delivery through innovations like Twaweza and UReport, or by collecting data through micro payments systems like Premise and Money4jam.

At ONE, we began talking more explicitly in 2015 about a tough truth: that Poverty is Sexist. This powerful campaign built on some facts we learned about ONE's members — that women members took the hardest actions and took more actions; and some policy we learned about those living in extreme poverty. Women and girls are hardest hit — which is ironic, indeed tragic, given that investing in them is the best way to beat poverty. The backbone of this accountability movement is female.

This effort doesn't end with 2015. Ultimately these new Global Goals will only be scored if a great global team is formed to measure and score them. ONE's more than seven million members and those of our partners across the Action/2015 network are the backbone of this movement, but we need to recruit millions more citizens south and north, and partner with other mass membership groups and faith communities, harnessing new technologies far more effectively. We need to hold ourselves and the international community more accountable through to the completion of our historic Mandelan mission, and that task extends into the new year, and beyond.

"My name is Eva. I'm 14 and live in Malinzanga, Tanzania."

At the end of 2014, Eva Tolage shared a New Year's message with her fellow ONE members, asking us to build a better world by demanding more from our leaders.

She told us about the triumphs and challenges of her family's life in Tanzania, and like us, looked ahead to the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals.

But we weren't the only people to whom Eva wrote a letter: She also penned a message to President Obama, asking him to commit to the full implementation of the goals.

Eva wrote about the challenges of hunger, corruption, and access to water and electricity. She also wrote about the challenges of simply being a girl.

During his address at the United Nations Global Assembly — just a few days after the Global Goals were adopted — President Obama responded to Eva's letter:

"And so today I say to Eva and hundreds of millions like you, we see you. We hear you. I've read your letter and we commit ourselves as nations as one world to the urgent work that must be done."

We celebrated with Eva, and were inspired to be a small part of her big story.

As ONE co-founder Jamie Drummond wrote: "When we truly and practically stand with strong girls and women like Eva... and help them demand that the services and opportunities due them are delivered, the world will tilt on its axis.

We must now turn these goals into a smart citizens scorecard as soon as possible, so Eva and her friends lead the lives of opportunity and dignity everyone deserves to lead."

By Michael Elliott

The most dramatic improvements in human health and prosperity have been distributed among those not long ago thought doomed-as their ancestors had been for countless generations-to short lives of penury and disease.

This central truth of our times is still barely understood — partly, I think, because so few in the global West fully understand just what has been going on to their east. Much of the dramatic drop in worldwide extreme poverty over recent years — from over a third of the globe's population in 1990 to just 14.5% in 2011 — has been fueled by Asia's economic growth. And that translates to more than just an improvement in wealth and health. Hundreds of millions of people now have options undreamed of by their parents or grandparents. The vast human potential of an entire region has been unlocked.

But the modern world's miracles are not just Asian ones. Since 2000, worldwide malaria mortality rates have decreased by 47%. In 2003 in sub-Saharan Africa, just 50,000 people were on lifesaving antiretroviral drugs to combat HIV/AIDS; now more than nine million are. In 2012, there were some 57 million more sub-Saharan African children in primary school than in 2000.

Here's the truth: many of the miracles that have saved so many lives over the past two decades aren't supernatural at all. They are quite tangible, in an everyday sort of way, as anyone who has helped spread an insecticide-treated bed net in an African hut would know.

What is truly miraculous is that millions of people, just like you, have put pressure on their governments — north and south, in the rich world and the poor one — to fund and implement the policies that have saved and improved the lives of millions.

This is an extract from The Age of Miracles, an article which Michael wrote for Time Magazine in 2015.
You can find the full article here.

By Eloise Todd

While there is more wealth in the world than ever before, our 2015 Data Report showed that extreme inequality is becoming far more acute, and those in the bottom income brackets have made the least progress against key development outcomes. Without a concerted focus on the poorest people and the poorest countries, the most vulnerable will be left even further behind beyond 2015.

Two-thirds of the world's least developed countries (LDCs) are in sub-Saharan Africa. These nations have some of the deepest levels of poverty, the lowest levels of domestic and international resources and the largest funding gaps.

Our 2015 DATA report found that the extreme poverty rate across LDCs combined is 43%, compared with 13% across non-LDCs (excluding high-income countries (HICs)). While LDCs tend to be smaller countries with lower populations and thus account for only 35% of the extreme poor globally, it is estimated that by 2030 their share of the global burden will rise to 50% (not accounting for any changes in the list of LDCs). A larger proportion of the population in LDCs live very far below the poverty line, meaning that the depth of poverty in LDCs is much greater than in non-LDCs.

Our 2015 DATA Report also found that while poverty rates are expected to decrease significantly across both groups of countries by 2030, the extreme poverty rate across LDCs combined has been projected to be 16.4%, almost five times higher than in non-LDCs (excluding HICs), at 3.4%. Indeed, according to these projections, in 2030 a greater percentage of the population in LDCs will still be living below $1.25 a day than the proportion of the population living below $1.25 in non-LDCs in 2012.

Poverty and gender inequality go hand-in-hand: girls and women in the poorest countries suffer a double hardship, of being both born in a poor country and being born female. Put simply, poverty is sexist.

Across virtually every measurable indicator, life is significantly harder for girls and women in LDCs compared with men, and compared with girls and women living in other countries. The percentage of working women in vulnerable employment is 86.2% in LDCs, three times higher than in non-LDCs. Almost half (45%) of the world's maternal deaths occur amongst the 13% of the world's women living in LDCs. In LDCs, girls are far more likely to miss out on vital education. In Ethiopia, for instance, the number of girls of primary age currently missing out on schooling is the same as the total number of girls in school in the UK.

Focusing on girls and women is a crucial prerequisite for ending poverty. It is estimated that providing female farmers with the same access to productive resources as men could reduce the number of people living in chronic hunger worldwide by 100-150 million. Ensuring that all students in low-income countries — including girls — leave school with basic reading skills could cut extreme poverty globally by as much as 12%. And investing relatively small additional amounts in health interventions for women and children could yield a nine times return in economic and social benefits. To reach the poorest and most marginalised people, no matter where they live — and in particular girls and women — governments musy commit to a minimum level of spending to deliver basic services, including health and education, to the poorest people in the poorest countries, while also increasing productive investments to boost growth and jobs.

By Deborah Dugan

To mark World AIDS Day 2015, (RED) collaborated with Vice Media to launch the inaugural '(RED) SHOPATHON'.

Raising money for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, (RED) partnered with Gilt, eBay and Omaze to offer a broad range of products and chances to win once-in-a-lifetime celebrity experiences, giving people hundreds of ways to join the fight against AIDS during the holiday season. We've collected just a few of the highlights here.

Jimmy Kimmel Live — The (RED) Shopathon

On World AIDS Day, December 1, Jimmy Kimmel kicked off the campaign by transforming his show into a (RED) Shopathon special. Joined by Snoop Dogg, Matt Damon and The Killers, the show also featured Scarlett Johansson, Tom Brady, Shaquille O'Neal and James Franco, all of whom were promoting their once-in-a-lifetime experiences on Omaze.com. Olivia Wilde co-hosted a series of parody home shopping sketches with Kimmel, highlighting many of the (RED) products which were available on Gilt.com.

The (RED) Shopathon jingle

A (RED) holiday 'jingle' featuring Scarlett Johansson, Barry Manilow and Jimmy Kimmel took the internet and media by storm, encouraging people everywhere to shop (RED) and help save lives during the holiday season. In addition to the jingle, Scarlett also starred in a parody home shopping video which featured a number of (RED) partner products.

Once-in-a-lifetime experiences with leading celebrities on Omaze.com

In partnership with the online giving platform, Omaze.com, for a $10 donation to fight AIDS, fans could buy the chance to win once-in-a-lifetime experiences with top celebrities. Experiences included a bike ride with Bono in Central Park, attending a film premiere with Meryl Streep, hanging backstage with Matt Damon at Jimmy Kimmel Live, getting a passing lesson from Tom Brady, and a salumi master class from Mario Batali, among many more incredible experiences.

One-stop (RED) holiday shopping with Gilt.com

(RED) teamed up with Gilt as the official e-commerce partner for the Shopathon campaign. Through December, Gilt offered more than 100 stylish (RED) and limited edition products including Alessi, Alex and Ani, Gap, Warby Parker, Jennifer Meyer, Converse, Le Creuset, Fatboy, Fresh, Jonathan Adler, Moleskine, Mophie and more, with every purchase raising money to fight AIDS.

"Brunch with the Brains" auctions on ebay.com

(RED) and eBay collaborated to auction off one-of-a-kind (RED) pieces and one-on-one brunch experiences with iconic global business figures. Among those offering their time to the highest bidders were Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company, Ari Emanuel, Co-CEO of WME and IMG, Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of Warby Parker, Biz Stone, Ev Williams and Jack Dorsey, Co-Founders of Twitter, Jonathan Adler, CEO of Jonathan Adler Enterprises and Devin Wenig, CEO of eBay.

(RED) and Snapchat launched the first ever global filter for a non-profit

On World AIDS Day, (RED) collaborated with Snapchat to launch the first ever global filter for a non-profit. Featuring three filters designed by Tiësto, Jared Leto and Jimmy Kimmel, every time one of the filters was used, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation donated $3 to fight AIDS, generating $3 million in under 24 hours.

The culinary world turned (RED) in June

In June 2015, (RED) once again rallied the culinary world to fight AIDS through its EAT (RED) DRINK (RED) SAVE LIVES campaign. Led by chef Mario Batali, the campaign saw more than 14,000 food and drink outlets turn (RED) to raise awareness and money to fight AIDS. An outdoor dinner for 1000 people in New York City, 'The (RED) Supper', kicked off the campaign which included everyone from food trucks to Michelin-starred restaurants, alongside Starbucks and Chipotle activations.

By Bob Pilon

ONE and (RED) hosted a World AIDS Day event at Carnegie Hall to celebrate progress in the fight against AIDS and extreme poverty.

"It Always Seems Impossible Until It Is Done" was the theme for ONE and (RED)'s 10th Anniversary Celebration on December 1 at Carnegie Hall where we highlighted the incredible progress being made in the fight against extreme poverty and HIV/AIDS. Hosted by The Daily Show's Trevor Noah with support from Vice President Joe Biden, Bono, Stephen Colbert, Danai Gurira and Sting, 2500 people, including over 1000 ONE members, were treated to a once in a lifetime musical program with performances by Bono and The Edge of U2, Hozier, Jessie J, Miley Cyrus — all backed by the Choir of the Kimbanguist Symphony Orchestra from Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. The event was made possible with the generous support of Ronald O. Perelman and many friends and supporters of (RED) and ONE.

In addition, we honored a group of extraordinary leaders, dedicated activists, and other partners who have made the world's progress possible. Those being honored included Bill and Melinda Gates; Michael R. Bloomberg; Dr. Mo Ibrahim, and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

"his is not a charity concert," said Bono in his introduction, "Tonight is not about famous names, tonight is about the honorable work of ONE and (RED), and that work is mostly done by young activists and volunteers whose names we don't know. An invisible army who will make the new world better than the old one."

By Adrian Lovett

On the morning of 20 April 2015, the world woke up to shocking photographs of people wading out of the clear blue Mediterranean Sea after a boat capsized and sank when sailing from Libya to Italy.

More than 1,200 people drowned in similar shipwrecks that month; many were fleeing war-torn Syria, Eritrea and Somali with a desperate hope to find refuge in Europe. It was a major turning point in what has become the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

The chaotic scenes on Europe's southern shores were matched by the chaos among Europe's leaders over how to respond. Many countries wanted all maritime rescue operations to stop immediately, claiming that by saving the lives of people in barely-seaworthy boats, they were creating a migratory pull and that people would therefore be discouraged from leaving North Africa's shores if they knew that they might drown. Alarmed by this reality — and ahead of an important meeting of European leaders to discuss the tragedy — ONE joined forces with Save the Children and other humanitarian organisations asking leaders to #RestartTheRescue as well as address the root causes of poverty that were driving so many people to make this dangerous crossing.

Some 36,479 ONE members signed our petition calling on their leaders to commit urgently to a comprehensive plan to provide shelter, provisions and safe passage to refugees, and to fund it without diverting money promised for other life-saving aid programmes around the world. Almost 11,400 new members joined ONE as a result of the action, showing just how close to people's hearts this tragedy was.

The European Commission presented EU leaders with a plan to resolve the crisis. The political stand-off between the open-doors policy of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the fence-building approach of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán underlined the breadth of ideologies across European countries today. The photograph of drowned three-year-old Alan Kurdi, lying face-down on a Turkish beach in September, finally spurred the public support and political will needed to find a resolution, and the rescue boats were re-launched.

An unresolved question was how cash-strapped governments were going to fund the exponential costs of the crisis. Some started to spend their ODA at home, and while the OECD does permit some such costs to be counted as aid, ONE felt that this was borrowing from the future. Rather than cutting life-saving aid programmes, we felt our leaders should continue to tackle the root causes of poverty and insecurity while also stepping up at home.

The European Commission proved that it is possible to address the refugee crisis while at the same time continuing development efforts. At the Global Citizen Festival in New York in September, Vice-President Frans Timmermans announced a commitment of €500 million for the EU trust fund for Syria, pledging that it would be "extra money" and "additional to existing development funds". Following ONE's "Protect Aid. Save Lives." campaign, the EU budget for 2016 saw an increase to both development aid for the poorest and funding for the refugee crisis, in spite of threatened cuts. We are running similar campaigns in other European countries; even Nordic countries that are traditionally seen as development champions have been diverting and cutting aid in recent months.

As we move into 2016, at the dawn of a new era under the Global Goals to end extreme poverty, ONE will keep fighting to ensure European leaders don't trade-off supporting refugees and investing in the world's poorest. They can — and must — do both.

By Roxane Philson

As 2015 began I was contemplating an urgent reality: ONE's mission to end extreme poverty and preventable disease by 2030 will only be possible if we dramatically improve the situation of girls and women.

The evidence is clear that extreme poverty hits girls and women hardest. The poorest women are often barred from inheriting land, owning a bank account or accessing education. Women in the developing world are far more likely than their first-world counterparts to die giving birth or become child brides.

ONE wanted — needed — to mobilize around these issues, but it was essential to get expert advice on how best to do so. So in January in Davos I had the great privilege of assembling a group of the best of the best — including Melinda Gates, Helene Gayle and Sheryl Sandberg — who generously offered their time to discuss the challenge.

These bright minds helped us to create a path — and armed with their insights, ONE went on to launch an audacious new campaign on International Women's Day that spoke a very simple truth: Poverty is Sexist.

ONE is at its best when matching wonk with sizzle, so we released a bold policy report that persuasively linked tackling gender inequality with ending extreme poverty. We launched a petition and teamed up with 36 of the world's most influential women to pen an open letter to world leaders asking them to act. Together, this combination gave the campaign wide media reach and put these issues in the popular consciousness.

The impact was tremendous, but this was just the start.

ONE teamed up with nine of Africa's top female artists to write and record a new song called Strong Girl, which was nominated for an All Africa Music Award, received extensive airplay across the continent and went on to be a true anthem for our campaign. The song was later remixed by male artists to demonstrate that these issues aren't just for women — they're for everyone.

The launch of Strong Girl was supported by tens of thousands of people posting #strengthies — a photo in the pose of 'Rosie the Riveter,' the US icon of female power, that demonstrates strength and solidarity. We were blown away by the show of support from people all around the world — more than 39,000 #strengthie posts including those from Malala Yousafzai, Eva Longoria and Mary J. Blige — and it became one of our most successful social media actions ever.

The campaign gained momentum over the summer, as we made noise around major summits where leaders agreed to implement policies that boost girls and women. For example, for the first time ever G7 leaders agreed on an initiative supporting girls and women in the Global South. And at the African Union Summit, leaders made promises that will benefit girls and women in health, agriculture and education. We'll be watching to make sure these promises are delivered.

We weren't done yet: we wanted to ensure that world leaders heard the message when they met in New York for the UN General Assembly. So we partnered with the Hudson Hotel in Manhattan to bring the names and images of campaign supporters — the million-plus people who signed our petition or took a #strengthie — to life by projecting their names and images onto the hotel's façade, just up the street from where leaders were discussing these issues.

It's been incredible to watch Poverty is Sexist come to life this year. What began as an earnest brainstorm at Davos built into a powerful movement that mobilized more than a million people across the globe to use their voice to stand up for girls and women. We helped put these issues on newspaper front pages and Facebook newsfeeds, and world leaders listened.

But we can't stop now. Women will again be at the heart of much of what ONE will do in 2016 and beyond.

The injustices we laid bare in our policy report haven't disappeared, and new ones have risen in our conscience. For example, this year we'll campaign heavily on HIV/AIDS and nutrition, knowing that girls and women in sub-Saharan Africa are almost three times as likely as their male peers to be living with HIV, and that more than 46% of pregnant women in Africa are anemic, which contributes to stunting in millions of children.

World leaders will meet in 2016 to make decisions that could stop these injustices, and our goal is to ensure they agree to smart policies that put girls and women at the center.

I hope you'll join us.

By Saira O'Maillie

The U2 iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE tour could not have been more aptly named. After a successful three month run in North America led by my colleague Charlie Harris, I took over the task of organizing ONE volunteers for the European leg.

I had no idea what lay in store for me, but it was a life changing experience and I leave it feeling prouder than ever that I work for ONE.

I arrived in Turin in September and could see immediately what an incredible team I'd joined. I was told on my first day that whatever problem I had, whatever I needed, there was someone in the crew who would be able to help. That proved true time and time again. Having been surrounded by such commitment, generosity, efficiency and kind heartedness for the last three months, from the crew, to our volunteers to the thousands of new ONE members, I absolutely believe that we can achieve our mission.

Through 40 shows in 12 cities I learned that our members are amongst the most wonderful people in the world. They travelled sometimes hundreds of miles, they stood outside in the wind and rain, they spoke to thousands of audience members about our work and signed up 30,000 new supporters to the fight against extreme poverty. Some had volunteered on previous tours, some were relatively new to our cause, but every single one brought with them the hope and belief that together, we can achieve anything.

I was overwhelmed in Turin when a volunteer celebrating their birthday told me that there was nothing else they could dream of doing on their special day. In Amsterdam I met volunteers who had been on stage during the last tour, and I could see how proud they were to be out representing ONE again. In Stockholm, after a security alert that led to the show's cancellation, our volunteers went home smiling despite several hours stood outside in the cold while we waited for news. In Berlin, thanks to the efforts of our brilliant German team, our greatest challenge was finding an audience member that wasn't already a ONE member too. In Barcelona we broke records, one night recruiting 2,500 new members with 269 signed up by a single volunteer in just a few hours. In Antwerp our Brussels team smashed our targets. In Cologne one of our youngest volunteers was invited on stage to play guitar with the band. Home to London and our Youth Ambassadors did us proud. In Glasgow, the UK's youngest MP danced along to the band she credits with sparking her interest in politics. A new generation of activists who I am sure will see us through to the end of extreme poverty.

Then Paris. Our French team turned out in force to lead a fantastic group of volunteers, and then went on to show such immense resilience and strength, proving that we will fight on against any odds and that love can and will conquer fear.

In Belfast, experienced volunteers brought nephews, friends and in-laws to get their first taste of campaigning for ONE; and they were hooked. In Dublin I welcomed back volunteers from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the US and Belgium who travelled at the own expense just to be part of the experience. I have never heard a crowd like it. I was proud to see ONE t-shirts throughout the venue, not just our volunteers, but members who wanted to show their love for the band and for the cause.

And finally back to Paris. Volunteers turned out in force, their energy unrelenting; their optimism unstoppable. As the crowd sang out, "People Have the Power," I thought about the more than 300 volunteers who I had shared the last three months with. They had all thanked me for letting them be part of the experience, but we should all thank them for everything that they do, and will continue to do, till we end extreme poverty together.

By Tom Hart

As 2016 began, we got some great news: the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Electrify Africa Act.

It was a moment of real celebration. This bill will help sub-Saharan African countries modernize their power infrastructure and increase their access to electricity — saving lives, strengthening education, alleviating extreme poverty, and accelerating growth and development. It had already passed the Senate in December. On 8 February, President Barack Obama signed it, officially making it law.

It was a long haul. Our efforts to increase access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa began in 2013, when ONE worked with bipartisan lawmakers to introduce the Electrify Africa Act in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Energize Africa Act in the U.S. Senate.

Despite significant progress we ran out of time to get the bill passed out of the Senate and signed into law.

But all of those efforts laid a strong foundation for everything that followed. In June of last year, Representatives Ed Royce (R-CA) and Eliot Engel (D-NY), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced H.R. 2847, Electrify Africa Act of 2015. Even better, this time around, the Senate and House coordinated to introduce the same text and title in each chamber. In August, Senators BobCorker (R-TN) and Ben Cardin (D-MD), the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee introduced S. 1933, The Electrify Africa Act of 2015.

Many of the members that we got to co-sponsor the bills in the last Congress quickly jumped back on board. The strong bipartisan track record that was established in 2013 and 2014 helped pave the way for the bill to move forward in the new Congress. After consultations between Democrats and Republicans, Senators Corker and Cardin made changes and introduced a new Electrify Africa Act in November: S. 2152. That bill was passed out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with unanimous support, and in December it was passed out of the Senate with the same unanimous support. Then the House of Representatives quickly took up the bill in the new year and also passed it with unanimous support. Each of these steps represented a huge victory for the bill, all of the work that ONE members put into getting it passed, and the fight against extreme poverty.

From the time the bill was introduced in the Senate to the time it was passed, ONE worked tirelessly to raise awareness about energy poverty and demonstrate support for the Electrify Africa Act. In total, 2,387 calls and 17,255 letters were sent by ONE members around the country, sending a message that was absolutely heard in Washington and providing critical support for getting the bill passed out of the Senate. We held a Power Summit in April, which brought members to DC for meetings with Congressional Offices. And hundreds of ONE members around the country delivered a combined 360,000 signed petitions to their leaders in Congress urging them to support this legislation.

In addition, we made sure that more people knew about the issue. Working with educational publisher Scholastic we launched Life Empowered, a campaign to raise awareness and educate students, their teachers and families about energy poverty. Life Empowered reached nearly one million people through lesson plans and a parent take-home. We helped support the development of amazing content for the Discovery Digital Networks: Journalist Laura Ling traveled to Tanzania to experience the issue and meet with some of the individuals affected for How Africa is Hacking Its Energy Crisis, a short-form documentary. We supported video and photos that were featured on Mashable and the Huffington Post. And we launched advertisements on charging stations in Washington's Reagan National Airport to show travellers that not everyone has easy access to the electricity we take for granted.

It couldn't be a better start to 2016 than to see the legislation succeed. This is a powerful moment in the fight against extreme poverty. There will be more to come as we reach out to our members, Members of Congress, and everyone who helped along the way, so stay tuned.

The ONE Campaign is grateful for the Caterpillar Foundation's support of our energy work and leadership in building a world "Together. Stronger."

By David McNair

I've heard a fair amount of scepticism about the Global Goals — not just from aid critics, but from my own friends and family. "17 Goals? That's a laundry list, not a set of priorities," "I just don't believe this circus of bloated UN diplomats are going to change anything for real people," they said.

As I tried to answer their criticisms, I didn't reach for the UN's talking points. I turned to something that I truly believe in; that when people are empowered with good information, the ability to understand it, and the opportunity to act, things change. The Global Goals give local communities that opportunity.

Take the community of Iwoye-Ilogbo in Nigeria. More than four hundred children were crammed into two classrooms with tin roofs after the community ran out of funds to complete construction of their school. Analysis of the budget showed the funds had been diverted. A community-led campaign demanding the money has led to the new school being built.

But all too often, citizens can't get access to the information they need. It's out of date, buried in government filing cabinets or simply doesn't exist. One-third of births are not registered today. That means one-third of people born into this world do not exist officially — which affects their access to justice as well as government's ability to invest for the future.

The lack of credible data is a crisis undermining the fight against extreme poverty.

So last year, ONE did something about it. We brought together governments, donors, businesses to convince them that we have a problem. The World Bank, Facebook, the US and Kenyan governments, Oxfam, Mastercard and many more joined us, initially at the Addis UN conference on Financing for Development in July and then at the UN General Assembly to launch the Global Partnership on Sustainable Development Data.

In the next 15 years this new organisation and more than 80 partners will work to map the data gaps and start to fill them through new finance for statistical agencies, combined with innovation. Already, the government of Kenya is working with Planet Labs — a company that sends satellites, just larger than a laptop into space to take pictures of the whole earth every two days. This new up to date data is helping the Kenyan government to implement its strategy of agriculture. It sounds dry but this could be the glue that binds the global commitments made in New York to the everyday lives of individual's lives in communities across Africa and around the globe.

Equally, ensuring that the world's poorest people have internet connectivity doesn't seem like a top priority, up there with access to nutritious food, vaccines or clean water. But while it shouldn't detract from lifesaving work to meet the most basic needs, the internet really can be an essential building block for empowering people to lift themselves out of poverty. With it, mothers can access information on infant nutrition and check clinic opening times. Farmers can check long-range weather forecasts or cut out middlemen so that they get the best price for their crops. Young people can monitor what their local government's budget is and start to demand results.

So in September we launched the Connectivity Declaration with Bono, Mark Zuckerberg, and many others. It calls on World Leaders and businesses to ensure that everyone has access to the Internet. This might seem like virtual reality, but with a razor-sharp focus on investments in infrastructure, addressing the competition policy that keeps costs high and integrating education, it is a real possibility — and an amazing challenge for the world.

ONE is funded by a combination of foundations, individual philanthropists and corporations. We do not solicit funds from the general public or receive government funding. Below is a list of our financial supporters who have generously contributed at least $25,000 to our work since January 2015. Some of our donors have asked for confidentiality and we respect this request. Funding from anonymous donors amounts to less than 5% of our total grants and contributions.

ONE is especially grateful for the long-time partnership with and major support from our friends at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for our 501(c)3 operations.

ONE is thankful to have had the support of the following donors since January 2015.

Abbott
Alex and Ani
Cindy & Ryan Beedie
Lynne & Marc Benioff
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Bono
Howard G. Buffett Foundation
Ronald W. Burkle Foundation
Caterpillar Foundation
Ray Chambers, MCJ Amelior Foundation
Coatue Foundation
Ann & John Doerr
Natallie & Amar Doman
Foundation to Promote Open Society
Tom Freston
Fund for Policy Reform
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The David Geffen Foundation
Anna Getty
Theresia Gouw & Matthew McIntyre
William & Flora Hewlett Foundation
Sonia & Paul Tudor Jones
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Marilyn & Jeffrey Katzenberg
Kore Infrastructure
Robert Kraft, New England Patriots Foundation
George Lucas Family Foundation
Catie & Donald Marron
Paddy McKillen
Patrick B. Meneley
National Basketball Association
Denis O'Brien
Jack Oliver
Omidyar Network
Sean Parker Family Foundation
Ronald O. Perelman
Peter G. Peterson Foundation
Pritzker Innovation Fund
Amy Rao
Salesforce
Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg
Curtis Schenker
Sherwood Foundation
Sandi & John Thompson
Alice & Thomas Tisch Foundation
Alba & Thomas Tull
Universal Music Group

Combined Unaudited Draft Financial Statements for The ONE Campaign, ONE Action, and ONE Campaign Africa

For the year ending December 31, 2015* (with comparative totals for 2014)

Statement of Financial Position	As of 12/31/15*	As of 12/31/14
Assets
Cash and cash equivalents	1,318,448	4,438,773
Grants receivable, net of discount	30,485,000	17,241,872
Investments	8,925,768	6,411,798
Furniture, equipment, lease improvements, net	1,022,226	1,196,647
Website and intangible assets, net	580,914	780,815
Deposits and prepaid expenses	613,605	743,851
Other assets	516,769	461,158
Total Assets	$43,462,730	$31,274,914
Liabilities and Net Assets Liabilities
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities	1,605,497	1,371,545
Deferred revenue	592,414	492,542
Deferred rent and lease incentives	677,638	604,118
Total Liabilities	$2,875,549	$2,468,205
Net Assets
Unrestricted**	9,548,192	7,289,445
Temporarily restricted	29,038,989	19,517,264
Permanently restricted	2,000,000	2,000,000
Total Net Assets	$40,587,180	$28,806,709
Total Liabilities and Net Assets	$43,462,730	$31,274,914

Statement of Activities	Year Ending 12/31/15*	Year Ending 12/31/14
Change in Unrestricted Net Assets Revenue
Contributions and grants	10,282,285	9,849,914
Earned Income	2,017,673	2,617,717
Other Revenue	166,112	58,993
Net Assets released from restrictions	30,257,186	21,980,548
Total Revenue	$42,723,256	$34,507,172
Expenses
Program Services	31,541,828	27,008,091
Management and general	6,629,954	5,486,821
Fundraising	2,292,727	992,727
Total Expenses	$40,464,510	$33,487,639
Change in Unrestricted Net Assets**	$2,258,746	$1,019,533
Change in Temporarily Restricted Net Assets Revenue
Contributions and grants	39,751,000	9,380,046
Net Investment income	27,911	59,443
Net Assets released from restrictions	(30,257,186)	(21,980,548)
Change in Temporarily Restricted Net Assets	$9,521,725	$12,541,059
Change in Permanently Restricted Net Assets	$–	$–
Change in Net Assets	$11,780,471	$(11,521,526)
Net Assets, Beginning of Year	$28,806,709	$40,328,235
Net Assets, End of Year	$40,587,180	$28,806,709

ONE is a combined effort of two organizations, the ONE Campaign and ONE Action. ONE Action is a nonprofit advocacy organization under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. The ONE Campaign is a related Section 501(c)(3) charitable and educational organization. (RED) is a division of the ONE Campaign.

*Information derived from audited financial statement draftss, which are available at ONE's offices.

**Including Board-designated net assets