Life has its unpleasant realities. As much as we might wish the world (or the people who live here) were different, we know they are not. So we accept some unpleasant realities. Sometimes, we can even appreciate how those realities bring out our creative streak and we make the proverbial lemonade from lemons.

For example, in the US, only about 2% of all private individual donations are for international causes. The American government gives less than 1% of its budget in foreign assistance. A significant minority of Americans object to foreign assistance, despite the evidence that investments in health and well-being of people in other countries have led to real improvements in the quality of their lives. (And some would argue that it helps the US economy and national security.

So it is not surprising that we need something like Project (RED). Companies licensed the Project RED logo in exchange for agreeing to give a percentage of their product sales revenue to the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. According to the New York Times, Project RED is one of the top ten donors to the Global Fund. Project RED and its corporate partners donated more than $59 million. Pretty good.

So what is the unpleasant reality here? I guess the question is do we have to have something like Project (RED) to raise individual private giving to HIV/AIDS? Do we really have to buy a product in order to give to a cause? I say kudos to Bono, DATA, and the companies involved for being willing to face the unpleasant realities and come up with a creative solution. I just wish that it weren’t necessary.