Built by a rock god, backed by film stars and ‘9million’ fans
ONE was founded in 2004 by Bono and a couple of friends – Jamie Drummond, a former Christian Aid worker, and Bobby Shriver, a scion of the Kennedy family. It aims to harness the power of celebrity while raising cash from businesses to push the fight against poverty – and is a key plank in the Irish rock star’s campaigning on development issues.
The US-based organisation claims nine million members, based on email subscribers. And it has been backed by some of the world’s top movie stars, including Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks and George Clooney, in its slick commercials. Funders include billionaires such as Bill Gates.
The board features David Cameron, former US treasury secretary Larry Summers and Africa’s richest person, Aliko Dangote. Perhaps this explains why it has held meetings in the five-star splendour of London’s Claridge’s Hotel – an unusual place for anti-poverty campaigners to press their cause. ONE runs campaigns against corruption and tax evasion – a ‘trillion dollar scandal’ for the developing world – although some board members are also executives of highprofile tax avoiders such as Facebook. Defenders point to the impressive €400m its RED offshoot has raised for the fight against AIDS, TB and malaria through corporate partnerships. Like other aid organisations, it reels off statistics about improving healthcare and education in the developing world.
Its highest-paid executive is RED’s head Deborah Dugan, who was handed an annual package worth £414,344, according to its most recent tax filing. ONE’s chief executive took home almost £350,000 in 2016.
ONE preaches citizen activism. It seeks to make poverty history, attacks sexism and talks passionately about female empowerment. All of which makes these charges and claims of hypocrisy by its former African staff so devastating for its carefully constructed brand.