In 2006, the Legatum Foundation was searching to find out how it could make the biggest impact with their philanthropic organization. After reading that for less than 50 cents per person, the foundation could help treat and prevent neglected tropical diseases, they decided it was worth a pilot program. They funded two neglected tropical diseases programs in Rwanda and Burundi as a proof of concept to see whether they could help scale treatment coverage to meaningfully reduce the prevalence of a disease.

“We took an investors approach to this thinking,” said Mark Stoleson, CEO of Legatum, a global investment firm that created the Legatum Foundation. “How can we test this, how can we try this on a national level of eliminating these diseases, and how can we do it with the sense that it is financially responsible and efficient that focuses on the return on investment?”

Over the span of four years, the program treated more than eight million people for diseases like intestinal worms, schistosomiasis, and lymphatic filariasis at a small cost. Satisfied that the intervention showed the feasibility to rapidly expand a program at a national level, it generated the enthusiasm to create a standalone organization in 2012 called the END Fund with the sole focus of pooling resources to end neglected tropical diseases globally.

“The END Fund was set up to ensure everyone has access to medicine to treat neglected tropical diseases,” said the END Fund’s founding CEO, Ellen Agler. “The END Fund was started by people in the finance sector. They came up with a vision to treat 50 million people in five years. When I heard that, I thought that I don’t know if that is possible, but I love big dreams. And actually, we were able to make it happen.”

Utilizing a fund model, the END Fund began working out of a small shared working space in New York in 2012. With a handful of employees, it found early success in filling gaps in existing programs. In 2012, a coup in Mali temporarily cut USAID funding for neglected tropical disease programs in the country. If the program skipped even one year, it would put its progress towards elimination in jeopardy. The END Fund was able to raise the necessary resources to ensure the program continued and even expanded.

Since then, the END Fund has been able to routinely work with partners to distribute treatments to more than 100 million people per year, and has worked with partners to distribute approximately 2 billion total treatments. The END Fund has continued to dream big and now has a goal of helping 500 million people to no longer need annual treatment for neglected tropical diseases.

The expansion of the END Fund has led it to become a global organization with three hubs in New York, London and Nairobi. Today, the END Fund raises resources and provides technical support to a multitude of partners who provide treatment, perform surgeries, expand access to clean water and work with communities to build sustainable change to eliminate neglected tropical diseases.