RUSH Foundation Information

RUSH was founded in September 2010 to help breathe new thinking into HIV policy and on-the-ground interventions in sub-Saharan Africa. Our name conveys our determination to cut through the clutter of consensus solutions to provide fast, effective funding for innovative, disruptive ideas to address the pandemic and its social effects. We are a small, self-funded organisation which doesn’t have to cater to donor consensus. We therefore have a higher risk tolerance than most and we are impatient with obstacles to fresh thinking. In fact, when it comes to tackling this pandemic, we think new, disruptive perspectives are most likely to be the game changers we need. We aim to stimulate policy debate which generates new perspectives and leads to tangible improvement in government and donor HIV priorities. We also pioneer new on-the-ground approaches by seeding innovation in research, livelihood improvements, behaviour change, etc. We seek to stay away from well-beaten tracks and focus on funding initiatives that are either overlooked or poorly served by previously existing efforts. ‘RUSH’ can refer to one of two separate entities: RUSH Foundation is a registered charity in the United Kingdom; Fondation RUSH is a registered charity in Switzerland.