Global Outreacher: David Morrison
January 27, 2003
By Mark Malloch Brown

David Morrison wants you to join him in the fight against global poverty. He wants your mother to be involved too, and your siblings, your children, the guy who cuts your hair and the person who delivers your mail. Morrison believes that the combination of globalization and new technologies has made it possible for ordinary people in wealthy countries to become extraordinary activists for the world's poorest.

As the first president of NetAid, a New York City-based nonprofit with roots in the United Nations and in high-tech computer-network giant Cisco Systems, Morrison is putting his ideas into action. Since beginning operations less than three years ago, NetAid has inspired tens of thousands of people to help address global scourges such as HIV/AIDS and unsafe drinking water. Its latest initiative, the NetAid World Schoolhouse, supports critical primary-education projects in developing countries. A NetAid program called Online Volunteering enables volunteer telecommuters to help poverty-fighting organizations in nearly 60 countries around the world. Canada is the third largest supplier of NetAid Online volunteers. Some 460,000 people in more than 30 developing countries have benefited from NetAid projects.

Born in Lethbridge in 1962, Morrison studied history and international relations at Yale and Oxford; his career included stints with Canada's Foreign Ministry, the United Nations Development Programme and the World Economic Forum, where he helped organize the annual Davos summit of global leaders. He came to NetAid in early 2000 at the behest of the board of directors, which includes the heads of several U.N. agencies as well as leading CEOs. In Morrison's early days, the organization comprised staffers almost entirely from the U.N. and Cisco Systems, working in separate offices in Manhattan and Silicon Valley. In mid-2001, Morrison took NetAid independent, consolidating and streamlining operations in New York City. It now functions autonomously.

Morrison believes that if ordinary people in wealthy countries knew how close the world was to a real breakthrough, poverty could be eliminated within 50 years. With this in mind, NetAid promotes a new kind of direct, accountable and transparent philanthropy for global causes while raising awareness and promoting action. Every penny of donations is accounted for on the NetAid website. The NetAid Network numbers more than 50,000 activists.

Mark Malloch Brown is the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme