History
About Us

Founded in 2005, Positive Foundations (PF) at Brandeis University has risen to become the premier student-led organization mobilizing universities around the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to eradicate extreme poverty. Positive Foundations works closely with some of the leading anti-poverty agencies and world leaders such as Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, the Earth Institute at Columbia University, the United Nations Development Programme, and the ONE Campaign.

On campus, Positive Foundations has created an empowering presence. Organized by the NGO Millennium Campaign, the STAND UP Against Poverty (October 15, 2006) international event brought together more than 23 million people across the world; PF hosted the largest STAND UP in Massachusetts with 350 participants, including Mayor McCarthy of Waltham and Gubernatorial Candidate Grace Ross (MA).

The evening of November 8^th, 2006, 180 people joined in a Coffeehouse at Brandeis hosted by Positive Foundations. During an array of performances and a PowerPoint presentation, the event raised more than $300 for the NGO Millennium Promise.

On November 28th-29th, 2006, members of Positive Foundations were invited as youth world leaders to be featured panelists for a conference at the United Nations on the Millennium Development Goals.

From April 11-17, 2007, Positive Foundations hosted the first annual Millennium Development Goals Week at Brandeis. The week included lectures from experts on economic development, history and geography, and African systems of governance; a concert fundraiser; and a community dinner focused on economic inequality and effective development techniques.

The highlights of the week were:

A live videoconference with Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General on the MDGs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and author of The End of Poverty

A lecture with Brandeis faculty from the Heller School for Social Policy and Manangement, with guest Dr. Eric Kashambuzi, Senior Policy Adviser from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), on specific MDGs targets and the Millennium Villages model of rural integrated development.

A Call to Action with the ONE Campaign, where students called their respective members of Congress to make poverty eradication a legislative priority.

On April 29^th, 2007, the Brandeis University Undergraduate Student Union named Positive Foundations the Club of the Year for 2006-2007, recognizing our efforts to make extreme poverty a campus priority.

Positive Foundations has brought together more than 1,000 community members during its events at Brandeis, and has raised $5,000 for Millennium Promise to sponsor small-scale interventions such as anti-malarial bednets, school lunches, and treatment for parasitic infection. In addition, the organization has been featured on the Millennium Promise homepage, the ONE Campaign website, and in local media and online publications.