Seahawks and Trail Blazers Owner PAUL ALLEN on Thursday promised to donate $100M in the fight against Ebola and urged "other philanthropists to follow suit," according to a front-page piece by Craig Welch of the SEATTLE TIMES. Thursday's announcement "is just the latest indication that Allen wants to help lead the way in battling the deadly virus." It comes on top of nearly $40M Allen had already committed to the effort. Paul G. Allen Family Foundation co-Manager DUNE IVES said that Allen "was inspired to donate in part because he and his sister have spent so much time in Africa," where the disease has proved particularly deadly, and added that they "want to give back." But Ebola also "is a crisis that Allen began paying attention to earlier than most, helping pay for early vaccine trials in chimps and great apes years ago." Welch reports Allen behind the scenes also "has been working with other major donors, trying to find ways to leverage more money." His team also "has tried to help determine just how and where other contributions can do the most good." They have "designed a website, www.TackleEbola.com, to help individuals find places to spend their money, but also focused early on some of the costly and hard-to-fix logistical problems" (SEATTLE TIMES, 10/24). Allen said, "Everybody feels called sometimes to really pursue a certain thing that resonates with them, and this has resonated with me." He said that when he first "began hearing about the Ebola outbreak in July, he had a 'nagging sense' that it could spiral out of control." In N.Y., Stephanie Strom noted Allen's website helps to "direct small donors to projects that need financing, like 6,000 hand-washing stations or beds for a center treating patients infected with the virus, and he is underwriting the administrative costs of the highlighted projects." Part of Allen’s money will go to UMass' medical school to "underwrite training, medical workers and lab equipment in Liberia, where the public health system struggles for funding and many district hospitals are closed" (NYTIMES.com, 10/23).
