The MORE Project: MonaVie’s Give Back Effort

MonaVie was founded in January 2005. Since then, it has enjoyed tremendous growth both in sales and profits. As part of the company’s commitment to bring about good health not just to the human body but also to distributors’ financial status, it has decided to give back a part of its blessings to needy individuals. This effort is equivalent to the usual corporate social responsibility practices of all other companies. A few months after its foundation, MonaVie has decided to find a non-profit organization that deserves to receive financial support from the company. MonaVie has chosen the MORE Project in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

MonaVie learned about the MORE Project from Doug Roland, one of its authorized distributors. Prior to his affiliation with the company, Mr. Roland was already involved in actively doing charitable activities in Brazil. In one of his charitable assignments, he met Sergio Ponce. Mr. Ponce in turn has been active in helping impoverished families along the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Mr. Ponce assumed the charitable act from his mother, who had lived to do exactly the same deed. After top managers of MonaVie spoke with Mr. Ponce, they were instantly convinced that the MORE Project was the right charitable organization to gain support from the company. From then on, MonaVie’s CSR has been focused to the MORE Project.

The company points out that the MORE Project is in line with MonaVie’s goal to improve lives. The non-governmental organization assists families who are living in poverty-stricken areas of Brazil. The project exists to provide poor people with necessary skills, support, and resources so they could earn more to overcome poverty and start living their lives with good health, hope, and dignity. MORE is currently synonymous to MonaVie’s commitment to help end suffering (in any form) of people. The organization believes that the best way to help people overcome poverty is to provide them with necessary knowledge and skills to do better and to come up with ideas/products that would be productive and lucrative.

Another factor that helped MonaVie decide to choose the MORE Project was the poverty rate in Brazil. During that time, more than 20% of Brazilian families were living in extreme poverty. Through the sponsorship, MonaVie is assuring 100% coverage of the MORE Project’s total administrative costs. Thus, all donations from the company and its distributors go directly to the organization. Through the years, donations from MonaVie have increased. In 2006, MonaVie donated thousands of dollars to the project. In 2008, such donations reached $2 million and in 2009, $3 million was provided to the cause.

In 2006, MonaVie’s donations to the project covered 43 individuals. In 2007, it covered 510, in 2008 it supported 1,275, and in 2009, more than 2,000 people were covered annually. Thus, no one could question the humanitarian efforts of MonaVie. Indeed, the company is bent not just to improve health and income of people but also to help in assisting the impoverished to overcome poverty particularly in Brazil, where acai berry, the main ingredient of MonaVie products, is harvested.