Maternal health and child survival were a critical health objective included in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) announced in 2000. However, by 2015 it was clear that not all countries had met this goal, although there had been considerable progress made across the world. In India, more than 830 women and 16,000 children under the age of five died every day, mostly of preventable causes. And yet, that same year, this was a story fast receding into recesses of public health news. There was no more important time than this to bring the issue back to the center of public consciousness and promote a call to action to eradicate this issue once and for all.

With only 30 days to plan and execute, and on a shoestring budget we transformed a closed-door strategy session into an opportunity to bring a call to action to more than a billion people. The Call to Action Summit brought leaders from 24 nations to Delhi to assess key learnings and challenges and chart a path forward to address this most pressing issue. More than 814 print, online and broadcast outlets, in India and around the world, reported the story in real time on the front pages, Op-Eds pages, and financial pages. The powerful idea helped us achieve an ad value of more than $1.232 million, an ROI of more than 2,680%.