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24 janvier, 2008 11:54

Mike Dewey doesn't have the money, but he is sure he can get it.

By Andrea Ball

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Barbara Dewey was 40 when she got breast cancer.

"The first thing I thought about was not me, but the fact that I had two daughters," she said. "You just hope by the time they're young adults, there's a cure found."

Dewey was lucky. Doctors caught the disease early, and she is now cancer-free.

Though treatments have greatly improved, seven years later, there is still no cure for breast cancer.

Now, Dewey's husband, Mike, is trying to speed up the process by starting a foundation and offering $1 billion to the first person to find a cure.

"This whole thing is an intensely personal thing for me," he said. "I figure I've got about 20 years to make sure this thing works so my little girls don't get breast cancer."

But the $1 billion reward doesn't just apply to breast cancer. Dewey — who created the Dewey Foundation and calls his effort the Victory Project — is also offering $1 billion awards to the first people to produce a high miles-per-gallon car, a cure for diabetes or a huge reduction in greenhouse emissions.

Dewey, 48, is no millionaire. And he doesn't have $4 billion to hand out.

But the Austin marketing consultant, who helps foreign companies sell products in the United States, isn't banking on his own money to make good on his promises. Dewey is soliciting donations from corporations, foundations and individuals. So far, he says he's rounded up $6 million in pledges — barely a dent in the money he needs.

Yet the idea has caught the imagination of some big players. Advertising firm GSD&M created Victory Project's branding, logos and marketing materials for free.

Former Texas secretary of state and Houston power broker Jack Rains has signed on, donating money and pitching the project to his friends.

Rains said Dewey's concept serves as a real incentive to solving big problems.

"It's refreshing when someone changes paradigms and attacks a problem from a different angle," Rains said. "That's basically what Mike's doing."

Dewey has faith that the cash will come.

"I know it to be true, this will absolutely work," he said.

Dewey's approach is radically different from the traditional philanthropy model. Most foundations fund the process of finding a cure for societal problems, said Peter Frumkin, executive director of the RGK Foundation for Philanthropy and Community Service. Foundations pay for research and programs, not the actual product, he said.

Dewey's approach is rare but has notable roots. In 1919, wealthy hotelier Raymond Orteig offered $25,000 to the first pilot who could fly nonstop between New York and Paris. The winner? Charles Lindbergh, a then-unknown air mail pilot who made the first solo, nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927.

And the X Prize Foundation has made a huge splash over the past few years with its $10 million awards for space and science innovations. In October 2004, $10 million was awarded to Mojave Aerospace Ventures, which built and flew the world's first private vehicle to space twice in two weeks. The foundation continues to offer multimillion-dollar prizes for breakthroughs in areas such as life improvement and exploration.

But the Victory Project is different. First, obviously, it offers the winners much more money. But it also claims ownership rights to the cure/invention created by the winners — something the X Prize does not do.

The plan is not to sell the innovation, Dewey said.

"I intend to give the dang thing away," he said. "There are people dying out there because they can't afford the next pill off the AIDS drug assembly line. Our idea gets the whole profit incentive out of the way up front."