Beauty is a pretty superficial business. But one well-known cosmetics company has managed to turn women’s love of lipstick into a multi-million pound charity fundraiser that is helping hundreds of HIV projects around the world.

There are several things about MAC Cosmetics and its MAC Aids Fund that singles it out from run-of-the-mill corporate social responsibility.

First is the amount it has managed to raise. Since it was founded 14 years ago it has raised $113 million (£56 million), making it one of the biggest corporate grant makers. It is currently the largest corporate funder of HIV/Aids projects outside the pharmaceutical sector and the third biggest overall — no mean achievement for a company that began life from humble beginnings, as a two-man band working from a tiny Toronto kitchen.

But what is more unusual still is the way the foundation raises its money.

Instead of guaranteeing a certain percentage of profits each year for a good cause — the usual model for a corporate foundation — MAC decided on a new fundraising structure which lets its lipstick do all the work.

In 1994 it launched a new product, the Viva Glam lipstick, and decreed that proceeds from sales would go to the fund. That means customers are the sole donors and sales staff the fundraisers.

And here is another first. The pledge was and still is that 100 per cent of the £11 retail price of the lipstick would go into the fund. This gives customers a solid guarantee that every penny they spend will end up being put to good use, and is particularly important in an era of scepticism about charity merchandising.

Fourteen years on from the launch of the first Viva Glam lipstick and the products form an integral part of the range. There are now six different colours on sale and three lip glosses. In Britain alone, customers bought $1 million worth of them last year.

John Demsey, chairman of the Aids Fund, said in 1994 that the motivation was about doing something for an issue that had so profoundly affected the fashion community

“The whole thing is grassroots,” he said. “We depend on our make-up artists to sell the lipsticks. They are our ambassadors. They usually love the product and want to sell it because they know not only are they great shades but that every time someone buys one the money goes to charity.”

Many staff have become involved directly with HIV charities and volunteer. One popular cause is giving makeovers to women living with HIV or Aids.

But perhaps the most surprising thing of all about MAC is its long-term commitment to the cause of HIV.

In recent years it has become harder for charities to raise funds, in particular for work with HIV sufferers in the United States and Britain.

Steven Inman, head of grants and projects at Crusaid, a British charity, commented that“HIV and Aids in the UK has now become an unpopular subject for both discussion and fundraising. The people affected are often very poor and right on the margins of society. Maybe some people think they do not deserve to be helped. MAC has just given us the security of a three-year contract worth £72,000 annually to fund our national hardship fund which pays for a network of social workers, medication, food and basic household things like a washing machine for people with HIV. This is invaluable.”One of the reasons why HIV charities are struggling to raise funds, he believes, is due to a series of misconceptions that have arisen following the development of anti-retroviral drugs and their greater availability.

Research commissioned by MAC and just released indicated that 54 per cent of people in Britain mistakenly believe that there is a cure for HIV or think that Aids is not always fatal.

Roughly half the population think that most people with HIV are receiving treatment when in fact only one five who need treatment is getting it.

Demsey said: “There is a general lack of understanding that HIV is the world’s greatest pandemic and that it takes root in countries or sub-cultures that are least able to care for themselves. That means our funds go to things that are not so popular, like needle exchange programmes in St Petersburg or meals and medical services for people in Manchester living below the poverty line, and we will continue to do so.”

www.macaidsfund.org