New Nonprofit Aims to Raise $50M to Fight Opioid Addiction

A new nonprofit in Massachusetts plans to raise $50 million over the next 3 years to support innovative efforts to fight opioid addiction and substance abuse and has already attracted $13 million in funding commitments.

RIZE Massachusetts held its first meeting in Boston and has begun its search for an executive director.

Its board includes executives from the GE Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Cape Cod Healthcare, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, The Dimock Center, Learn to Cope, Partners HealthCare and Boston Medical Center.

"For too long, medicine has failed to treat addiction as the chronic disease that it is," RIZE board member David Torchiana, president and CEO of Partners, said in a statement describing the approach behind the new effort. "This effort holds promise because it is focused on the ongoing process of recovery. It is the only approach that will defeat this epidemic."