The Red campaign itself does not advertise, said Susan Smith Ellis, the chief executive. Instead, companies pay Red a licensing fee to label one or more of their products “(RED).” Then, they pay a portion of sales from those products to the Global Fund, a public-private charity set up six years ago to fight AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in Africa. The fund sends the money to three countries  Rwanda, Ghana and Swaziland  to help women and children infected with H.I.V. and to educate those who are uninfected in how to stay that way.

Image At the Treatment and Research AIDS Center in Kigali, doctors now have more time for patients, in part because of Red money. Credit... Riccardo Gangale for The New York Times

The percentage of profit that goes to the fund depends on the item and the company. For instance, 1 percent of all spending on American Express’s Red cards goes to the fund, as do 50 percent of net profits from the sale of Gap Red items and $8.50 from each sale of a Motorola Red Motorazr.

In return, the companies can market themselves as socially conscious and, ideally, increase sales. (Neither Red nor the companies would disclose revenue or total contributions by company or product.)

According to a 2006 poll by Cone Inc., a marketing agency in Boston, 89 percent of Americans between 13 and 25 would switch from one brand to another associated with a “good cause,” if products and prices were comparable.

Over all, more than $59 million has been contributed by Red and its corporate partners to the Global Fund. Red-financed projects have helped put more than 30,000 people on antiretroviral treatment and provided more than 300,000 H.I.V.-positive pregnant women with counseling and treatment, according to data from Red and the fund.

Red and its donors have contributed nearly all the corporate money that has gone to the fund, which had $2.4 billion in 2007. This made Red the 15th-largest donor  more than Russia has given so far, and more than China, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland have pledged.