By leveraging their information management knowledge, leadership skills and working relationships with external IT companies, CIOs are in a unique position to help a company achieve its social responsibility objectives. We describe “SMS for Life,” a CIO-led initiative at Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceuticals and healthcare company. SMS for Life is a mobile phone-based solution to a severe antimalarial drug “stock out” problem that saves many lives in rural Africa. Other IT executives can learn lessons from this initiative.