QHow are funders maintaining long-term support of HIV/AIDS?

QHow are funders maintaining long-term
support of HIV/AIDS?
Executive Summary
FUNDERS CO N C E R N E D About AIDS (FCAA) is the
leading educator and advocate within the philanthropic community on
HIV/AIDS. In research conducted by FCAA through the Gallup Organization
in 1999, there were clear, troubling signs of weakness and disengagement in
the domestic philanthropic response to HIV/AIDS.2 The same research
documented a developing, yet small and somewhat unorganized,
philanthropic commitment to the enormous international HIV/AIDS crisis.
In response to this research and a pandemic that is evolving both
domestically and internationally, FCAA embarked on additional qualitative
research involving leading HIV/AIDS funders. This study, called the Funder
Remobilization Project (FRP), was designed to gather information that will
enable FCAA to better understand and further the philanthropic response
to HIV/AIDS well into the 21st century. The research involved conducting
in-depth interviews with 35 of the nation’s leading HIV/AIDS funders to
answer several primary research questions.
Grantmakers are re-aligning HIV/AIDS
funding with their missions and
strategic goals by making the
connection between HIV/AIDS and
other community needs.
• The populations most affected by
HIV/AIDS domestically and the issues
confronting them—poverty, access to
health care and substance abuse, for
example—often align well with many
foundations’ longstanding commitments
to community development and
problem solving.
• Most of the funders interviewed are
integrating HIV/AIDS grantmaking
into broader, longstanding grantmaking
areas such as health, chronic care, youth
development and public policy.
• According to the funders interviewed,
this strategy of “integration” can lead to
increased resource availability and the
potential for more sustained support.
• Grantmakers interviewed expressed concern
that this strategy of integration
could result in the opposite effect as
well—a net loss for HIV/AIDS and
could lead to increased competition for
limited philanthropic resources between
HIV/AIDS and other issuesComplex and evolving HIV/AIDS
epidemiological trends often motivate
funders to stay involved in HIV/AIDS
grantmaking.
• Leading HIV/AIDS grantmakers understand
the complexity of the domestic
and international pandemic and often
use this understanding to justify their
involvement, directly and indirectly, in
the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
• The increasingly disproportionate
impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic on
communities traditionally disenfranchised
from mainstream health, social
and economic life is enabling most
leading funders to stay involved in
HIV/AIDS because it relates to their
broader commitment to serve underserved
communities.
Collaborative funding mechanisms
often keep grantmakers involved in
HIV/AIDS.
• Collaborative funding pools continue to
provide a vehicle for ongoing philanthropic
support of HIV/AIDS. In some
cases, the mechanism itself takes on a
life of its own, keeping funders who
might have withdrawn support involved
in the issue।
QWhat obstacles and challenges remain for
HIV/AIDS-related philanthropy, domestically
and internationally, particularly as the
pandemic evolves?
Traditional roles for philanthropy have
positive and negative consequences on
HIV/AIDS-related grantmaking.
• Funders tend to be “first-in” supporters
of emerging issues. As HIV/AIDS
enters its third decade with a robust
public sector response in the United
States, the ability for philanthropy to be
“first-in” is limited because the issue is
no longer seen as “new” or a “crisis”.
However, internationally the issue is
viewed as a burgeoning crisis with a
limited government/public sector
response. This clears the way for philanthropy
to play to its strength of issuing
“first-in” funding.
• Grantmakers often look to fill gaps and
identify “niches” where they can have a
unique impact and leverage resources.
As the pandemic evolves domestically,
funders interviewed acknowledged that
it might be more difficult to identify
these opportunities, yet at the same
time there are still a multitude of
opportunities for philanthropy to be
even more strategic and effective.
The perception of HIV/AIDS
domestically has changed from being
a “crisis” to an “important problem”.
• HIV/AIDS domestically is no longer
seen as a crisis by most of the funders
interviewed. Nevertheless, HIV/AIDS is
still viewed as one of the most important
problems facing communities
today.
• This change in perception has enabled
many funders to integrate HIV/AIDS
support into broader, often more longstanding
areas of grantmaking. The
downside is that it may also be contributing
to some decreases in
HIV/AIDS funding.