Government funding is up; private donations are down
Government funding is up; private donations are down
Gates Foundation is bright light in private funding
Federal Ryan White funds will likely show an increase of between $100 million and $200 million when the dust settles on this year’s budget appropriations debate.
Meanwhile, AIDS foundations across the nation have reported a decrease in private donations. The problem has prompted the Ryan White Founda tion of Indianapolis, which provided AIDS education programs, to close, according to Jeanne White-Ginder, Ryan White’s mother. White-Ginder subsequently joined the AIDS advocacy group AIDS Action of Washington, DC.
The one bright spot among the private donation slump is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has continued to pump millions of dollars into AIDS research initiatives, including $25 million to fund a five-year grant for HIV vaccine research.
Most federal HIV/AIDS programs are expected to see funding increases. A notable exception is prevention programs, which is where AIDS advocates say the money is especially important because of the recent trend of national complacency about AIDS.
The U.S. House of Representatives proposed no increase in the $658 million earmarked for Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) prevention programs in fiscal year 2000. (See FY 2000 appropriations chart, p. 143.)
The U.S. Senate proposed a $5 million increase. Neither plan goes far enough in funding prevention efforts, says Daniel Zingale, executive director of AIDS Action in Washington, DC.
AIDS Action has lambasted Congress for its short-sighted approach to extinguishing the AIDS epidemic.
"We have made no new investments in HIV prevention funding in four years, and during the same four years the infection rate has continued unabated at 40,000 new HIV infections per year in the United States," Zingale says.
While the appropriations bill had not been completed at the time AIDS Alert went to press, it appeared that Congress would try to iron out a compromise between the lower appropriations proposed by the House and the higher funds proposed by the Senate.
Zingale says the lack of interest in funding prevention programs mirrors the United States’ attitude toward long-term health care solutions.
"As a society, we gravitate toward a fix and a cure and often neglect the harder work of preventing the program or condition in the first place," Zingale says. "That’s unfortunately how we approach prevention across the board."
Another problem is the drop in donations to HIV causes. For example, the Funders Concerned about AIDS group in New York found a significant decrease in private philanthropic giving to AIDS-related causes in recent years.
"Most AIDS Action member organizations are experiencing that as well — a decline in private donations and a decline in revenues from AIDS grants," Zingale says.
The cause again is the complacency among Americans, who believe the disease has been conquered by protease inhibitors and other antiretroviral medications. AIDS advocacy groups have been trying to get the word out that these drugs are not a cure and that after several years on these treatments, many patients are finding their viral loads are rising and the drugs are becoming less effective.
"A lot of us have been working hard to get the message across in the popular media," Zingale adds.
Here’s a brief look at some of the privately funded grants that have been earmarked in recent months for HIV/AIDS programs:
• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation made the largest charitable gift ever for AIDS when the organization contributed $25 million to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) of Geneva, Switzerland. The money will allow IAVI to more than double its AIDS vaccine development efforts and to begin work on up to three new vaccine candidates, including one in 1999.
Zingale says the Gates Foundation gift was well-placed because researchers and funders have not pursued AIDS vaccine research as aggressively as they should. "If we develop a vaccine, it will be deployed much less expensively than treatments, and the promise of developing a vaccine looks better today than any of us imagined a short time ago."
• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation also recently gave $4 million to the Population Council, a private, nonprofit organization that supports reproductive health, for the study and development of the PC-515 noncontraceptive microbicide that women can use to protect themselves against HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
• The AIDS Foundation of Chicago gave $1.1 million to 57 HIV/AIDS organizations, each receiving between $5,000 and $50,000 grants. The money may be used however the organizations choose.
• Kaiser Permanente gave $350,000 to 64 nonprofit institutions that provide mental health care, food, and laundry services for people with HIV or AIDS in California.
Recent government-funded grants for HIV/ AIDS include the following:
• The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development gave $24.5 million to programs in 15 states and Washington, DC, for use in expanding housing and support services to HIV/AIDS patients. These grants went to Alaska, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services gave $3.9 million to 79 public and private organizations to address the problem of HIV in the African-American community and to provide better access to care for people who live in rural or underserved communities. The grants were part of the Title III Grant Program of the Ryan White CARE Act. Most of the grants were part of a partnership with the Congressional Black Caucus.
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded $13 million to the Black HIV/ AIDS Coalition of Massachusetts to be used in the state’s African-American communities for funding prevention programs, outreach for prostitutes, and a resource center for injection drug users. The grant was part of a program started by the Congressional Black Caucus.
• The CDC gave $32 million to more than 100 organizations to be used to fund prevention programs that target African-Americans, Hispanics, and minority gay men. The CDC also awarded $7 million to seven states to reduce the HIV infection rate in prisons.
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