Foundations Are Spending More to Fight AIDS, Study Finds

After a three-year decline, the amount of money grant makers devoted to AIDS-related projects increased from $28.3-million in 1998 to $40.7-million in 1999, according to a new report.

Using Foundation Center data, Funders Concerned About AIDS, a nonprofit coalition of about 1,500 grant makers, found that grant making for AIDS projects decreased by about $9-million between 1996 to 1998, but the trend was reversed in 1999, the most recent year information was available.

International AIDS projects benefited the most from the increase in giving, said Paul Di Donato, the coalition’s executive director. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other large foundations were the driving force behind the increase in grants for AIDS projects, Mr. Di Donato said.

In 1999, the Gates Foundation pledged $1.2-billion to global health programs, including many AIDS-related projects.

Fighting AIDS overseas continues to be a focus of the Gates fund. In June, it pledged $100-million to be paid out over several years to the Global Fund for AIDS and Health, a United Nations project that supports efforts to prevent AIDS and the spread of tuberculosis and malaria worldwide.

With the Gates Foundation’s support, Funders Concerned About AIDS expected overall AIDS grant making to have reached its highest level ever in 2000, Mr. Di Donato said.

AIDS projects in the United States have not benefited as much as their international counterparts from the increase in grant making. Money for domestic AIDS projects appeared to be flat from 1998 to 1999, Mr. Di Donato said.

For the report, Funders Concerned About AIDS hired BTW Consultants to conduct interviews with representatives of 35 funds that make AIDS grants. The interviews found that the grant makers supporting AIDS projects often did so as part of grant-making programs that were designed to deal with poverty, health care, and substance abuse — areas to which the disease is closely tied.

Free copies of “Voices from the Field: Remobilizing HIV/AIDS Philanthropy for the 21st Century,” can be obtained from Funders Concerned About AIDS, 50 East 42nd Street, 19th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10017; (212) 573-5533. The report also is available at http://www.fcaaids.org.