FUNDERS CONCERNED ABOUT AIDS REPORT:

ESTIMATED DATA ON AIDS GRANTMAKING

BY U.S. PHILANTHROPY:

1996 – 2000

(June 2002)

HIGHLIGHTS:

·        A new analysis by Funders Concerned About AIDS reveals that estimated grants from U.S. foundations and corporations for HIV/AIDS issues, domestically and globally, increased significantly from approximately $76.1 million in 1999 to at minimum $312.4 million in 2000, representing a stunning 311% increase. 

·        This figure represents the highest annual amount of philanthropic funding for HIV/AIDS to date.

·        Large portions of the estimated financial increases in the year 2000 for HIV/AIDS grants (over $178 million, or approximately 57% of the estimated year 2000 total) are due to one funder – the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation -- which has made an historic commitment to addressing the AIDS pandemic globally.

·        This dramatic increase in AIDS grantmaking demonstrates a necessary and important enhancement in philanthropic leadership on HIV/AIDS at a time when it is desperately needed.  In light of FCAA’s campaign -- begun several years ago and still ongoing -- to remobilize, diversify and deepen the philanthropic response to AIDS, FCAA is encouraged by this turn of events.

·        Despite these positive trends in AIDS grantmaking by U.S. foundations and corporations, much more remains to be done by all sectors of society, including philanthropy, to fully address the tremendous range of needs, domestically and globally, created by this pandemic.  AIDS is not over. 

-   There are ongoing and growing unmet needs in the United States.  These needs are problematic, especially for already marginalized and disenfranchised communities hit hardest by the epidemic.

-   There are staggering HIV/AIDS-related needs globally, especially in sub-Saharan Africa but increasingly in Asia, Eastern Europe and Russia and the Caribbean.  The current AIDS pandemic in the developing world now threatens to undermine, perhaps completely, decades of hard-won health and socio-economic advances.

-   Current economic conditions and other factors, domestically and globally, have created severe challenges for AIDS organizations that will not be fully known or understood for many months to come.

RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Funders Concerned About AIDS has a longstanding commitment to accurately document the parameters of and trends in U.S.-based HIV-related philanthropy.  In response to increased requests for such information from grantmakers and a variety of others, FCAA is expanding its research capacity and work in this area. 

As challenging as any attempt to quantify comprehensively philanthropic support for a particular issue or cause is, FCAA regards this work as critical to better inform the field of philanthropy on and help guide its response to HIV/AIDS and the many issues that now intersect with AIDS.  This FCAA work is also important in order to inform key policy makers in the United States and internationally, the media and the non-profit sector regarding the grantmaker response to HIV/AIDS. 

In this vein, FCAA has prepared this brief research report containing important, new estimated AIDS grantmaking statistics for the year 2000.  We have used FCAA’s own research data, information from several key foundations’ websites and staff, and data from The Foundation Center, including their National Guide to Funding in AIDS [i] and the recently released Foundation Giving Trends for 2000. [ii]  The information contained in this report summarizes the most current statistics on HIV-related philanthropy by U.S-based foundations and corporations for 2000 -- the most recent year for which relatively complete data is available. 

FCAA will update this data on a continuous basis as new information warrants and will also release a fuller research project containing this and other information and analysis on the historical and current grantmaker response to HIV/AIDS later in the Summer 2002.  FCAA welcomes any and all suggestions or corrections to data in this report.

ANALYSIS

Chart 1 summarizes the best available data on overall domestic and international HIV/AIDS grantmaking by U.S. independent, corporate, community and operating foundations, from 1996 through 2000.

Chart 1 presents FCAA estimates [iii] of annual HIV/AIDS grantmaking.  FCAA’s estimated AIDS grantmaking figures [iv] reflect an attempt to adjust for the natural limitations in The Foundation Center’s data collection process as well as the inherent limitations in U.S. philanthropic grant reporting (see endnotes for a fuller explanation of how FCAA estimates total U.S. based grant figures for HIV/AIDS initiatives in the U.S. and globally).  The Gates Foundation column provides an understanding of the percentage of HIV/AIDS funding that foundation has provided, particularly in 1999 and 2000, and the amount that the Gates Foundation's AIDS funding has grown between 1998 and 2000.

Chart 1.

·        Grantmaking by U.S. foundations and corporations addressing HIV/AIDS issues, domestically and globally, has increased significantly from approximately $76.1 million in 1999 to at minimum $312.4 million in 2000, representing a stunning 311% increase.

·        This increase in HIV/AIDS funding far surpasses the 55.9% growth reported by The Foundation Center for the health field overall from 1999 to 2000. 

·        According to The Foundation Center, AIDS-related grants equaled approximately 5% of total health dollars distributed by U.S.-based grantmakers in 2000 -- an all time high percentage of health giving directed to HIV/AIDS.

·        These statistics, combined with significant increases in HIV/AIDS funding from 1998 ($55.2 million) to 1999 ($76.1 million), demonstrates two years of sustained growth in the HIV/AIDS grantmaking arena.

·        Much of the growth in HIV/AIDS funding in 2000 is attributable to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  $178.7 million of the year 2000 figure of $312.4 million (approximately 57%) is from the Gates Foundation.

·        Even setting aside the significant leadership reflected in the figures regarding the Gates Foundation, HIV/AIDS funding increased by 110% from 1999 to 2000, thus showing a broader level of increasing philanthropic leadership in AIDS.

·        Although hundreds of foundations and corporation support HIV/AIDS and/or closely related programs and initiatives, the top twenty-five funders account for $295 million of the estimate minimum total of $312 million in year 2000 HIV/AIDS grantmaking.

·        Given that the vast bulk of the Gates Foundation funding is international in nature, it is safe to say that the bulk of the increase in HIV/AIDS grantmaking is directed at global AIDS issues, although no truly accurate determination of purely domestic focused versus international focused grants is possible from the data as it exists presently.

·        Despite these positive trends in AIDS grantmaking by U.S. foundations and corporations, much more remains to be done by all sectors of society to fully address the tremendous range of needs, domestically and globally, created by this pandemic.  There remains a desperate need for creative strategies, courageous leadership and extensive public and private resources. 

-   There are ongoing and growing unmet needs in the United States.  These needs are problematic, especially for already marginalized and disenfranchised communities hit hardest by the epidemic.  Ironically, as grant dollars for HIV/AIDS increased in year 2000, many anecdotal reports suggest that numerous AIDS organizations are experiencing difficult financial conditions in 2002 due to many factors, including the economic downturn and post-September 11^th impacts on other forms of fundraising as well as flat or decreasing public monies for HIV/AIDS programs at the federal, state and municipal levels.  And, an unfounded complacency within the U.S. on AIDS is perhaps the greatest roadblock of all to fully addressing this disease.

-   There are staggering HIV/AIDS-related needs globally, especially in sub-Saharan Africa but increasingly in Asia, Eastern Europe and Russia and the Caribbean.  AIDS remains not simply a single disease but rather a combination of plagues that includes poverty, discrimination and stigmatization.  As the secretary General of the United Nations has noted time and time again, AIDS in the developing world now threatens to undermine, perhaps completely, decades of hard-won health and socio-economic advances.

General Philanthropic (Trends) Increases 1999-2000 [vii]

·        Overall grants from U.S. foundations increased 29.7% from 1999 to 2000.

·        Grants related to reproductive health were up 136.2% in 2000 and now comprise 12.3% of health grant dollars.

·        Medical research grants rose 120.8% from 1999 to 2000 and now comprise 27.2% of health grant dollars.

·        Grants for the economically disadvantaged rose 77.2% in 2000.

·        Health-related grants rose 55.9% in 2000 and now comprise 20.6% of all U.S. grant dollars.

·        Grants focusing on children and youth were up 38.6% in 2000.

·        In 2000, grants to ethnic and racial groups were up 26%, just behind the overall increase in grantmaking of 29.7%.

 Top 25 U.S. HIV/AIDS Funders of 2000                                   

TOTAL                                                      $295,830,611

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