New In The Journal: Are Foundations Still Interested In HIV/AIDS?

An update on philanthropic funding in the area of HIV/AIDS is the subject of the GrantWatch column in the May 2017 issue of Health Affairs. This epidemic has been going on for decades, so it was time to see whether foundations still have it on their radar screens.

And as I mention in the column, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that annual HIV infections in the United States declined 18 percent overall from 2008 to 2014. But folks should not be complacent: the CDC says HIV remains “a serious health problem” in the United States, especially in the South.

I learned of some interesting stats and projects. However, the column is just a small sampling of what is going on in HIV/AIDS philanthropy and is not meant to be comprehensive.

In a recent report, the organization Funders Concerned About AIDS (FCAA), a sort of “trade association” of foundations and corporate-giving programs, noted that private global philanthropic funding to combat HIV/AIDS actually increased 10 percent from 2014 to 2015. How did that happen? FCAA said that several of the top-ten donors markedly upped their donations. Read the column to find out some of those donors’ names.

And the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (which is now a public charity, not a traditional grant-making foundation) found from its February 2017 analysis that rolling back expanded Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act could “significantly” affect health insurance coverage for people with HIV.

Read in the column about funding by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which remains active in the field. I highlight funding it awarded to a company in Australia to develop a novel HIV self-test designed for people in resource-poor settings.

I also highlight the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s strategic initiative focused on young children affected by HIV and AIDS in five countries in Africa. The Hilton Foundation is a national and international funder.

And I mention two examples of interesting local projects in the United States. One is in Guilford County, North Carolina. The Cone Health Foundation awarded funding to Wake Forest University Health Sciences for a project using a social media–based intervention to reach young, diverse, and hard-to-reach men having sex with men with HIV. Cone Health is located in Greensboro, North Carolina.

AIDS Free Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), a local initiative, is managed by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation. (Allegheny Singer Institute and UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside are the funders.) The initiative is running a campaign to increase awareness of and access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), a medication that can markedly reduce the chances of being infected by HIV, according to a press release from AIDS Free Pittsburgh.

There is more information about these initiatives, as well as “people news” at foundations, in the May 2017 GrantWatch column.

People News At Foundations Funding In Health

Find out who is the new president of the Health Foundation for Western and Central New York and of the Rockefeller Foundation. You may have heard of both of these new leaders, as they have previously worked in health philanthropy.

And read about what Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, who just stepped down from being president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), plans to do now. The new RWJF president and CEO, Richard Besser, is already on board, I see.

Finally, there is a new foundation in Montana called Headwaters Health Foundation of Western Montana, which has its first CEO, who comes from one of the well-known California funders. Read about its focus areas.

Related reading:

“HIV/AIDS: As The US Crisis Continues, Funders Respond,” by Lee L. Prina, GrantWatch column, March 2014 Health Affairs.

New In The Journal: Are Foundations Still Interested In HIV/AIDS? posted first on http://ift.tt/2lsdBiI