How has philanthropic AIDS funding—the grants awarded by businesses and organizations—influenced the federal Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) in the U.S. initiative? Who has provided most of the funding to fight HIV? Where has the money gone? Has it hurt or hindered the U.S. initiative? A collaborative effort between AIDSVu and Funders Concerned About AIDS (FCAA) takes a deep dive at the data to find answers.

But first, about the EHE. Launched by President Trump, the plan aims to reduce new HIV infections by 75% by 2025 and by at least 90% by 2030 by increasing HIV prevention and treatment strategies. Specifically, it targets federal efforts to the 57 key states, counties and cities (referred to as jurisdictions) that together account for 50% of new HIV cases. These include 48 counties nationwide plus Washington, DC; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and seven rural states with high HIV burdens (Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina).

In November 2022, the FCAA, which tracks philanthropic HIV efforts, partnered with AIDSVu, which creates interactive maps and infographics based on HIV data, to launch the HIV-Related Philanthropy and the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. Initiative to assess whether private funding has complemented the EHE.

You can review their findings in this PDF. Highlights based on data from 2020 include:

  • In 2020, 74% of total HIV-related philanthropy in the U.S. reached only the top 10 EHE jurisdictions, with the remaining 47 localities receiving only 2% or less. 
  • 39% of total HIV-related philanthropy to EHE jurisdictions targeted LGBTQ communities.
  • 36% of total HIV-related philanthropy to EHE jurisdictions targeted African-American, Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander and Indigenous populations.
  • The top five uses of the HIV-related philanthropy in the EHE jurisdictions include:

$32.6 million for social services,

$24.2 million for prevention,

$20.4 million for advocacy,

$8.9 million for administration,

$7.3 million for treatment.

  • The top 10 philanthropic funders accounted for 81% of the funding to the EHE jurisdictions. The top funders were:

1. Gilead Sciences
2. AIDS United
3. ViiV Healthcare
4. Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS
5. MAC Viva Glam Fund
6. H. van Ameringen Foundation
7. Alexian Brothers Housing and Health Alliance
8. New York Community Trust
9. Merck Foundation
10. Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation

The collaborative initiative is also producing detailed case studies of individual areas within the 57 EHE jurisdictions.

For example, the Cook County, Illinois, case study found that, of the nearly $60 million in HIV philanthropic funding that reached the 57 EHE jurisdictions in 2020, only 7% reached Cook County. The initiative intends to conduct several additional case studies—including in Tennessee, where state leaders recently rejected federal funding for HIV—to continue to track and update data annually.

You can read details about the Washington, DC, case study in this PDF.

To learn more about the FCAA, read “Funders Concerned About AIDS on Philanthropic EHE Funding,” an AIDSVu Q&A with Caterina Gironda, FCAA’s research and program manager, and the report’s primary researcher and author.

To read more about these organizations and their impact, click #Funders Concerned About AIDS or #AIDSVu.