Grantmaker Innovation Archive

(December 08)

We usually focus the Grantmaker Spotlight on the work of one of our constituents, and a program or grantee about which it is particularly proud. For this issue, in light of the deepening economic crisis and its accompanying uncertainties, we decided to focus on all of you, by sharing thoughts from your colleagues and links to resources that may prove helpful during this challenging time.

In conversations with funders over the past month, we posed some broad questions about the current state of our world -- How is your foundation dealing with the current economic crisis? Have you had to make significant changes to your planning for 2009? Do you have any advice for your colleagues during this difficult time?. While many indicated a still-evolving strategic response at their organizations, some were able to share a bit about their more general approach to the immediate future.

At Cable Positive, Chief Operating Officer Thomas Henning acknowledges that “like many organizations, [we are] addressing the challenges of the current economic crisis by looking at the opportunities it presents—collaboration, innovation, and exploration of new, sometimes more affordable and effective, approaches. This climate requires that every initiative deliver measurable return on investments of both our time and our increasingly limited resources.” Recognizing the talents of his colleagues, Thomas offers this challenge: “Invest in those projects that are blazing new trails to addressing long-standing concerns. The world has changed around us and the programs we fund need to reflect that without apology.”

Allison Bauer, Senior Program Officer at The Boston Foundation echoes that “it is a time to be very strategic with respect to grantmaking, with even more of an emphasis on high leverage opportunities that deliver both efficiencies and economically sound strategies.” At a recent forum, the Foundation responded directly to the current crisis by announcing a total of $ 500,000 in grants, awarded to regional organizations providing both immediate direct help to local residents in distress as well as longer-term support to catalyze change to benefit vulnerable households.

According to Nancy Muirhead, Assistant Secretary and Program Director-South Africa, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) is taking a prudently counter-cyclical approach, entering 2009 with the goal of maintaining 2008 funding levels. A planned mid-year reevaluation to assess this strategy will allow the Fund to make any necessary adjustments. (In a separate move, RBF is phasing out its current grantmaking in South Africa in the first quarter of 2009, and is now focusing on completing projects and strengthening the capacity and sustainability of its current grantees.)

On World AIDS Day this year, Stephen Lewis, Chair of the Board of The Stephen Lewis Foundation, released this strong message: “It is said that the international financial turmoil will undermine the work of agencies like ours, [but my] colleagues and I refuse to accept that. We work from the premise that the struggle against AIDS will not be sacrificed on the altar of financial turbulence. So we’re defying the odds.”

Ultimately, AIDS Foundation of Chicago’s President and CEO (and FCAA Board Member) Mark Ishaug reminds us that “as tough as these times are for foundations, [they] are even tougher for people with HIV/AIDS. So, we will forge ahead. We have no choice. Our grantees need us and our clients need us. And, we will continue to focus on what we do best—raising money and supporting cutting-edge advocacy, care, and prevention programs.”

Forging ahead in 2009 will be difficult. But, we are fortunate to have a developing toolbox of resources that will help us navigate the stormy weather:

• Council on Foundations has unveiled a new web-based platform, Economic Xchange, where members of the philanthropic sector can share information, ideas, and tactics around the economic crisis and its impact on philanthropy. Visit http://www.cofinteract.org/economy/ for more information.
• Foundation Center has also launched a webpage with news, advisories, maps, grants, links to other resources, and helpful commentary on the economy.
• Kathleen Enright, the CEO of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO), has written a powerful message to funders.
• Grantmakers in the Arts is offering free books to funders that may be helpful guides, including General Operating Support: A View from the Field – Case Studies and Reflections on Nine Grantmaking Programs (Gita Gulati and Kathleen Cerveny). Click here to request a book.

As our affinity group colleague Kathleen Enright shared with us, “this is also a time to seek support from peer communities like GEO and FCAA. Opportunities for informal sharing often uncover some really creative, low-cost and effective measures that members are experimenting with.”

(September 08)

Grantmaker

Founded in 1999, Firelight Foundation’s mission is to support and advocate for the needs and rights of children who are orphaned or affected by HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Foundation strives to increase the resources available to grassroots organizations that are strengthening the capacity of families and communities to care for children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS.

We believe that grassroots programs arising in direct response to children and families’ needs within the local community are often the most effective. Although research continues to show that grassroots organizations are providing the lion’s share of services to these children, traditional donor support rarely reaches these groups. Firelight funds community-based organizations (CBOs) that have a direct relationship with those they are serving and is one of a very few foundations that accepts unsolicited proposals from small, grassroots organizations in Africa.

To date, Firelight has made more than 880 grants totaling $10.6 million to organizations serving children in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2008, Firelight awarded 17 new grants and 160 renewal grants to CBOs in 10 countries, totaling $1.95 million.

These grants support the outstanding work of hundreds of grantees who mobilize community support to sustain life-transforming activities for children, including: helping children stay in school; providing vocational training for orphans and young people; supporting youth clubs and drop-in centers; providing income-generating activities for families; offering psychosocial support for bereaved children; and facilitating community volunteer home-based health care.

Partner Grantee

One in four women in Zimbabwe suffer some form of abuse during their lifetime, and 60 percent of murder cases are related to domestic violence perpetrated against women. The link between sexual abuse and HIV transmission only magnifies the terrible consequences of these violations.

Based in the rural Mutasa District of Zimbabwe’s eastern highlands, Ray of Hope is a community-based network of domestic violence survivors working to empower women and protect and support vulnerable children. One of their goals is to increase public understanding of the impact of abuse on women and children, and to change entrenched views and habits through education and training.

Firelight supports these objectives by funding Ray of Hope’s public awareness campaigns and direct assistance to domestic violence survivors and their children. To economically empower women who have left abusive situations, Ray of Hope offers training and start-up capital for small businesses. They also assist survivors with school fees for their children, food, legal assistance, and counseling. And they are making progress in winning local support and changing attitudes. More than 1,500 community members participated in a local International Rural Women’s Day event, organized by Ray of Hope, where community leaders spoke against domestic violence.

Chief Sherukuru, an influential traditional leader often called on to settle domestic disputes, praised the women for their courage and urged men to follow suit. Men “will become better men if they follow the lead set by these women and speak out against this terrible crime in our society,” he told the crowd.

Ray of Hope was born in 2006 out of one victim’s terrible experience. In 2005, the domestic violence case of Shorai Chitongo captured national media attention and the sympathy of Betty Makoni, the director and founder of Girl Child Network (GCN), another Firelight grantee. After Betty provided Ms. Chitongo with emotional support, financial assistance, and a safe sanctuary, Shorai managed to regain security for herself and her children and began to realize how many other women were directly affected by domestic violence, especially in rural areas.

While a volunteer facilitator at GCN, Ms. Chitongo developed her vision to assist women to “soldier on and create peaceful environment[s] for both us and our children,” advocating for survivors to “take a second chance at life with courage and bravery.” Soon after, she went on to found Ray of Hope.

In 2006, Firelight became Ray of Hope’s first external funder, supporting the organization with a small grant of $5,000 to conduct human rights awareness campaigns; economically empower women in abusive situations by providing start-up capital and training; and enable children to attend school by covering fees and providing food. Firelight has since given a renewal grant for the provision of educational support to community members and emotional and financial support to domestic violence victims, and to ensure proper legal and social follow-up on reported domestic violence cases.

With training and capital from Ray of Hope, more than 100 women are generating their own incomes by making soap and pressing peanut butter and cooking oil. With independent incomes, they wield stronger positions in their households, gain confidence to resist abuse, and are better able to provide for their children. Through their participation in Ray of Hope’s activities, they also learn how to assert their rights and protect themselves from HIV/AIDS.

Today, Ray of Hope remains a small but effective community-based organization with a paid staff of three people and a small overall budget. In 2007, 10 survivors of domestic violence received small business training, $80 in start-up capital, school fees for their children, and regular follow-up and technical assistance visits.

(June 08)

Grantmaker

The Iowa Community AIDS Partnership (ICAP) is a hands-on partner in the fight against HIV/AIDS. ICAP, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was created in response to an invitation from the National AIDS Fund to address HIV/AIDS issues at the community level. Based on a traditional philanthropic model, ICAP began its work in 1993 by providing private funds to prevention education programs and direct services. In partnership with the National AIDS Fund, ICAP has provided 98 grants totaling $1 million to area agencies.

As a low incidence state, Iowa funders and providers face unique challenges. Iowans experience the same risks and needs as those living in higher incidence areas, but have fewer resources on which to draw. Since ICAP’s inception, it has sought opportunities to maximize the impact of these limited resources. ICAP has provided funds to fill gaps in state and federally funded programs as well as start up funds for non-traditional programs that meet critical needs. Recognizing the limited number of programs available to Iowans, ICAP works in partnership with these programs to meet program and operating challenges to ensure their continuation.

ICAP continues to expand its involvement beyond the philanthropic role to provide a critical voice for collaboration and innovation for funders and providers. ICAP is a long-term, active member in a team effort to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS, connect programs and services involved in issues impacting HIV/AIDS, maximize resources, and support partnerships among agencies.

Partner Grantee

The Iowa Center for AIDS Resources and Education (ICARE) in Iowa City, Iowa is a community-based organization that has provided services to people living with HIV/AIDS, their loved ones, and others concerned about HIV/AIDS for the past 20 years. ICARE’s mission is to enrich the quality of life for persons living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. Through the distribution of information and services, we aim to foster the self-empowerment necessary to live productively and positively in the face of HIV/AIDS. ICARE fosters client relationships based on trust and mutual respect. Our culture of optimism, realism, and quality provides an ideal environment for providing HIV prevention services. Through support from the Iowa Community AIDS Partnership, ICARE has been able to expand its programs as well as grow its organizational capacity to better provide services to the members of our community.

ICARE was created in 1986 by compassionate individuals who wanted to act by educating our community and comforting those suffering the often painful, stigmatizing death that, at the time, was the usual outcome of AIDS. ICARE’s first offices were located in the basement of a local church. Thanks to generous grants from The Iowa Community AIDS Partnership and others, ICARE began providing case management and housing placement services. Soon ICARE was able to move out of the church basement and relocate into a new building centrally located in Iowa City. However, due to severe budget cuts beginning in 2001, ICARE became financially strained. In 2004, to ensure the sustainability of the organization and its mission, the ICARE Board of Directors requested that MECCA Services, a community based organization that provides behavioral health services, assume management of the program. Today ICARE is able to provide many services thanks to the generous support of MECCA services, community members and local and national foundations.

Through its latest HIV/AIDS grant program, The Iowa Community AIDS Partnership has sponsored the “SISTA” program, an HIV prevention program for African-American women. Core elements of the SISTA program include education about condoms, gender and ethnic pride, sexual assertion skills, and the importance of partner involvement in safer sex. This program utilizes a peer educator to assist with facilitation. This project has confirmed our original belief that HIV prevention with African-American women was an unmet need in our community. The success of this project has further deepened our commitment to providing effective HIV prevention services to African-American men and women in our community.

Because of support from foundations such as the Iowa Community AIDS Partnership, ICARE has been able to expand and offer both prevention and care services to many people in our community. ICARE provides a wide range of services to people living in 17 southeast Iowa counties. Services include: case management; counseling; crisis intervention; housing; information and support to families, friends and partners; referral; advocacy, HIV testing, and community education. ICARE services are offered to the community at no cost.

ICARE is actively involved in education and advocacy. Through collaborations with other local, state, and national organizations we are working to ensure the long-term sustainability of our program and to enrich the quality of life for persons living with and affected by HIV/AIDS.

(March 2008)

Grantmaker

*Photo by J. Sinclair

Pfizer is not just in the business of making medicines. For more than 30 years, Pfizer Inc and the Pfizer Foundation have remained dedicated to fostering partnerships that help improve the health of underserved people around the world. Pfizer philanthropy is focused on investing the full scope of the company’s resources–people, skills, expertise and funding–to broaden access to medicines and strengthen healthcare delivery.

Pfizer’s philanthropy platform, Pfizer Investments in Health, offers a coordinated approach to contribute to society beyond medicines:

Treat: Improving access to medicines and healthcare services

Teach: Increasing patient education and healthcare worker training on disease prevention and treatment options

Build: Strengthening the capacity of healthcare organizations to support prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care

Serve: Advocating and sharing best practices to improve healthcare for the underserved

Through direct engagement and collaboration with local NGOs, MLOs, governments and private sector partners, Pfizer strives to implement sustainable programs and to impact global health outcomes.

Building on its continued commitment to the domestic fight against HIV/AIDS, the Pfizer Foundation created ConnectHIV, its latest multi-year, multi-million dollar program designed to help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. The Foundation is providing grants, technical assistance and networking resources to 20 ASOs across the country who are taking a comprehensive approach to HIV by providing innovation in at least one of four areas: 1) prevention for high-risk negatives, 2) prevention for high-risk positives, 3) linking high-risk positives into care and treatment and 4) treatment and adherence and delayed disease progression. Information on Pfizer’s commitment to HIV/AIDS is at: http://hivaidsphilanthropy.pfizer.com/default.aspx

Around the world, Pfizer colleagues, through Pfizer’s Global Health Fellows program, commit up to 6-months to work with nongovernmental organizations to use their professional expertise to address critical issues such as HIV/AIDS. Fellowship assignments are designed by Pfizer’s partners according to their needs locally. Pfizer funds the Fellows' transportation, lodging and other expenses while maintaining their positions within the company. During their assignments colleagues train and support their local counterparts and transfer skills so that the important contributions they make are sustainable. Best practices and lessons learned from this program are available at:

http://www.pfizer.com/responsibility/global_health/global_health_fellows.jsp

Partner Grantees

About ACS

AIDS Care Service (ACS) in Winston-Salem, NC, has evolved to become a comprehensive AIDS Service Organization, now providing a holistic continuum of care for those affected and infected with HIV/AIDS. Through support from the Pfizer Foundation since 2002, ACS has been able to expand its programs as well as grow its organizational capacity to better provide a comprehensive continuum of care.

ACS was incorporated in 1991 by people who wanted to act compassionately against the painful, stigmatizing death that, at the time was the seemingly inevitable outcome of AIDS. After searching for significant funding, ACS began operations in 1994 with a Housing Placement Program and a Day Activities Program. ACS added an Outreach Program in 1997 to serve hospitalized, homebound aPhoto by J. Sinclairnd other HIV+ people not served by other programs. From the beginning, ACS has dreamed of providing a home to care for persons in the advanced stages of AIDS. This dream became a reality with the opening of Holly Haven, a newly constructed Family Care Home, which opened in April 1999. Two Latino Programs were added, one in 2002 to provide referrals for Latinos living with HIV (supported by the Pfizer Foundation’s Southern HIV/AIDS Prevention Initiative) and a second in 2004 to offer information and education about HIV in Spanish. A third Latino focused program, HIV Case Management for Spanish speaking clients, was instituted in 2006. The Food Pantry became a part of AIDS Care Service in 2004. An important piece of ACS’ goal for comprehensive client fell into place in 2007 when ACS began to offer support groups for HIV+ individuals.

Through its latest HIV/AIDS grant program in the U.S., ConnectHIV (2007-2010), the Pfizer Foundation is currently supporting ACS’ most recent addition to its continuum of care–Comprehensive Risk Counseling Services or “Positive Choices.” ACS’ CRCS program seeks to help HIV-positive persons who are at high risk for HIV transmission and re-infection to reduce risk behaviors and address the psychosocial and medical needs that contribute to risk behavior or poor health outcomes. “Positive Choices” risk reduction counseling is interactive and client-centered, using a staged-based approach to provide education, skills-building, role plays, support, crisis management, and other strategies to help clients to reduce and eliminate risk behaviors and then maintain these changes over the long-term. “Positive Choices” is complemented by ACS’ Back to Basics Life Skills Training (B2B) and Positive Action Club support groups (PAC) under an umbrella of services called “Client Supportive Services Program” in order to ensure a more comprehensive continuum of care for its clients. ACS also offers CRCS in Spanish for Latino clients through the Latino Client Health Education Program.

As a learning organization, ACS has embraced capacity building and taken advantage of several opportunities on its own and through the Pfizer Foundation. During its support from the Pfizer Foundation’s Southern HIV/AIDS Prevention Initiative (SHAPI, 2002-2006), ACS completed a new strategic plan, developed its evaluation capacity, redesigned its website (www.aidscareservice.org) and focused on board development and fundraising. ACS reflects that, “when we started with SHAPI, we were ready to take it to the next level. The timing of the SHAPI resources was perfect. The [additional capacity building] funding helped us really make the investment to make long-term improvements. This has enabled us to work smarter not harder, and to become more strategic throughout our work. We are now making capacity building a part of our overall approach.”

About mothers2mothers, Cape Town, South Africa

Created in September 2001, mothers2mothers (m2m) uses education and empowerment as tools to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS during pregnancy, combat stigma within families and communities, support a mother’s adherence to medical treatment, and reduce the likelihood of AIDS orphans. Located in clinics that offer medical treatment to women living with HIV, m2m fills the gaps left by public health systems, providing a secure, warm environment where these women can feel safe to share their fears and feelings...fears for the health of their children, fears of disclosure to their partners, friends and family, and the feelings of helplessness engendered by being alone, pregnant and infected with HIV/AIDS. Currently, m2m has 162 sites throughout South Africa, Lesotho, Kenya, and Zambia, reaching over 50,000 mothers every month, and employs about 600 HIV positive women.

Since 2005, Pfizer has consistently provided m2m with talented employees that it could not have otherwise afforded. Each Fellow spent six months with m2m, strengthening its infrastructure and providing invaluable expertise. When the first Pfizer Fellow joined m2m, it had just moved into its first offices, had nine sites in Cape Town, and six employees, none with a business background. At that time, m2m was facing its first audit, no financial records had been kept or recorded, there was no existing accounting or payroll system in place, and no real budget had been established. Pfizer asked where m2m saw its greatest need and a few months later, Ryan Noel arrived… “changing the course of the organization with his steady guidance and financial savvy.” Ryan jumped in and within weeks became the executive director’s “right arm,” creating a financial structure that allowed m2m to grow to 72 sites within a single year, working with m2m’s accountants on its first audit, helping m2m transition from a cash business to an electronic one, overseeing payroll, helping establish its first strategic financial plan, transitioning and training its first Financial Manager.

Following Ryan’s departure, Pfizer continued to provide m2m with a stream of talented Fellows to supplement its growing finance department. Throughout the past three years, the Global Health Fellows have been actively engaged in m2m’s expansion efforts, working out the challenges intrinsic to enormous growth in a short period of time, and providing creative insights to its planning and development. Currently, mothers2mothers employs eight people in its highly functioning Finance Department which is managed by the same Financial Manager that Ryan worked with four years earlier. Currently undertaking a seven country program expansion, m2m’s greatest need recently became apparent in the area of organizational communication and m2m’s latest Pfizer Fellow, Pinky Patel, arrived in Cape Town only a few weeks ago to fill that gap. Pinky has quickly become a valuable asset for m2m’s Communications Manager, working on their first intranet system, helping with important funders, and lending her writing and research expertise to the organization.

The Pfizer Fellows have all remained a part of the mothers2mothers “family,” staying involved with staff and operations long after they left South Africa. Pfizer Fellows have sold thousands of dollars of Mothers Creations (m2m’s income generation project) beaded crafts; other Fellows have given press interviews about their experiences with m2m, and all continue to advocate on its behalf to attract qualified Fellows to the program. “Pfizer’s Global Health Fellows Program is an outstanding model of a public/private partnership and is a shining example of the kind of critical support corporations can provide to NGOs outside of grants and donations,” commented m2m’s co-director, Robin Smalley.

(December 07)

Grantmaker

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund was founded in 1940 as a vehicle through which the five sons and daughter of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., could share a source of advice and research on charitable activities and combine some of their philanthropies to better effect.

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund has been engaged in grantmaking in South Africa since the mid-1960s. The Fund's initial focus was on promoting human rights and supporting the anti-apartheid movement; more recently, the Fund has focused on improving basic education and assisting children affected by the devastating HIV/AIDS pandemic--both critical challenges that must be addressed if South Africa is to reach its full potential. The Fund is using HIV/AIDS as a lens for grantmaking in South Africa related to basic education, vulnerable children, democratic practice, sustainable development, and peace and security issues. The Fund focuses on organizations helping children left behind to reach their full potential and the mitigating the impacts of HIV/AIDS on key institutions of society.

Four theories of change underpin the Fund's work in South Africa:

• Institution building: to strengthen the ability of local people to solve local problems
• Development and evaluation of models: to inform best practices and policy development and implementation
• Research: to guide advocacy and policy development
• Advocacy: to encourage positive social change

The Fund will continue to support human advancement through its work to improve basic education and to meet the developmental needs of orphans and vulnerable children. While the Fund recognizes the critical importance of HIV/AIDS education, prevention, and treatment, many other donors are active in these fields. The Fund seeks to complement these efforts by contributing to the development of integrated responses to the broad societal impacts of the pandemic.

Partner Grantee

Twice a week for the past year, Betty Voigt, a semi-retired youth worker, has been sitting down at her computer in her log home outside of Pittsburgh, PA, donning headphones and logging on for a video and instant message chat with a friend in South Africa,18-year old Ayanda, who lives in a group home in Johannesburg. Ayenda speaks with Betty and her husband, Dave, about the kind of things that concern most 18-year old boys: girls, soccer, movies, cars, and schoolwork, as well as his dream of pursuing a career in information technology.

“She always advises me with the future plans, how to set my goals, how to achieve them, and, she also tells me that I mustn’t give up in school,” said Ayenda.

The Voigts are Ayanda’s Net Family, a relationship made possible by Infinite Family (IF). Since 2005, IF has been working to connect American adults with some of the millions of children in South Africa who, due to the ravages of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, are orphaned or otherwise living without adults to raise them. With two sites now up and running in and near Johannesburg, IF has already connected some 50 children, ages 10-22, with adults of their own who serve as mentors and long-distance parents.

Before being connected with his Web Family, Ayanda’s participation and performance in school was poor. But within six months of becoming part of the Voigt’s lives, he rose to the head of his class. For most of the children, the relationship with their Web Families dramatically increases their English reading, writing, and speaking skills, as well as their critical thinking and understanding of technology.

“They have real conversations on a real time basis and share laughter and a whole range of emotions,” explained Amy Conrad Stokes, president, IF. “The power of an adult who cares can change the way children think about themselves, the way they plan and prepare for the future.”

IF continues to implement new technology in impoverished urban and rural African communities and is launching an on-line training program for U.S.-based Web families. It plans to continue as a lean, technology-based organization that will grow exponentially through after-school and other outreach programs to connect tens of thousands of abandoned South African children with nurturing adults some 8,000 miles away.

“We are using technology to build relationships in a way that, to my knowledge, has not been done before,” said Stokes. “It’s gone much further and deeper than anyone would have expected.”

(September 07)

Grantmaker

Horizons Foundation, a philanthropic social justice organization, serves the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Since its founding in 1980, Horizons has been meeting the needs, advancing the rights, and celebrating the lives of LGBT people through a diverse range of programs, services, and initiatives. In 2006, Horizons awarded a total of $1,880,081 in grants to a wide array of organizations.

Horizons is best known for its community grantmaking, particularly its “seed” grants to emerging organizations. The foundation’s HIV/AIDS grantmaking is a striking example of this early investment—in 1982, Horizons was the first foundation in the U.S. to make grants to AIDS organizations, including one that later became the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF). Horizons has also supported Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, a project of SFAF, since its inception on World AIDS Day in 2001. To date in 2007, Horizons has made nearly $800,000 in HIV/AIDS grants.

In addition to strengthening LGBT organizations, Horizons Foundation is also dedicated to promoting LGBT giving as an integral part of a healthy, compassionate community. As part of that work, Horizons established the LGBT Community Endowment Fund, which will grow primarily through planned gifts. Over time, the fund will provide permanent resources to help meet the needs of the Bay Area LGBT community, as well as an unprecedented capacity to respond effectively to unforeseeable challenges and opportunities as they arise, much as HIV did in the 1980s. The fund also gives LGBT people a way to leave a meaningful legacy for the community’s future.

Partner Grantee

Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation is a mission-based, non-profit consulting organization dedicated to ending the pandemic and human suffering caused by HIV/AIDS. Pangaea has special expertise in the development and execution of sustainable national treatment strategies for HIV/AIDS, focused on settings with insufficient treatment capacity and large or underserved HIV-positive populations. Pangaea’s partners include organizations engaged in large-scale HIV/AIDS treatment delivery, such as national health ministries, NGOs, universities, foundations, and corporations. Using existing healthcare systems as a starting point, Pangaea helps its partners strengthen treatment infrastructure and systems of care and develop new treatment capacity as needed in order to increase access to care in target populations.

Years of experience in helping to develop sustainable HIV/AIDS treatment programs have enabled Pangaea to complete projects on time and on budget in the most challenging circumstances. Pangaea has special expertise in facilitating stakeholder engagement to ensure that projects can move ahead with strong local support. To ensure that its work is effective, Pangaea is committed to creating partnerships that result in health care delivery models that remain after Pangaea leaves, are successful within local resource constraints, use and build on local capacity, are culturally relevant and sensitive, and are supported by strong management systems.

Pangaea helps partners to leverage existing capacity or develop new large-scale HIV/AIDS treatment capability by providing support in the following contexts:

• Creating national government HIV/AIDS treatment plans.
• Establishing treatment programs and clinical services for public and private entities at the national, regional and local levels.
• Developing HIV/AIDS treatment guidelines and continuums of care.
• Training and clinical mentoring of doctors, nurses, and healthcare management personnel engaged in treatment delivery.
• Managing the development and construction of treatment clinics.

Pangaea facilitates treatment program scale-up and improve the effectiveness of treatment programs by:

• Assessing existing treatment systems and programs to determine ways to maximize effectiveness.
• Building genuine stakeholder engagement to improve treatment scope and effectiveness.
• Strengthening existing or building new fiscal and administrative support systems to ensure program sustainability.

Pangaea’s early work focused on broadening access to HIV/AIDS antiretroviral treatment (ARVs) in the developing world, with significant projects in Rwanda, South Africa, and Uganda. Pangaea helped develop some of the first HIV clinics in these regions and assisted the national health ministries in South Africa and Rwanda in the development of their first country-wide AIDS treatment plans. While continuing work in Africa, Pangaea has more recently broadened its efforts to including the planning and implementation of large scale treatment access projects in Asia and Eastern Europe, with special emphasis on HIV epidemics fueled by injection drug use. Pangaea also has special expertise working with the private sector to maximize HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment efforts, including the creation of a model clinic and training center funded by Pfizer Inc. at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and the planning and implementation of a worldwide employee HIV/AIDS training and treatment program for Chevron Corp.

Pangaea’s senior staff members and network of expert consultants have been leaders in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the United States and around the world for over 20 years. With a unique combination of HIV/AIDS medical expertise, national policy experience, and high-level management capability, Pangaea staff members are experts at identifying gaps in existing healthcare systems, recommending sustainable, long-term solutions, and working closely with partners to successfully scale up or establish new HIV/AIDS treatment capacity.

(July 2007)

Grantmaker

Until There’s A Cure Foundation (UTAC) was one of the first philanthropic supporters of International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC), and they know that a long-term commitment is essential and important to these organizations in their efforts. UTAC is proud to highlight these longtime grantees who work tirelessly in the arena of AIDS science toward the goal of a world without AIDS.

Concerned about the effects of HIV/AIDS on the lives of their children, two California mothers were inspired to found UTAC in 1993. The Foundation's expressed goal is to raise millions of dollars to:

• Fund innovative programs which promote AIDS awareness and prevention education. For the current generation of young Americans, the Foundation supports innovative education programs to encourage safer behaviors and programs that teach teens and young adults, through peer-to-peer education, about the dangers of HIV.
• Provide financial support for care and services for those living with AIDS. The Foundation provides financial support for care and other services including grants to medical care providers, hospices, legal assistance, and food delivery services. The Foundation also funds social service agencies, building support in the community for people with AIDS, so that compassion and care are the norm rather than the exception.
• Actively support AIDS vaccine development. The Foundation advocates for the development of an AIDS vaccine which offers the best hope for reducing the spread of HIV and ending the AIDS pandemic for future generations.

The distinguishing trait of UTAC is that the main source of financing for this effort is The Bracelet, a simple yet elegant symbol designed to increase awareness and to help people recognize that anyone—man, woman, or child—can be infected and that it is up to each of us to be compassionate, understanding, and responsible.

Partner Grantees

About AVAC

Founded in 1995, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC) is a non-profit community- and consumer-based organization that uses public education, policy analysis, advocacy, and community mobilization to accelerate the ethical development and global delivery of AIDS vaccines and other prevention options as part of a comprehensive response to the pandemic. This work is guided by the following principles:

• Translate complex scientific ideas to communities AND translate community needs and perceptions to the scientific community.
• Manage expectations.
• Hold agencies accountable for accelerating ethical research and development.
• Expand international partnerships to ensure local relevance and global movement.
• Ensure that policy and advocacy are based on thorough research and evidence.
• Build coalitions, working groups, and think tanks for specific issues.
• Develop and widely disseminate high-quality, user-friendly materials.

About IAVI

The mission of International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) is to ensure the development of safe, effective, accessible, preventive HIV vaccines for use throughout the world. IAVI is a global not-for-profit, public-private partnership working to accelerate the development of a vaccine to prevent HIV infection and AIDS. Founded in 1996, IAVI researches and develops vaccine candidates, conducts policy analyses, and serves as an advocate for the field with offices in Africa, India, and Europe. IAVI supports a comprehensive approach to HIV and AIDS that balances the expansion and strengthening of existing HIV prevention and treatment programs with targeted investments in new AIDS prevention technologies. As the world’s only organization focused solely on the development of an AIDS vaccine, IAVI also works to ensure a future vaccine will be accessible to all who need it.

(March 07)

Grantmaker

In 1996, the Ms. Foundation for Women created the Women and AIDS Fund (WAF) after recognizing that the AIDS epidemic was having a huge impact on women and yet their voices were underrepresented in the larger movement. WAF is the only national fund solely dedicated to supporting advocacy and self-determination for women living with HIV/AIDS. By funding organizations that are largely led by HIV-positive women, Ms. acknowledges that these women know best what they, their families, and their communities need. To date, they have made grants totaling almost $1 million to more than 30 organizations across the United States. Over the last 10 years, their grantees—many of which started with little funding, resources, or paid staff—have grown into a national network of organizations led by and for HIV-positive women.

In May 2005, WAF grantees and colleagues met in Washington, D.C., to develop a policy agenda around the unique needs of women living with HIV/AIDS. This first-ever Women and AIDS Policy Convening led to the creation of a formal national network of HIV-infected and affected women, now known as the National Women and AIDS Collective (NWAC), which is working to influence how policies are determined at the federal level. In September 2006, NWAC formalized a Leadership Team tasked with solidifying one policy demand and launching NWAC’s first policy campaign around winning that demand.

As of this March, NWAC has asked that the Centers for Disease Control revise its surveillance system’s Transmission Category in order to capture data on women more accurately. Please click here for more information on their demands.

With ongoing support from the Ms. Foundation for Women, NWAC will continue to advocate for policy initiatives that shine a light on the needs of women and girls with HIV.

Partner Grantee

Women Alive Coalition (WAC), established in 1991 in Los Angeles, has been a Ms. Foundation grantee for the past five years and is one of WAF’s three current California-based grantees. The Ms. Foundation specifically supports WAC’s project “Sisters Alive – Hearing Our Voices,” which empowers HIV-positive women to take a leadership role in the development of an agenda that advocates for policy, legislation, and resources that will improve conditions for women of color infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, and other health-related social conditions.

Recently, WAC won a victory for Los Angeles women who were disproportionately being denied access to HIV testing by convincing the city to reform its HIV-testing procedures. While participating in a large city health fair sponsored by local television stations and the city health department, WAC found that many women they referred to the on-site HIV testing unit were turned away because they did not fit into a “high-risk” category (i.e. men who have sex with men, injection-drug users, etc). WAC learned that a majority of service agencies that administer HIV tests with federal funding routinely deny women because they do not fall into “high-risk” categories, and such sources only permit testing of 10% of people who do not fit into “high-risk” groups. Even more troubling, WAC discovered that 40% to 60% of women in L.A. who tested positive did not fit into a “high-risk” category. Furthermore, WAC saw a strong link between these testing denials and the high rate of African-American and Latina women who were being diagnosed with the disease in the L.A. area.

WAC exposed these discrepancies to the L.A. Health Department and Prevention Planning Committee and received the following as a result of that advocacy:

• The L.A. Health Department advised every service provider administering HIV tests that they cannot deny any woman. A hotline was created for people to report any instance of women being denied testing.
• A bill in the state legislature seeking to focus only on “high-risk” testing in an effort to eliminate repeat testing was stopped before a vote.
• WAC has received funding from the city of L.A. to administer HIV tests and culturally competent services on-site to fill the testing gap in the interim. WAC continues to advocate with the city of L.A. on long-term solutions, including ensuring all testing sites reform completely so groups like WAC are not overburdened with performing the work themselves.

WAC’s Executive Director Carrie Broadus has played an integral part in translating WAC’s wins at the local level to the national level. Now serving on the Ms. Foundation’s NWAC Leadership Team, she has been able to leverage WAC’s success with the L.A. Health Department to generate support and identify strategies to win NWAC’s first policy demand, which also focuses on advocating for women’s access to testing. She has highlighted the need for funding and resources for programs across the country that serve women living with HIV/AIDS.

(December 2006)

Grantmaker

No child should go to bed hungry, and no adult should have to choose between buying food and paying the rent. Yet that is the reality facing a growing number of Americans. In this land of plenty, millions of children, working families and seniors are at risk of hunger every day. The faces of hunger are all around us - including our friends and neighbors.

As the parent company of one of America's largest food companies, Kraft Foods, this issue speaks to the heart of our enterprise. Altria Group, Inc. is committed to working closely with and providing support to organizations that are providing nutritious meals and services to seniors, people living with HIV/AIDS and other critical illnesses to find innovative and collaborative solutions to alleviate hunger.

Since 1990, the Altria family of companies has contributed more than $630 million in cash and in-kind donations to hunger-relief organizations across the United States and around the world. Every year we support hundreds of programs, partnerships and collaborations that are working to end the cycle of hunger and create collaborative and long-term solutions to address this complex issue.

Partner Grantee

The Association of Nutrition Services Agencies (ANSA) is a membership organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of life of people living with HIV and AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses with capacity building through technical assistance, information sharing and other initiatives.

Over the years, ANSA has been in invaluable partner in providing leadership and guidance to Altria’s Hunger Programs initiative, which supports organizations that provide meals through pantry, congregate or home-delivered programs to vulnerable populations including seniors, and people living with HIV/AIDS and other critical illnesses; builds coalitions among anti-hunger organizations that improve service provision; and develop innovative approaches to creating long-term, collaborative solutions to alleviate hunger.

Additionally, ANSA hosts an annual conference for their constituents, comprising nutrition organizations from across the United States as well as Canada and many communities abroad. The conference provides a unique forum for agencies both large and small to gather together and participate in group presentations and individual meetings spanning topics including nutrition, development, administration, board development and restructuring, client services and volunteer services.

ANSA is actively involved in education and advocacy efforts. Through collaborations with other national organizations with nutrition and/or HIV/AIDS as a core issue, they are working to ensure the long-term sustainability of their members’ programs and to move the entire field of nutrition services forward with a unified voice.

NEW! “Neighbor to Neighbor on a Global Scale”

The overarching goal of ANSA's International Twinning Program, set to launch in February of 2007, is to harness the vast expertise of ANSA and its members in areas of nutrition and HIV/AIDS, community building, outcome measurement and resource development; then share that expertise quickly, directly and effectively with community-based organizations in developing countries. In the process ANSA plans to create a conduit through which concerned funders and individuals all across America can respond to the devastating impact of AIDS by supporting organizations that they know and trust. This new program is based on a successful pilot by ANSA member Open Arms Minnesota.