2012 AIDS Philanthropy Summit

“To stem the tide of funder fatigue, it is incumbent on each of us to insist that HIV/AIDS is a gender issue, a health systems issue, a housing issue, an immigration issue, an elderly issue, and a social justice issue.”
Daniel Lee, Outgoing FCAA Board Chair.

More than 80 private and public funders and allies attended the 2012 AIDS Philanthropy Summit in Washington, DC on December 10, 2012. Convened during FCAA’s 25^th year, the Summit also served as the launch of the organization’s new 2013-2015 Strategic Plan.  Echoed in the Summit’s tagline, Building Bridges, the agenda focused on emerging issues driving today’s epidemic, and the critical need for new partners and approaches.

What does it mean to fund AIDS? This provocative question was raised during the last session of the day. Domestically, the next year will be a learning curve as we better understand how health reform will impact our work and grantees. How will evolving models of care affect how we fund access, treatment and retention?  What will it mean to fund access to care? Internationally, how will shifting public funding affect our grantees on the ground, and our efforts to be more impactful? How do we effectively reach men who have sex with men when HIV is just one of many epidemics faced by this at-risk population?

As reinforced by FCAA’s recent resource tracking report, steady declines in the number of top AIDS funders has created a new urgency in expanding the pool of philanthropic resources dedicated to the fight against HIV/AIDS and maximizing the impact of those already engaged.  FCAA looks forward to helping to engage new partners to move these critical conversations forward.

• Summit agenda
• Speaker bios
• Session I presentation
• Session II presentations
• Session III presentations
• Session IV presentation

In addition, videos and overviews of each session can be found below. 

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“It’s imperative that private funders understand how their strategic plans align with key policy recommendations on PEPFAR. You can be a part of driving the strategy around what success will look like a year from now, and how we’re going to get there.” Beth Tritter

SESSION 1: To begin the day’s discussion, Session 1 focused on the larger political environment in which we do our work. Two esteemed political analysts, Beth Tritterand Elizabeth Engel from the DC-based Glover Park Group, provided an overview of the 2012 National election results, including how changes in Administrative staff and congress could weaken or strengthen policy and funding for HIV/AIDS.  The session was moderated by Owen Ryan, Deputy Director for Public Policy at amfAR.

 

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“At this moment of opportunity for changing the course of the domestic epidemic, philanthropy has a critical role to play in supporting a strategic and deliberate evolution of the Ryan White program to ensure that it continues to be an effective vehicle for saving and improving the lives of people living with HIV.” Jeffrey Crowley

SESSION 2, PART 1: Next, a panel of thought leaders explored how the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program and the current system of HIV care could evolve in a new era of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  This conversation – featuring Grant Colfax, Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy – started a daylong focus on the critical implications of the Treatment (Care or Gardner) Cascade – new data revealing the descending percentages of people retained along the continuum of care, from testing to achieving viral suppression.  Jen Kates, Kaiser Family Foundation, reinforced that the biggest drops within the cascade – between those diagnosed, to those linked and retained in care –  is where our healthcare  and supportive systems, whether through Ryan White, Medicaid and Private Insurance, play such critical roles.  After Kates outlined the HIV-related ACA provisions, Jeffrey Crowley, O’Neill Institute at Georgetown, outlined how the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program could, and should, change to support health reform.

SESSION 2, PART 2: Next, to reinforce the potential opportunities of health reform, a presentation from Kevin Cranston, Director of the Bureau of Infectious Diseases at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, provided an overview of HIV services in post-reform Massachusetts, where 99% of the state’s HIV-positive population is retained in care (compared to 41% nationally), and 72% of state residents with HIV have a suppressed viral load (compared to 28% nationally). The session was moderated by Ramon Gardenhire, AIDS Foundation of Chicago.

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“It’s about changing the way you’re thinking about things, from a place of ‘what’s the fastest way to find positives,’ to ‘ what is the long-term change you can create in a community’?”
Kacy Hutchinson

Session 3: HIV Care at the Crossroads continued the day’s focus on the Treatment Cascade by exploring the question: what does access to care look like on the ground, and what does it mean to fund it?  Beginning with a presentation from a front line physician – Dr. Michael Mugavero of the 1917 Clinic at the University of Alabama – this two-part session continued a focus on the Treatment Cascade. In outlining the challenges in HIV care, Dr. Mugavero emphasized retention in care is not always a linear progression, and that building bridges between HIV-positive individuals, the community, and the health care system is a critical step to improving outcomes. Next, a panel of private grantmakers shared lessons learned from their current funding initiatives that focus on the different aspects of the Treatment Cascade, including: the RFP, dissemination, technical assistance, evaluation, development of priorities, and thinking about alignment with the NHAS.  This session featured Vignetta Charles of AIDS United, John Edmiston of Kaiser Permanente, Kacy Hutchinson of Gilead, and was moderated by Michael Kaplan, AIDS United.

“There’s no more important health issue for gay and bisexual men in the country than HIV, and we won’t effectively address the HIV epidemic in the nation unless we tackle HIV among MSM.”
Dr. Jonathan Mermin

Following the in-depth conversation about the realities of linkage, access to and retention in care, Session 4 focused on the attendant biological and social issues that impact gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM). Greg Millet, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), provided stark data on how risk behaviors, negative attitudes, stigma and criminalization, and inadequate funding impact MSM, who are at greater risk for HIV infection compared with heterosexual populations across the globe – risk that is further amplified when looking at MSM of color. And in the U.S., MSM represents the only risk-group where HIV incidence continues to rise.  Next, Jaevion Nelson of Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network and J-FLAG, and Kent Klindera of amfAR, shared global perspectives on the occurrence of syndemics – or multiple epidemics – within the lives of gay men, other MSM, and transgender individuals (GMT), and reinforced the need to examine the role of advocacy and human rights in preventing HIV infections among GMT. Finally, Dr. Jonathan Mermin, CDC, highlighted the critical need for private philanthropic investment in HIV prevention to fill gaps and advance strategies the government is unable to fund, for example: helping people along the continuum of care (treatment cascade); sex education program for gay youth; and, educating parents of gay youth. This session was moderated by Neil Giuliano, San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

“I am hopeful that an integrated approach to AIDS will get us to a stronger place. Communities aren’t organized vertically – it’s not HIV and non-HIV. I think it can be a great thing, but we have a strong role (as funders) in making that happen.” Shari Turitz.

SESSION 5, PART 1: After a full day of exploring how the ever-evolving epidemic impacts the way we fund, the final session of the day zeroed in on how a growing trend of integrated funding is shaping our approaches both in the U.S. and abroad. Moderated by Christine Reeves, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, this candid funder dialog focused on a set of questions: should we embrace a growing trend of integrated grantmaking? If yes, how do we maintain a focus on AIDS? And if no, how do we get at the social determinants that drive the epidemic? The panel featured Jeff Richardson of Abbvie Foundation (formerly the Abbott Fund), Shari Turitz of Open Society Foundations, and Ria Pugeda of Consumer Health Foundation.