AIDS Funding: The Buck Stops Here

On Sept. 10, the board of directors of Washington, D.C.'s Whitman-Walker Clinic approved a $28 million budget for 2002. On Sept. 11, after the attacks on the United States, its phone and direct-mail solicitations came to a halt. Though appeals for the clinic -- which cares for about 7,800 clients with HIV/AIDS in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia -- have resumed, donations have fallen so sharply that the board had to trim $1.4 million from its budget. "This is the most significant fiscal crisis we have faced in our 30-year history, said Michael Cover, Whitman-Walker's associate executive director.

AIDS service organizations across the country are beginning to panic. "Within a week of September 11, we had potential major sponsors of [our annual funding-raising] auction say that they were reconsidering," said Gina Quattrochi, executive director of Bailey House, which provides housing and assistance to 1,000 people with AIDS in New York City. "We already cut $300,000 from our [annual budget of $10 million]. We're looking at having to cut [an additional $200,000]. After the first of the year, if this continues, we will have to look at curtailing core services we provide."

Another worry is the economy. "Everyone expects less money coming in now," said Marty Algaze, communications director for the New York-based Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC). "[New York Mayor Rudolph] Guiliani has called on all city agencies to cut 15 percent of their budgets. All three tiers of government -- city, state and federal -- are having problems."

Boston's AIDS Action Committee, which serves more than 2,300 people, has already lost a promised $130,000 state grant for hepatitis C education. "I think overall, the attack, the recession, and the shakiness of the markets has had an impact on non-profits of all stripes," said Executive Director Larry Kessler. "Every state budget is also going to be cut. It has a ripple effect."

The impact differs for various organizations -- some even report an increase in volunteerism. "We did see a stop in activity -- fiscally and otherwise . . . But since then people have been calling up, asking how they can help [by volunteering]," said AIDS Project Los Angeles Executive Director Craig E. Thompson.

Yet no one is giving up. "One in 20 adults in Washington is HIV-positive," says Whitman-Walker's Cover. "That's 10 times the national rate of HIV infection. We are not going to abandon the people living here who are testing positive. Never."

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