California: Foundation Announces Grants to AIDS Groups

Fourteen Bay Area organizations faced with funding cuts in recent years will split a $1 million donation from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund. The gift is timely, said San Francisco philanthropist Richard Goldman, since 2006 marks the 25th year of the AIDS epidemic. "It seemed like a good time to emphasize that this is still an epidemic, even in the Bay Area," he said.

Project Open Hand (POH) will receive $250,000 toward its programs that provide groceries and cooked meals for homebound patients with AIDS and other diseases, while the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park will get $25,000.

None of the recipients had applied for the grants. "It came out of the blue. We were literally jumping up and down," said Bob Brenneman, POH's development director. "One of the reasons the Goldman Fund gave these grants was to encourage other private funders to do the same," he added.

Other grant recipients include: the AIDS Emergency Fund, AIDS Legal Referral Panel, American Foundation for AIDS Research, Bay Area Perinatal AIDS Center, Dolores Street Community Services, Healing Waters, Lavender Youth Recreation & Information Center, the Matri hospice, San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Project Inform, Tenderloin Health and Shanti.

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