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GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

FEBRUARY 25, 1994

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FUNDING IT

Are we having an AIDS funding spree?

by Betsy Tabac

Funders Concerned About AIDS anticipates an increase in AIDS funding from foundations all over the United States.

With Clinton's strong support, more federal dollars have been allocated to AIDS research, prevention, care.

● Several national AIDS organizations have doubled revenues in the last two years.

Americans continue to pour money into all aspects of AIDS-advocacy and policy development; services; prevention; research. Money is coming from foundations, the government, corporations, and individuals. It is going to an estimated 18,000 AIDS programs throughout the United States.

Foundations

Funders Concerned About AIDS (FCAA), an affinity group of the Council on Foundations, surveyed its members last fall. Over 800 grantmakers in 42 states belong to FCAA and more than 200 responded to the survey. They reported a 30 percent increase in the number of grants to AIDS programs between 1991 and 1992 and a 31 percent increase in total grant amount-from $53.2 million to $69.6 million.

FCAA was founded in 1987 to provide information about AIDS to the philanthropic community and to encourage foundation support for AIDS programming. FCAA must be doing its job well. Foundation AIDS funding not only increased from 1991-1992 but it is also projected to continue to increase. Eighteen percent of survey respondents said they expected AIDS funding from their organizations to increase in 1993

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and 1994. Additional funds will probably come from foundations with $1 to 10 million in assets.

Grants from these funders are nothing to sneeze at. Over half of AIDS-related grants are for $100,000 or more. Funds come from health (35 percent), social service (24 percent), education (20 percent), and other foundation funding categories. Few grantmakers (11 percent of respondents) have established a separate AIDS grant category. Continuing care and public education programs receive a significant amount of support.

Federal support

On the federal front, funds for the Ryan White C.A.R.E. Act, the AIDS Housing Opportunities Act, CDC prevention programming, and NIH research are all expected to increase, according to an article in the Advocate last fall. The new Office of AIDS Research at NIH has activists hoping NIH funds will be used more effectively than they have been in the past. The increase could also tone down competition among various AIDS organizations for limited funds.

The Advocate reports that AIDS advocacy groups worked with the White House to finalize President Clinton's AIDS funding requests to Congress. They also helped to hammer out the strategy that requested enough funds for budgets of other disease programs to enable them to keep pace with inflation.

Where it goes

If money available for AIDS programming is increasing, then groups providing

AIDS services should be getting it. At least some of them are. The Washington Blade said the six largest AIDS organizations in the U.S. all had more revenue in 1993 than in 1991. These groups, ranked by size of budget, are the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR), Design Industries Foundation for AIDS (DIFFA), Names Project, National Minority AIDS Council, AIDS Action Council, and the National Leadership Coalition.

AmFAR has, by far, the largest '93 budget, $24 million, up from $13 million in 1991; the National Leadership Coalition has the smallest at $984,000 but this doubles its 1991 budget.

Individuals are a major source of income for these groups. The Washington Blade reported that 141,000 individuals contributed $12 million to these six organizations.

A Long Way to Go

Estimates by the American Association of Fund Raising Counsel (AAFRC) show total funding for all AIDS programs in the U.S. is between $575 to 850 million. This sounds like a lot of money but it does not begin to meet all the needs. One grantmaking organization received requests for AIDS support totalling $6 million when it had only $1 million to distribute. AAFRC reports that, in 1992, churches and religious groups received 65 times more money than AIDS programs, $56 billion. That's B, billion.

We'll have to keep the pressure on.

Betsy Tabac is the president of GrantMaster, a division of Tabac and Associates, Inc. in Cleveland. GrantMaster specializes in grants funding research and proposal writing.

Marriage licenses denied

Continued from Page 1

guess that we haven't sorted out all the issues. We still haven't found a person to make our rings," she laughed. Both women hope that their efforts will bring an end to the invisibility of gay union. Said Dunkle, "it's just one of the many civil rights we are denied. That's what brings us here. We're doing this for the community and for all the people who couldn't be here."

Many couples have worked out the various legal entanglements to protect themselves with no legal rights. Hare said that he and McCabe are "in the process of dealing with the legal issues right now. We know we need things like durable power of attorneys and wills. We're working with an attorney to get those things." But even with the legal problems solved, it's the larger issue of acceptance that Hare and McCabe seek. "We wouldn't stop at just getting legal rights. This goes towards society's resistance to us and our relationships."

Gays and lesbians were not alone as they attempted a bit of history making. Some of that desired acceptance could be found in the supportive friends filtered among the couples. Reverend Mary Grigolia of the Southwest Unitarian Church in Middleburg Heights, came to lend her support. "I came to support my friends and focus public opinion on the sacredness of gay relationships. I'm proud to say that the Unitarian church has been performing ceremonies of union between same-sex partners since 1973." Michael Fowler, an "avowed heterosexual" who attended McCabe's and Hare's ceremony, was strongly opinioned about the lack of equal representation under the law. "Do they revoke a marriage license when a husband has beat his wife? Can't we spend our gusto to create laws in a more appropriate manner? I hope that being here today will be a little step at moving us out of the dark ages."

While all marriage applications were

politely refused, efforts to get the bureau to accept certificates of domestic partnership were also denied. Bureau official Brenda Carey said that “the bureau really has no way of keeping such records." A license application is kept on file for five days, after which a couple can return for the actual license. Carey acknowledges that the department has never given out applications to gay couples.

Several present were still working through their own fears and trepidation as they waited amidst the glare of flashing cameras and eager microphones. “I'm still a little nervous right now," said Greg Campbell, his application in hand. Though he and his partner of twelve years, John Barrick, are "totally out at work and with our families," he knows that "we always have to think about things like losing our jobs."

McCabe agreed that fear played a large part in the low couples turnout. "Yes, fear is definitely a factor in getting more people involved. While there are more couples out there, the response might make you think otherwise. Lesbians and gays need to work past their fears in order to get what they want. If you feel fear then you know you're doing the right thing."

Clinton

Continued from Page 1

initiatives in ten states that would prohibit recognition of gay and lesbian civil rights or would legislate discrimination against gays.

Clinton's letter is expected to be used as an organizing tool by activists in Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon and Washington.

White House spokeswoman Ginny Terzano said Clinton's letter follows through on strong civil-rights positions he took during his campaign.