Sarah Hashmall, Program Officer, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation
Channing Wickham, Executive Director, Washington AIDS Partnership
The Washington AIDS Partnership , a collaboration of grantmaking organizations with a mission of ending the HIV epidemic in the Greater Washington region, was founded in 1988 with the support of the Ford Foundation and 20 DC-area foundations. The organization’s charge was to make grants to the community as quickly as possible. At that time, Washington, DC had the fifth-highest HIV rate in the country, and the epidemic was out of control.
The Washington AIDS Partnership was originally housed at the Meyer Foundation. At the time, it was uncommon for private foundations to grant funds to another foundation, and there were legal questions that had to be navigated. The more challenging issue was to get grantmakers on board with the idea of a pooled fund with a shared decisionmaking process. By making grants to support the Washington AIDS Partnership, foundations gave up control, allowing a collective group of decisionmakers to determine how funds would be spent. This was new to many funders, and it required deep trust to be built with all the people involved. In 1993, the Washington AIDS Partnership was moved to the local nonprofit association of grantmakers, now called Philanthropy DMV, that could accept grants and had relationships with a growing number of funders of all types. The independence gained by the Washington AIDS Partnership in its new organizational home allowed it to thrive.
Over time, the Washington AIDS Partnership became the region’s largest private funder of HIV prevention, care, and advocacy. Since its inception, the Washington AIDS Partnership has awarded nearly $35 million in grants focused on HIV prevention and treatment, LGBTQ health, racial equity, women’s health, advocacy, harm reduction, youth, and more. The organization has pushed our local community to innovate and advocate for solutions, including piloting a program that reduced HIV diagnosis to treatment time from several weeks to 24 hours, advocating to lift a federal prohibition on public funds for DC syringe services programs, and coauthoring the DC government’s Plan to End HIV.
This work has had a direct impact on the local epidemic. In 2021, there were 230 newly diagnosed HIV cases, a decline of 83 percent from the peak of 1,374 cases in 2007 (DC Health 2023). In the same period, the number of new diagnoses due to injection drug use decreased from 150 cases to zero (DC Health, Appendices, 2023). Deaths due to HIV complications have declined steadily, and today more than half of people living with HIV in DC are 50 years and older (DC Health 2023). As the city has made great progress reaching goals set in the DC Ends HIV Plan, the Washington AIDS Partnership determined in 2023 that its role in the fight to end the local epidemic was coming to an end. The organization will officially conclude its work in the first quarter of 2024.
The Washington AIDS Partnership published a report, Changing the Course of an Epidemic, to share lessons learned about how to move quickly and take big risks to drive change. We have highlighted some key learnings below:
- Bold and persistent voices can change the policy landscape: Private philanthropy can never replace public resources and leadership in combatting a public health crisis. From brutally honest “report cards” rating the DC government’s HIV response to advocating for syringe exchange to increasing access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (also known as PrEP, a medication that can reduce a person’s risk of contracting HIV by over 95 percent), the Washington AIDS Partnership and its allies spoke up early, often, and loudly on a range of policy issues to hold government accountable.
- Public-private partnerships allow government to test new ideas: By partnering with the Washington AIDS Partnership, DC government agencies had the opportunity to test new and sometimes unconventional approaches and be creative in the deployment of resources. The Washington AIDS Partnership served as an incubator for HIV treatment and care, advancing policies that today serve as models across the country, including the focus on prevention and treatment for women, who for years were largely ignored in the domestic HIV response.
- Taking risks on new ideas can foster innovation and growth: The Washington AIDS Partnership supported innovative models of care and organizations with very little or no other grant support. Rather than telling grantees what to do, the Washington AIDS Partnership asked questions, such as: “what is innovative”, “what can we test”, and “how can we help”? This resulted in a broad range of cutting-edge services as well as staff morale grants to reduce employee turnover in a challenging field.
- Invest in youth to build the health workforce of tomorrow: The Washington AIDS Partnership partnered with AmeriCorps to expand the capacity of HIV-focused nonprofits and introduce AmeriCorps volunteers to the urgency of this public health crisis. Three hundred AmeriCorps volunteers over the course of 27 years gained invaluable experience they are now using in their careers in clinics, research labs, universities, advocacy and service organizations, and philanthropy.
- Philanthropy can use its leverage to foster collaboration: The Washington AIDS Partnership’s regular convenings, shared learning, and steady presence created space for honest conversations and relationship building. Importantly, the organization convened community leaders and people living with HIV alongside funders, since people closest to the issue know best how to respond. Additionally, not all funders at the table were health funders, but the Washington AIDS Partnership helped them make the case to invest in a health crisis facing our region. This shifted how local funders tackle pressing issues and how they work together, enabling a more holistic and collaborative approach.
The Washington AIDS Partnership focused on and changed the trajectory of the HIV epidemic in DC, but what we’ve learned can be applied more broadly. We hope that philanthropy, nonprofits, and governments apply these lessons to approach other challenges, from housing to food insecurity to the next epidemic. You can view the report in full here.
References
DC Health. Annual Epidemiology and Surveillance Report. Washington, DC: DC Health, February 9, 2023.
DC Health. Appendices, Annual Epidemiology and Surveillance Report. Washington, DC: DC Health, February 9, 2023.