Philanthropic Funding for HIV/AIDS Reached Highest Level to Date in 2016

Funders Concerned About AIDS (FCAA) released its 15th annual Philanthropic Support to Address HIV/AIDS report. The leading voice on philanthropic resources for the global AIDS epidemic, FCAA reports that HIV/AIDS philanthropic disbursements increased 2% in 2016, representing the third consecutive year of growth and reaching an all time high of $680 million.

However, in an environment increasingly inhospitable to global health and development, the organization is urging that these findings be viewed in a broader context.

This year's uptick was driven by significant increases from several of the top 20 funders -- primarily ViiV Healthcare, Aidsfonds, and Elton John AIDS Foundation (US and UK) -- and carried by a $41 million increase from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, representative of its normal yearly fluctuations. However, although the report highlights an increase in total funding, the overall trend shows significant decreases from the majority of funders.

"Once again, the majority of philanthropic resources allocated to fighting the epidemic is concentrated among a handful of donors," said FCAA's Executive Director, John Barnes. "The top 20 funders accounted for 87% of 2016 resources. In fact, without the two largest funders -- Gates Foundation and Gilead Sciences, which, together, represent over half of all funding in 2016 -- total giving to HIV/AIDS among all other private funders decreased 5%."

This is of particular concern given the challenges of the current environment. In addition to the lack of appetite to fund global health programs demonstrated by the U.S. Administration, other bilateral donors continue to decrease HIV funding. In July, the Kaiser Family Foundation and UNAIDS signaled the lowest level of donor government support for HIV/AIDS in low- and middle-income countries since 2010, despite the fact that these areas of the world are among those most heavily impacted by the epidemic. This growing resource gap is compounded by the reinstatement of damaging policies such as the "Global Gag Rule," which restricts international organizations receiving U.S. funding from performing or promoting abortion services.

"We cannot allow flagging resources and ill-informed policy to roll back decades of progress," said Channing Wickham, Executive Director, Washington AIDS Partnership, and Chair, FCAA Board of Directors. "Now, more than ever, we are calling on the philanthropic sector to increase support and leverage its unique abilities to respond to HIV and AIDS."
The philanthropic sector can play a critical role in the fight by making strategic investments in key areas. In this year's report, FCAA made a special effort to track a few of those areas, including support for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), advocacy and human rights, key populations (such men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, sex workers, and transgender populations), capacity building and leadership development.

Key findings from the 2016 report include: