While growth in HIV-related philanthropy in 2020 was essentially flat compared with 2019, there was a reliance on a shrinking pool of funders, a report from the Funders Concerned About AIDS (FCAA) finds.

Based on an analysis of HIV-related philanthropic disbursement from 323 funders, the report, Philanthropic Support to Address HIV and AIDS (86 pages, PDF), found that total HIV-related philanthropy in 2020 reached $707 million, representing an essentially flat, 1 percent increase from 2019. The top 20 funders accounted for 92 percent of the year’s total funding and 67 percent of grant dollars came from the top two funders: Gilead Sciences and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—the first time since 2000 that the Gates Foundation was not the largest funder in the field. In addition, the report found that 13 of the top 20 funders reported decreased giving in 2020, and other longstanding private foundations exited the space and/or significantly reduced their spending on HIV. Yet, the report also found that private HIV-related philanthropic funding to the United States rose for the seventh consecutive year, totaling more than $321 million in 2020—a $109 million (52 percent) increase compared with 2019.

According to the report, roughly $66 million (9 percent) of HIV-related philanthropy in 2020 addressed COVID-19 efforts, including unrestricted emergency funding in response to the pandemic, as well as personal protective equipment needs, research, access to HIV treatment and prevention medicine or services, support to strengthen community-based organizations’ infrastructure, and technology; and funding for persons with psychosocial disabilities increased in 2020 by roughly $7.2 million.

Despite the overall stagnation of HIV-related philanthropy in 2020, resources did increase in other notable areas, including general operating support ($55 million, a 27 percent increase from 2019); capacity building/leadership development ($67 million, a 38 percent increase); advocacy ($131 million, a 38 percent increase); and funding for key populations ($139 million, an 11 percent increase).

“The concentration of funding at the top is not a new headline, but it became starker in 2020,” said Channing Wickham, FCAA’s board chair and executive director of the Washington AIDS Partnership. “This is an enormous concern for the stability of HIV-related philanthropy. A shift in resources away from HIV, or other action with economic fallout from one of these top grant makers could devastate future funding levels.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Vasyl Dolmatov)