Sustainability: the State of HIV/AIDS Service Organizations

Q&A Highlights 12/16/14

Sustainability: The State of HIV/AIDS Service Organizations (Jacob Smith Yang and Nickie Bazell) # Questions Answers 1. What sustainability issues come up Sustainability is certainly very much on the mind the most in your capacity building of the organizations we work with, and much of work? sustainability has to do with resources. One of the things we get a lot of requests for is assistance with fundraising—thinking of different ways to fundraise and working with boards around fundraising. Many people join boards because they are passionate about an organization’s mission, but that does not necessarily mean they come with the skills to raise money. We do a lot of work with organizations around training boards to become a funding resource for the organization.

There is also a need for strong leaders to assist organizations through these transitions. We do a lot of leadership development and executive coaching, 2. According to your statistics, 92% of Like any new initiative, I think it requires ASOs do HIV testing but only 48% planning, some conversations with your health do STI testing. How can department and your funders. When you talk about ASOs/CBOs move toward offering bundling services, you have to make sure they STI testing, both to diversify compliment each other well. For example, when I funding and to enhance the sexual was working in Massachusetts, there was an health of their clients? initiative to have HIV testers also screen for hepatitis. In some ways it made sense to bundle these together because of the shared transmission risk, but there were some practical considerations, like the differences in how you screen, that created real barriers to this. You really need to look at the individual services to make sure you have the staff, training, and resources to make that successful and make sure it makes sense to bundle.

There are also a lot of ways to explore collaborating with other agencies or a health center to make it possible to offer multiple services.