NOW IS THE TIME 2013 ANNUAL REPORT Table of Contents Message from the President & CEO 3 Message from the Board Chair 4 The Big Picture 5 Grantmaking: Advancing the Care Continuum 7 Grantmaking: Addressing Health Disparities 10 Capacity Building 14 Policy Activities 17 Finances 20 AIDS United Donors and Supporters 22 AIDS United Board of Trustees 24 AIDS United Staff 25 Message from the President & CEO AIDS United operates with a clear and concise mission of ending AIDS in America—and that’s a battle the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has declared can be won. While there remains much to do to get there, it’s clear the time for action is now. In the last four years, the government outlined our country’s first National HIV/AIDS Strategy and expanded access to care through the Affordable Care Act. New research has shown that early treatment not only extends the life of those infected, but can also reduce transmissibility by 96%. We’ve seen the FDA approve a single daily pill for populations at high risk for HIV infection, as well as the introduction of the care continuum, which offers new ways of effectively targeting resources around those most in need. We know more—and have more—at our disposal than I ever could have dreamt of 23 years ago when I was first diagnosed HIV-positive. Yet the challenges we face remain clear: Of the more than 1.1 million people estimated to be living with HIV in the United States, l 18% don’t know their status l 34% haven’t seen an HIV doctor l 63% don’t regularly see their doctor, and l 75% aren’t virally suppressed. That’s why, whether through strategic grantmaking to improve linkage and retention in care, syringe access, advocacy for expanded health care or sector transformation, all of it is undertaken to achieve and advance our mission. Because we know that at the end of the day these aren’t just numbers, they’re people’s lives. Four years ago AIDS United was born out of the successful merger between National AIDS Fund and AIDS Action Council, and I’ve felt blessed to have taken over the helm. As you’ll see on the following pages, there’s so much for us to be proud of. We know that to end AIDS requires we all work together, and so I would like to dedicate this report to our many partners: the generous donors that make this work possible; the Board of Trustees that give talent and treasure to help guide us; grantees, members, and advocates who amplify our results; and our hardworking staff who show up every day with a full heart and a clear mission of what we’re all fighting for. Thank you for your help, your partnership, your investment, and your belief in AIDS United. We do this work together, and together we can end AIDS. MICHAEL KAPLAN 3 Message from the Board Chair HIV has been a part of my life since 1987 when my best friend was diagnosed. Since then, I have been involved with what is now known as Legacy Community Health Services, first as a volunteer, then a board member, and for the past 17 years as CEO. I have witnessed the profound shifts and breakthroughs in the epidemic—how we test for it, how we treat it, and how we prevent its transmission. I am truly honored to have been elected Chair of AIDS United’s Board of Trustees. My predecessor, Douglas M. Brooks, was appointed as the new director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy. He is the first gay African-American man living with HIV to hold the post, and we on the AIDS United Board of Trustees could not be more proud of this incredible achievement. Douglas was the founding Chair of AIDS United when National AIDS Fund and AIDS Action Council merged in 2011, and he saw the organization through some wonderful growth in a short period of time. We wish him well in his new position, and know that his experience and dedication makes him uniquely qualified to continue advancing the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. The work of AIDS United continues on! We remain committed to grantmaking, policy, advocacy, and capacity building. These efforts support innovative community-based interventions, advocacy for sound health policy, and tested and tried capacity-building tools. We are grateful for your dedication and support of our cause. On behalf of AIDS United’s Board of Trustees, I offer this 2013 Annual Report. It tells a story of how far we have come. The next chapters of the AIDS United story are ours to write together, they lead to the finale of our epic tale, a country—a world—without HIV/AIDS. KATY CALDWELL 4 The Big Picture The mission of AIDS United is to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, and it’s this mission that drives all that we do. We recognize that we have more tools—and information—at our disposal than ever before and we’re able to address this epidemic with exacting precision previously unimaginable. To maximize our efforts and ensure every dollar, every effort, and every step of the way is headed in the right direction we employ a multipronged, We have more tools proven approach. This includes the following targeted efforts, which are outlined in more detail in the annual report sections to follow. and information at our Strategic Grantmaking disposal than ever before. We strategically prioritize where our investments go so that we can make the greatest impact in achieving our mission. This includes staying abreast of best practices in HIV treatment and care as well as changes in surveillance and epidemiological data so every effort is a targeted intervention for patients and communities alike. Advancing the Care Continuum. The care continuum—often called the treatment cascade—is a way to show, in visual form, the numbers of individuals living with HIV who know their status, who are linked and retained in care, who are on treatment, and who are virally suppressed. Now that we know definitively that viral suppression is not only critical to improved health outcomes for those infected, but in stopping potential for further transmission, the care continuum has given the HIV world a common lens to look through and evaluate our work. It has underscored the need for removing barriers to care as well as the promise of what’s possible when we effectively target resources. To support such efforts we funded activities such as our Access to Care (A2C) and Retention in Care (RiC) initiatives, which have seen incredible successes. The A2C work was held up as a national model in a 2013 White House Office of National AIDS Policy report on improving outcomes along the care continuum. 100 CDC, PERCENT ENGAGED IN STAGES OF CARE United States, 2010 82% 80 66% Of the 1.1 million Americans living with HIV, 60 only 25% are virally suppressed. 37% 40 33% 25% 20 percent of all people with hiv in the united states percent 0 diagnosed linked to retained prescribed virally care in care art suppressed 5 Addressing Health Disparities. While so many great strides have been made in our understanding of disease progression and treatment, prevalence and health disparities still increasingly affect racial and ethnic minorities including gay and bisexual men, women of color, and substance users (such as injection drug users). As such, we’ve focused grants to those communities most disproportionately affected, including our EMPOWERED Community Grants project and our Syringe Access project. In Puerto Rico, we funded recent work to help curtail the island’s high HIV death rate and prevalence among its residents. In the Deep South, lack of infrastructure, continued stigma, and delayed testing have impacted the epidemic. To assist local organizations we funded our Southern REACH project. We do this because we know that often times the power to address local challenges require community-driven responses. Capacity Building Successfully addressing HIV requires sharing lessons learned, increasing workforce capacity, and improving uptake of best practices. To facilitate this, AIDS United supports both the Sector Transformation initiative to help communities in restructuring efforts and AmeriCorps, which addresses workforce shortages across the country. In an effort to increase capacity and re-engage lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) organizations to focus on more HIV/AIDS work, we created the m2MPower project. With adequate capacity and active commit- ment, communities and providers can play their critical part in ending AIDS. Policy Activities To make broad-scale change requires influencing policy. AIDS United is at the forefront of policy efforts from helping to lead AIDSWatch where stakeholders from across the country came to Capitol Hill to our Public Policy Committee (PPC) to the legislative activities we do day in and day out. We know that treatment is prevention and access to that treatment is critical to improved health outcomes and in curtailing the epidemic. We also know that barriers such as discrimination continue even today. For these reasons our myriad policy efforts are focused not only on improving care and treatment access but in removing those barriers that exist. To keep a finger on the pulse, AIDS United actively sends out weekly electronic policy updates and communicates with stakeholders and grantees on the frontlines. Doing so ensures we’re working together, and working together we can do more. Now is the time. Grantmaking by the Numbers AIDS United provides grants and creates programmatic partnerships with approximately 90 organizations each 90 year—including more than 300 subgrantees.