San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s Donations

This year’s AIDS Walk gathered 25,000 participants to San Francisco for a six-mile hike to raise funds for AIDS/HIV. As a result, the city’s AIDS Foundation tallied 59 community-driven organizations that would be given funds from the $3 million plus that was raised.

The sum of all raised funds was $229,000 and they range in varied sizes – the smallest was $1,000 and the largest $7,000. However, several of the grants were usually $2,500, $5,000 or $4,000 and were given to nonprofit groups that carry out AIDS/HIV-associated work in the Bay Area and within San Francisco.

Two programs of the University of California, San Francisco – the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies and the AIDS Health Project – were given larger grants worth $7,000 each; Tenderloin Health likewise received large funds. Marin AIDS Services and Larkin Street Youth would get $5,000 each. Native American AIDS Services and Pets Are Wonderful Support would receive $4,000 each.

The total amount of donations distributed by the foundation indicated around 8% of the funds raised by the walkers. In a column by Scott James in The Bay Citizen, he mentioned the difference between the large funds raised through the event and the small payout to charities to the Bay Area performing AIDS-associated work. James also cited that majority of the Walk fund normally goes to the city’s foundation, which then provides grants to organizations outside of the Bay Area and even those outside the country.