United Way gives ActionAIDS substantial grant

By Jen Colletta
PGN Staff Writer
© 2008 Philadelphia Gay News

United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania recently announced the recipients of its new Investing in Results grant-making program. With UWSEPA’s generosity, ActionAIDS now has an additional $238,550 to continue its efforts of providing comprehensive HIV/AIDS services to the local community.

The grant was the result of the reconfiguration of the organization’s funding process, which was revamped at the beginning of this year to allow for more competition among local nonprofits.

UWSEPA allocates funding through two main programs. The Donors Choice program distributes funding to about 3,000 organizations annually that donors themselves select. Funding for the group’s Community Impact program, however, is garnered through donations that are not earmarked for a specific group.

Since UWSEPA’s founding in 1921, the Community Impact program traditionally divulged funds each year to the same group of select organizations that had been invited to become UWSEPA members.

In an effort to spread the funds to a number of new groups, however, the organization’s leaders decided to open up the selection process to all local health and human-service agencies with its Investing in Results program.

Nearly 550 agencies applied for the program, and UWSEPA selected 137 to share the available $11 million. Previously, only 77 groups benefited from the fund.

Of the selected agencies, 93 had never received UWSEPA funding before. The Attic Youth Center, the local LGBT youth-serving agency, was one of the Investing in Results organizations that had not previously received UWSEPA assistance.

ActionAIDS has been a Community Impact beneficiary in the past but Larry Slagle, director of development at ActionAIDS, said the group was worried its funding may not be renewed in the new, competitive process. This year’s grant, however, surpasses previous ones ActionAIDS has received from UWSEPA, which Slagle said is a welcome and much-needed asset.

“We’ve been pretty reliant on United Way,” Slagle said. “They’ve always been a big part of our budget, and we were quite concerned in terms of the fact that it was such a competitive process. We’re very grateful and pleasantly surprised by the amount. This basically allows us to keep doing all of our services.”

David Fair, vice president for Community Impact at UWSEPA, said ActionAIDS is one of only 11 previously funded organizations whose amount of funding increased this year. Fair noted that UWSEPA chose ActionAIDS because of the organization’s comprehensive services, as well as the measurable effect those services have on the local community.

“What was compelling to the people who reviewed the applications was the range of services that ActionAIDS provides. They’re not just doing case management, but now they’re also working on housing assistance and connecting people with jobs,” Fair said. “And they not only do great work, but they also recognize that they have to track the effectiveness of the work they do. Our process is about comparing outcomes; it’s not just about the quality of work that organizations do, but also whether they can show that their work is making a difference for the people that they serve. ActionAIDS did a very good job of articulating that in their submission.”

Kevin Burns, ActionAIDS executive director, said the organization holds itself accountable to the communities it serves, something he thinks UWSEPA appreciates.

“UWSEPA’s financial support is a vital link in enabling us to provide the services we offer, and their strong commitment to transparency and outcomes is one we proudly share,” Burns said.

As long as the community continues to donate to UWSEPA, the Investing in Results funding should be renewable for the selected organizations for the next two years.

“We’re very grateful for their support, and we hope the community continues to give generously to United Way,” Slagle said. “They do a lot of great work.”

Jen Colletta can be reached at jen@epgn.com.