In its first-ever direct grantmaking cycle, Philly AIDS Thrift is giving out $73,000 to local organizations working to fight HIV/AIDS.
During its 10-year tenure, PAT has donated more than $1 million to AIDS Fund, which disperses money to HIV/AIDS causes in the region, which it will continue with its monthly donation. However, this new program, announced at the end of 2014, is its first effort to dispense funding directly to community organizations.
“We knew that December wasn’t the best month to seek out proposals but we were anxious to do our first self-managed grant process,” said PAT co-founder Tom Brennan. “We thought it would help bring us closer to some of the agencies and make the distribution of money from us a bit more personal.”
PAT is dividing the funding among the eight organizations that applied.
Grants of $10,000 will be given to GALAEI’s Positivo program; AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania’s Planning Ahead initiative; to support meals and nutritional counseling for the HIV program at Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutritional Alliance; Project Hope at Family Services of Montgomery County; the Michael Taylor Fund at Action AIDS; and Washington West Project at Mazzoni Center. An $8,000 grant will go to HIV-prevention programming for LGBTQ youth at The Attic Youth Center, and a $5,000 award will be given to Project ONE at Family Services of Chester County.
“Our fear was we might give a party and be sitting there with our balloons and cake and no one would show up, but fortunately, we got eight great proposals, which we were able to fund in full,” Brennan said.
He added the organization will do an appraisal of the funded proposals in a few months and also seek feedback from the grantees about improving the grant-application process.
PAT had dedicated $100,000 for the grant cycle, and the undispersed $27,000, Brennan said, will be rolled into the next round of grants.
He said that round will likely open at a less-busy time, possibly this summer.
“We’ll probably try to not do it in December next time, so agencies that are dealing with year-end issues and maybe reduced staff hours that time of year might have a better chance to put a proposal together,” he said.
Checks will be given to the grantees at AIDS Fund’s next Gay BINGO!, March 21 at Gershman Y.
