Funders Concerned About AIDS has released the results of a Gallup survey of philanthropic organizations and their responses to HIV/AIDS issues. The news is not encouraging.

The New York-based organization published Philanthropy and AIDS: Assessing the Past, Shaping the Future in April. Some findings of the survey include:

• The number of funders granting $50,000 or more each year declined 22 percent over the three-year survey period.
• Eight percent of this core group of grantmakers expects to decrease HIV/AIDS-related funding in the future.
• The total number funders committed to HIV/AIDS grantmaking is declining.
• The number of funders who reported grantmaking during the study period declined by 21 percent.
• Between 1996 and 1997, documented philanthropic funding for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and research dropped from $37 million to $30 million, a 19 percent decrease.
• 13 percent of respondents said that their organizations currently are not funding HIV/AIDS at all, despite citing it as an urgent issue.
• 69 percent of grantmaking institutions that reported a reduction in HIV/AIDS funding say that it is an urgent issue.