Hope’s Voice International had the privilege of being invited to the inaugural Funders Concerned About AIDS Gathering this past September. We were one of the only non-profits to attend and were excited to hear what funders are excited about and also how they are responding to the current financial cut backs.

Brandy Svendson & Todd Murray

The conference was attended by an amazing group of committed funders, who were genuinely interested in what other funders were doing and how to best support the organizations the are funding. To see a full list of presenters and work shops please visit the FCAA Event Page. Todd Murray, our Executive Director, presented in the Media and Technology Panel – he talked about the history of the campaigns in the last 25 years, which have been primarily fear based, un-relatable, and contain mixed messages. He was then able to share the Emmy Award winning work of Hope’s Voice International that we feel provides a new approach to HIV marketing, focusing on young people and HIV – Please visit www.doeshivlooklikeme.org to see more of our campaign.

One of the most exciting presentations for me was by Sam-Graham Felsen Director of Content & Outreach, Blue State Digital. Blue State Digital is responsible for President Obama’s on-line campaign, which some argue single handedly won him the election as this article in this Guardian explains, “Is This Man the Future of Politics?”. Sam was able to make a great connection to Obama’s on-line success in both creating support, community and of course money! He encouraged funders to consider funding infrastructure projects such as websites for non-profits. We really hoped they listened. This advice couldn’t come at a better time for Hope’s Voice International, we just launched this site with the intention of really capitalizing on this new way of building our community support. We are so excited for the year to come and are happy that Sam has provided us with inspiration and some of the tools to do this, thanks Sam!

Another presentation that was really exciting and I think more and more non-profits need to hear about was by, Alyce Myatt, Executive Director, Grantmakers in Film & Electronic Media. Organizations and Funders can go to http://media.gfem.org/ - the goal is to advance the field of media arts and public interest media funding. To this end, the GFEM Media Database serves as a hub where funders of all kinds can find a rich array of media-related projects that fit their funding priorities. All organizations need to be apart of this database. These projects can be content, policy or infrastructure projects. We can’t wait to be on the database! What a great way to support the media arts, please be sure to share this with your friends and community!

Another presentation that was really innovative and focused on young people was by Brittany Hume, a Program Officer at Johnson & Johnson Corporate Contributions.

Brittany gave background on the Global AIDS Media Initiative their mission is to leverage the power of media to help prevent the spread of HIV and reduce the stigma facing those already living with the disease. Since GMAI was launched in January 2004 at an historic meeting of top media executives from around the globe, convened by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, over 300 media companies worldwide have committed. See video below about the GAMI:

Johnson and Johnson are one of the partners who are capitalizing on this commitment by the Global AIDS Media Initiative and the African Broadcast Media Partnership, committing to creating initiatives that share our vision of engaging youth through education that is encouraging leadership, increasing hope for young people, an finally using innovative ways. Johnson & Johnson are partners in Imagine Africa - the first authentic African reality show which sets up pan-African challenges for the continent’s young achievers and promotes the vision of an HIV-free generation Imagine Afrika is part of an ongoing HIV/AIDS public education and awareness campaign designed to re-engage young Africans in combating HIV/AIDS. Go to www.itbeginswithyou.org for more information.

I couldn’t help but wonder how cool it would be to do something similar with young people living with HIV, to show the day to struggles with stigma, dating, family and to also show that they are just like many young people with extraordinary courage. In 1992 MTV shared the story of Pedro Zamora on it’s hit show The Real World. This show greatly impacted Todd, the Founder and Executive Director of Hope’s Voice. It would be great to have new role models, talking about living with HIV on a reality show. Maybe one day Todd and I will be on a reality show and will make this happen… Amazing Race would be fun, and I know we would win – if you can run a non-profit you surely can win a race around the world!

Watch the Real World with Pedro at this link: http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/real_world_brooklyn/series.jhtml

The panel included a powerful presentation from Miquel Gomez, Director of AIDS.gov, Office of HIV/AIDS Policy. He gave insight to the work that AIDS.gov is doing to reach the masses with prevention messages through information, videos, blogs and even twitter. Hope’s Voice International is excited to announce that Todd Murray the Founder and Executive Director has been nominated for Obama’s Advisory Council on HIV and AIDS. The Office of HIV/AIDS Policy is directly involved in this exciting committee and we are optimistic that Todd’s experience and voice can be an asset for this important committee, and look forward to the opportunity to work with Miguel and of course President Obama.

I remember vividly working in Malawi on an amazing HIV project and Obama was in Kenya getting tested with Michelle ,publicly. (See video below) It was a powerful message, that was heard in Malawi too. I was also reading his book Audacity of Hope at that time, and began to have a deep admiration for him and Michelle. I am inspired and very hopeful that this administration will end the legacy of US presidents who have not responded in a full hearted way, leaving religion and politics out of it – making it about individuals who deserve to be honored and their lives valued. There is an air in the HIV community of hope, that this is the time to really make a difference – I encourage readers to subscribe to AIDS.gov’s blog, send letters and make sure our voices are heard. We will keep you posted about Todd’s nomination!

The second day we had the privilege of hearing Stephen Lewis speak. It was my fourth time, and it never gets boring. He consistently inspires and challenges the HIV Community to step up! I first saw him speak at the 2006 International AIDS Conference, and wanted to share with you his speech from that day – click here to download: Stephen Lewis Speech- He also wrote the book A Race Against Time, which I highly recommend.

Because we were invited as a non-profit we only attended a few panels – but I encourage readers to check out Oriol R. Gutierrez Jr.’s , from POZ magazine (seen below) Article and Blog to hear more about it the other parts of the gathering, and stay tuned for the full report from www.fcaaids.org.