This week’s NMAC Hangout is with leaders committed to ensuring that funding is stepped up to support the HIV infrastructure during and eventually after the COVID-19 outbreak. NMAC is very worried about what is happening to HIV services. Thursday’s webinar includes the following guests:
Thursday, April 16th @ 10 AM (Eastern)
Thursday, April 16th @ 2 PM (Eastern)
John will give an overview of funding for HIV organizations during COVID-19. He will share some of the resources Funders Concerned About AIDS has developed. He will also discuss his agency’s report on the Philanthropic Support to Address HIV/AIDS in 2019.
Kali and Darwin will talk about their respective organization’s efforts to support the HIV infrastructure during COVID-19. Each organization has rapidly developed funding opportunities for current grantees to help them through these difficult times.
There will be time for questions and answers; however, please don’t ask specific questions about your nonprofit. This is a space for general questions.
For full disclosure, NMAC has been a grantee of both the Elton John AIDS Foundation and Gilead. We are grateful for their support; however, it is important to understand that their contributions do not impact any NMAC policies. NMAC intends to apply for support from Gilead’s COVID-19 initiative, but we are not eligible for the Elton John AIDS Foundation relief program.
Two weeks ago, I put forth a challenge to HIV funders to dramatically increase the financial commitment to supporting our community. Now more than ever, HIV service organizations need their support. Thank you to the Elton John AIDS Foundation and Gilead for stepping up. We hope others will join them.
NMAC will host a webinar for any donor who steps up to help HIV nonprofits during this difficult time. COVID-19 has put all of our futures at risk. When 2020 started, it was all about building plans to end the epidemic. Now it’s about the survival of the HIV infrastructure.
Yours in the struggle,
Paul Kawata
While NMAC has faced serious challenges due to the COVID pandemic, we know that our community based partners are facing enormous pressures.
Jason Kirk, Director of Development and Marketing at Palmetto Community Care in Charleston, SC, recently shared this with us:
At Palmetto Community Care, it has been a major adjustment to maintain services with staff all working remotely to continue to provide services to our HIV-positive clients. Costs incurred to continue normal business operation include procurement of additional laptops, internet service support for staff, increased IT usage and demand and phone service upgrades. Each additional expenditure is an added and unplanned cost that we will need to fundraise for or make budget adjustments to continue to complete our mission. In addition, we have made the difficult decision to temporarily suspend our HIV and STI testing services and encourage those who believe that they have recent exposure to work with our state health department in an emergency. We are looking out for the health of our staff and those who seek testing due to the close proximity needed for testing. Overall, we are doing our very best and additional funding and donations would help alleviate shortfalls from delayed or cancelled events and fundraisers.
“I think that clients are anxious and some are concerned about getting their medications in the future; MCMs have been reaching out to all clients to check on them but it has been hard adjusting to working from home. MCMs are working their hardest to ensure that clients’ needs are continuing to be met in every way possible. Our Specialized Medical Case Manager is getting all medications delivered to her house instead of to our agency, and our outreach team are delivering medications via car. I think we take technology for granted and obviously we are working on personal computers and adapting best we can. I think that we will get better at working from home in the near future.
“Clients are continuing to call and it is business as usual in that respect. I think we need more technology and guidance from funders. HOPWA and SC DHEC have been rather vague in regards to what is being required for MCMs to have as far as signatures, consents, etc in order for us to ensure that clients can continue to have access to everything. For example ADAP recerts need signature and proof of income and it is hard to request those from clients who may not even have a cell phone and we are social distancing.“ – Jennifer Benvenuto, Medical Case Management Program Manager
Overall, this is new territory and we are using unfamiliar technology and systems, but we are working our hardest to ensure that our clients are not forgotten and do not fall through any cracks left by this pandemic.
It’s been a rough couple of days at NMAC. Multiple family members of staff have passed and, as you can imagine, we are devastated (please read Ace’s story about his family). As we learned during the HIV epidemic, the work continues.
Mark your calendars for the weekly NMAC check-in. This week we are meeting on Thursday, April 9, at 10 AM and 2 PM ET. You will need to register in advance:
10 AM (Eastern) Registration
2 PM (Eastern) Registration
Last week we ran out of slots, so this week we’ve doubled the number of openings.
Special Guests
This week’s special guest is Harold Philips from Health and Human Services. Harold is the Chief Operating Officer for the federal effort to End the HIV Epidemic (EHE). Harold will talk about EHE efforts while being physically distant. In addition to Harold, we will also be joined by Moises Agosto, Tara Barnes-Darby, and Ace Robinson from NMAC. Moises will address long term survivors and what they should know about COVID-19, Tara will answer your questions about the 2020 United States Conference on HIV/AIDS, and Ace is going to talk about his recent article in The Body “African Americans Are Bearing the Brunt of the Coronavirus Pandemic-Including My Family in Albany Georgia.”
We will also follow-up on last week’s discussion about the CARES Act’s Paycheck Protection Program and the messy roll-out of the program. As we mentioned last week, many banks were not prepared for this program and the roll-out has left many nonprofits frustrated and concerned. The initiative will run out of money and not everyone will benefit. It is critical that you get your application in as soon as possible.
2020 USCHA
We have not made a final decision about the 2020 United States Conference on HIV/AIDS. The meeting is in October and we want to share our thinking and hear from you. Many meetings are going to a virtual format. Do you think that would work for this meeting? NMAC is very committed to Puerto Rico and we are looking at a Plan B which is to push the meeting to the spring of 2021; however, we want to hear your thoughts.
Long Term Survivors
We invite all people living with HIV/AIDS to join the call and share their experience of living with HIV during COVID-19. I know this is something that HHS and HRSA are tracking. Please join the call to share your concerns with Harold. It’s too soon to have real scientific studies, so we are looking for anecdotes for how PLHIV are coping.
Go-To Meetings
NMAC uses Go-To-Meetings for these hangouts. After you register, please follow the instructions and download the software in advance of our check-in. It will take a few minutes to get set-up and the check-in will start and end on time.
While the CARES Act provided $90 million for Ryan White Care and $65 million for HOWPA; perhaps the most significant relief will be the $100 billion in direct aid to healthcare institutions, including Medicare and Medicaid enrolled providers. It’s worth noting that NMAC was proud to have joined with our partners, and worked with Congress to ensure HIV/AIDS related funding was not only reprogrammed, but more importantly, we successfully advocated for increased funding in these health accounts.
These are scary times. Can we talk? NMAC wants to hold an online hangout with a purpose, to talk about Coronavirus Emergency Loans for Nonprofits. We are not experts on the topic, but we wanted to make sure that everyone has information about this program.
NMAC will hold two webinars on Thursday, April 2.
The purpose of the webinars is to discuss relief for nonprofits via the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. There is $350 billion to help small businesses and nonprofits. We specifically want to discuss the Paycheck Protection Program because of the loan forgiveness component of this program. This program will be administered by the Small Business Administration. Loans will be guaranteed by the federal government, nonprofit need to apply at one of the approved banks.
Who Is Eligible?
A 501©(3) with fewer than 500 employees
How Much Can A Nonprofit Borrow?
Loans through this program can be up to 2.5 times the nonprofit’s average monthly payroll costs, not to exceed $10 million. Your average monthly payroll is the sum of salary, or wages. It includes vacation and/or sick leave, healthcare benefits including insurance premiums, retirement benefits, and state or local tax assessed on the compensation. Compensation of an individual employee in excess of $100,000 annually will be prorated for the period from February 15 to June 30, 2020.
The Loan Can Be Forgiven
Nonprofits are eligible for loan forgiveness equal to the amount they spent on the following items during the two-month period starting on the loan’s origination date:
However, loan forgiveness can be reduced if the nonprofit has a reduction in the number of employees or a reduction of greater than 25% in wages paid to employees. These details are still to be worked out.
Registration will be limited to 100 people per session. If the demand exceeds the spaces, NMAC will add additional sessions. NMAC is NOT an expert on this program or the SBA; however, we felt it was important for the HIV infrastructure to consider these loans. We want to thank the US Chamber of Commerce for the information we shared in this e-newsletter.
Yours in the struggle,
Paul Kawata