Washington Blade - April 19, 2002
Lou Chibbaro Jr.

Officials with AIDS service groups in D.C., New York, and Boston said they were concerned that the ads could damage their own fund-raising efforts by creating a negative image for all AIDS fund-raising.

But members of the group AIDS Community Donor Action -- which placed the ads in gay papers in D.C., New York City, Atlanta, Boston and Chicago -- said they were providing a public service to the papers' readers by alerting them to questionable fund-raising practices by the Pallotta firm.

The ads point to three AIDS vaccine rides produced by the Pallotta Teamworks last year that pulled in more than $19 million in donations from bike riders and donors recruited by the riders, but incurred nearly $16 million in expenses.

Only a few million remained for the three AIDS vaccine research institutions advertised as the beneficiaries of the rides, the ads say. One of the three beneficiaries, the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York City, withdrew as a beneficiary for this year's vaccine rides, citing the high overhead costs as its reason.

At least two other charities have severed ties with Pallotta Teamworks in the past six months, one of the ads says, "because its expenses are shamefully high and the portion of funds raised going to AIDS work is outrageously low." Lisa Cohen, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles based Pallotta Teamworks said the company would have no comment on the ads.

A Web site established by AIDS Community Donor Action lists the names of its 13 founding members. Included on the list is Craig Miller, president of MZA Events, Inc., a Los Angeles company that produces the long established AIDS Walks in New York City, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Officials with these groups have said they pay MZA, a for-profit company, a fee to organize the fund-raising walks, which have raised millions of dollars each year for AIDS causes.

Others on the list of the ad hoc group's founding members include New York City AIDS activist Donna Aceto, New York AIDS fund-raiser Patricia Evert, and others from Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Minneapolis.

"We are AIDS activists and AIDS fund-raisers," text posted on the group's Web site says. "We are contributors and volunteers. We are participants in and producers of AIDS fund-raising events. We are non-profit professionals. We are corporate leaders. We are, quite simply, a group of caring, community-minded people who are concerned about the state of AIDS activism as well as the state of AIDS fund-raising."

AIDS groups worried

Officials with the D.C. AIDS service groups Whitman-Walker Clinic and Food & Friends, who are the beneficiaries of the Pallotta-produced Washington, D.C. AIDS Ride in June, said the ads could lead potential contributors to believe the D.C. rides have fared as poorly as the vaccine rides.

"That, of course, is not the case at all," said Craig Schniderman, the Food & Friends executive director. "Our concern is that only the most observant followers of the AIDS rides understand the distinction between the vaccine rides and the Washington, D.C. AIDS Ride," Schniderman said.

Schniderman noted that the D.C. AIDS ride netted $3,542,382 last year, which was divided evenly between Food & Friends and Whitman-Walker. An audited finance statement showed that the ride yielded a return of 50.5 percent on the dollar.

"The people who participate in our event do it to support us, not Pallotta," Schniderman said. "And the reason we do this event is to save and prolong the lives of our clients."

Richard Burns, executive director of the New York City Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, and Tom Levitt, a spokesperson for Boston's Fenway Center, both of which provide services to people with AIDS, said they share Schniderman's concerns. Their organizations are the beneficiaries of the Pallotta produced Northeast AIDS Ride, which is scheduled to travel from Boston to Manhattan June 20-23.

"We're not happy with the cost of fund-raising," Burns said. "We are working to lower the costs for this ride. But if we didn't have the funds generated by these rides, we would have to cut back the programs that help people with AIDS."

Lorraine Teel, executive director of the Minnesota AIDS Project and one of the 13 founding members of the AIDS Community Donor Action group that organized the ad campaign, said the group understands the concerns of people like Schniderman and Burns.

"A number of us in the AIDS community have been concerned for years about the low return from the AIDS rides," Teel said. "Because we are supportive of the good work by the beneficiary group, we were reluctant to make an issue of this in the past."

But this year, Teel said, she and the others who formed the ad hoc group were stunned and outraged when they learned the Pallotta firm spent nearly $16 million to raise only a few million in the three vaccine rides.

FOR MORE INFO

AIDS Community Donor Action

www.aidscommunitydonoraction.org

Teel said that while the overhead costs associated with the vaccine rides were "beyond belief," she noted that finance statements released in March by the Pallotta firm show that the costs for most of the Pallotta-produced AIDS rides last year came to between 50 cents and 65 cents on the dollar.

"We're not talking about a few exceptions here," she said. "The figures show that it's the rule rather than the exception that most of these rides incur costs over and above the standard costs considered acceptable in the fund-raising business."

News reporter Lou Chibbaro Jr. can be reached at lchibbaro@washblade.com
020419
WB020406

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2002. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2002. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .