Washington Blade - October 11, 2002

At least 7,500 people participated in the Whitman-Walker Clinic's annual Washington, D.C. AIDS Walk on Oct. 5, raising hopes among clinic officials that the fund-raising event will pull in enough money to justify its continuation in future years.

But the clinic has yet to determine the exact amount the 2002 walk raised in net proceeds, and clinic officials remain undecided over whether to hold the event next year, said Michael Cover, associate executive director at Whitman-Walker.

The 7,500 walkers on Oct. 5 more than doubled the 3,500 walkers that turned out for last year's event, which grossed $485,000 but generated only $4,000 in proceeds for the clinic due to overhead costs totaling $481,000, Cover said. The yield to the agency was less than one cent of every dollar raised by walk participants.

This year's walk was expected to generate "considerably more" in net proceeds, but Cover declined to disclose further details, saying the clinic would not release final figures until late this week or early next week.

Before the event, clinic organizers said they hoped to raise $840,000 in gross receipts from the 2002 AIDS Walk, and expenses were expected to come in at $540,000. At that rate, Whitman-Walker would receive only 35 cents of every dollar raised, a percentage that is below the 50 to 65 percent that is considered the minimum amount a fund-raising event should yield to the beneficiary.

The AIDS Walk reached its peak in 1997, when between 25,000 and 30,000 people participated in the event. In 1998, net proceeds reached $1.6 million, or 74 percent of the total amount raised by walk participants. In 1999, the clinic received less than half that amount, $755,896, which represented 49 percent of total AIDS walk donations. The decline continued in 2000, when the walk yielded $123,990, which was 14percent of the total raised.

The number of walkers has similarly declined, and clinic officials have said they were devastated over the poor turnout last year, when record-low participation may have been caused largely to bad weather and the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

AIDS ride cloud?

Although the terrorist attacks may have affected last year's event, clinic officials have said the gradual decline in participation after 1997 appears to be due to a number of factors. The apparent confusion among some members of the public between the AIDS Walk, which the clinic produces itself, and the Washington, D.C. AIDS Ride, a marathon bicycle fund-raising event benefiting Whitman-Walker but produced by the financially troubled and controversial Los Angeles for-profit firm Pallotta TeamWorks.

Whitman-Walker and Food & Friends, another location AIDS service group, ended their association with Pallotta TeamWorks earlier this year. Food & Friends is organizing its own AIDS ride, called Tour d' Friends, next year while Whitman-Walker chose not to participate, opting instead to recoup the funds it received from the AIDS ride through an expanded corporate and foundation donor program.

But the flagging U.S. economy and the decline in the stock market have resulted in cutbacks by corporate donors and foundations, placing Whitman-Walker in a precarious financial situation, according to Cover and A. Cornelious Baker, executive director of the clinic.

Clinic officials have said an overall decline in news media's attention to AIDS, along with reports that improved drug therapies have greatly curtailed AIDS-related deaths, has also been a factor in the decline in participation for the AIDS walk, Cover said.

"We are forming a task force to look at the future of the walk," Cover said. "We will bring the recommendations of the task force to our board in December, and the board will decide whether this will be continued next year."

Lou Chibbaro Jr. can be reached at lchibbaro@washblade.com.

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