The UK’s national HIV fundraiser has had a tough
year. Crusaid’s chief executive Robin Brady tells Martin Flynn why
Crusaid’s dynamic chief executive, 33-year-old Robin Brady, cut his
teeth setting up large
capital projects for the Arts Council and National Lottery. His first job
in the HIV sector was setting up the Hannan Crusaid HIV clinic in Gugulethu,
one of Cape Town’s sprawling townships. Raised in a family of high achievers
(his father runs an HIV charity in Johannesburg), Brady trained as a theatre
set designer and has lived in Britain for 11 years. “I was always aware
of HIV because the theatrical community, both here and in South Africa, have
been hit hard by the disease.”
Model behaviour
“We were the first HIV organisation to go into the Cape
townships and buy antiretrovirals. We negotiated with the big pharmacos to
get treatment costs down to $500 per patient. We started with 150 people on
ARVs and this year we will be treating over 1,000 people.
“We’ve brought doctors and nurses in to help train up local staff
and the Global Fund has funded the drug costs for the next year. There’s
money in place to pay for staff and the drugs so we can now leave. It’s
such a good operational model that the Western Cape government is rolling
out similar clinics. Every new HIV centre in the area will be based on Gugulethu.”
Financed through fundraising
“Crusaid is the national fundraiser for HIV and Aids in this country.
It was started in 1986 by a group of friends responding to the impact of the
virus. We have three main objectives: to relieve poverty caused by HIV and
Aids; relief of illness and the preservation life and research.
“The money mainly comes from individuals but also from trusts and foundations.
but we get nothing from government, health authorities or PCTs. We have to
fundraise every penny of the £1.5–£2 million we raise each
year.
“We have supporters from the top reaches of the business and entertainment
industry and that has given us the strength to survive financially. And we’ve
now started discussions with some City of London guilds. But the city banks
do listen when we explain the economic implications of the epidemic.
“Only eight per cent of people in Britain give money to HIV/Aids and
I want all that eight per cent given to Crusaid as we consider ourselves a
safe and independent pair of hands.”
Hard times
“The Hardship Fund is our biggest spender and has supported one in four
people living with HIV over the last 18 years. We give, on average, £150-200
to individuals. It’s not a lot but it’s going out to a huge number
of people.
“We’ve had to refine the criteria for applications, asking questions
like, ‘what qualifies as financial hardship?’. Every year the
hardship gets worse with fewer state benefits and less support for people
with HIV, even in this country. The average applicant to the Fund is only
on £57 a week – a drop from an average of £92 a week four
or five years ago. On average, HIV positive people in this country are getting
poorer, not richer.
“The Hardship Fund is meant to be a fund of last resort.
We can only help people for two years. We try to be more proactive, not just
reactively writing cheques. We work with social workers and the fund’s
referrers to find out what
people need to get out of poverty. That may mean funding training to get people
back into work.”
No quick fixes
Crusaid’s gross income fell from £1.9 million in 2002/3 to £1.67
million in 2003/4. After costs, Crusaid netted just £660,306 from its
fundraising efforts in 2003/4 compared with £945,055 in the previous
year. Meanwhile, grant-giving fell from £1,317,025 to £1,017,990.
“We have been through a bad year which every charity or business goes
through. In 2003-4 we spent 52 per cent of income on staff and admin which
is the worst it’s ever been. That did mean having to make staff redundancies
and having to close down some fundraising programmes.
“The Theatre Cares collection is incredibly successful. That’s
the kind of thing that Crusaid does very well, be it mobilising communities
of wealthy lawyers to buy artworks at an auction or the bucket collections
in the West End.
“But it seemed to me that we were trying to do too much in too many
places so we went back and concentrated on what we do best. The reality is
there’s no quick fixes but we have begun to start making more money
than we were last year.”
Some gay grumblings
According to Brady, the large increase in the number of Africans with HIV
in Britain has had a big impact.
“It’s obvious to us all that there are more and more Africans
with HIV in Britain now and it’s not just gay men anymore. And we get
grumbles from some people in the gay
community that we are giving money to Africans.
“The reality is gay men are actually better off. Thirty per cent of
our clients are gay men but the majority of gay men with HIV sit above the
poverty threshold. The people in greatest need are the African and African
Caribbean people with HIV in Britain.”
Are you allowed to give money to asylum seekers with HIV?
“We don’t discriminate. Asylum seekers are often the people with
HIV in the greatest need of help. But they have to fit the criteria like everyone
else. And it doesn’t matter if you’re gay or straight, black or
white, newly arrived, local or immigrant.”
The future for Crusaid
“We’re looking again at how best we can raise more funds. For
example, we’re doing a direct marketing appeal to our supporters for
the Sussex Beacon because it’s better that people know where the money
is being spent. We’re going to come back in two months and tell them
what their money has done and that higher turnaround of funding generates
much more income.
“We’ve also completely revisited our events programme and looked
at the format of the events which actually make us money. By just tweaking
one or two little details we were able to double the income from last year’s
Crusaid Garden Party. We’ve also spent a year investing in our fundraising
team so we can now do better events for a lower cost and get a higher income.”
Walk for Life – a 16 year success story
“The Walk for Life now raises around £300,000 each year.
It’s often dozens of small teams from around the country. Local HIV
charities send in teams and they can use our
infrastructure to fundraise for themselves.
“It’s a fun event and the average age of participants is in their
mid 20s. We’ve trail blazed a lot of innovative fundraising ideas which
other people have picked up and done themselves – every charity now
has a fundraising walk. But it does put us under a lot of pressure to come
up with the next big idea.”
HIV prevention for young people, by young people
Crusaid has always been able to get support from young celebrities, pop stars
and actors, and Brady plans to use them in HIV prevention work to reach young
people in the future.
“We do fund some prevention work. With prevention for young people less
and less on the agenda, we are funding projects on HIV education in schools.
The project is part of the English course and looks at HIV in the Media. Fifteen-
and
16-year-olds will research HIV for pop videos, film and TV scripts and we
will run a competition and launch the winner at World Aids Day in 2005. So
we will have a prevention
message for young people, by young people.
“We’re also funding a young people’s testing and information
clinic in Soho. It will be based in the community, rather than in a hospital,
like the one we fund for adults in the London Lighthouse. The three high risk
groups for HIV in the UK are ethnic minorities, gay men and 17-25 year olds.
So, if you’re gay and 17 you’re twice as much at risk and you
need info as well as support, but in the community, not in the NHS.”
Working behind the scenes
“Crusaid is strictly non-political. Organisations like NAT, THT, BHIVA
and BASH are better placed than us to do that work. The reason the government
is not prioritising HIV as an STI is all about money.
We’re working behind the scenes with young people, asylum seekers and
gay men. We don’t get involved in local battles for funding. And one
of the things we have to be very careful about is not to be seen as an alternative
source of funding to the government. That’s inviting trouble and every
PCT in the country will be knocking on our door.
“When we decide which HIV organisation should get
funding, we always look whether they are the best to provide a service and
whether the project is feasible.
We’ve made some controversial funding decisions but we always have to
look at the long term viability of services and what people with HIV want.
The HIV sector could probably do with a bit of consolidation. The sector is
20 years old now and it really needs to grow up and start tidying itself up.”
Getting involved
“People with HIV should definitely come and do the Walk
for Life. It’s great fun. Theatre Cares are always looking for
volunteers for events and Screen Cares will also be looking
for help soon.
And we also have volunteering opportunities at our offices and at our charity
shop in Pimlico, London. We’re refining our fundraising so we can raise
more money to spend more on HIV projects in the UK and internationally. And
we’re now working much closer with the HIV communities.”
• The Crusaid Walk for Life takes place on Sunday 19 June.
To register, visit walkforlife.co.uk. To join Team UKC, call Carl Mills on
020 7564 2180 or email cmills@ukcoalition.org
• To comment on Crusaid’s work, email feedback@crusaid.org.uk
