Description

"The San Francisco AIDS Foundation was founded in 1982 in San Francisco's Castro district as an emergency response to a quickly emerging health crisis. Its primary purpose was simply to assemble and disseminate critical information to gay men who were being diagnosed with a rare and frightening cancer. As the health crisis grew to epidemic proportions and spread into new populations, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation correspondingly grew and responded to new challenges. Building upon its original mission to educate, the AIDS Foundation added comprehensive services for people living with HIV disease and AIDS and an aggressive public policy component to compel federal and state governments to address the growing epidemic. Twenty-one years later, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation is firmly established as a global leader in the fight against AIDS. With an annual budget of $16 million, 60 employees, 600 volunteers and 120,000 individuals served this year, the AIDS Foundation continues to face daunting challenges at every turn with compassion, dignity and a sense of purpose."