For nine years, the Southern HIV Impact Fund (SHIF) invested in people and organizations working to end HIV in the Southern United States. SHIF was a collaborative grantmaking fund managed by AIDS United, created in response to the disproportionate impact of HIV in the South and the inequitable distribution of resources to address it. The Fund provided flexible funding and support to community-based and grassroots organizations working in HIV prevention, care, advocacy, movement building, and leadership development.
The need for this investment was clear. While the South represents 38% of the U.S. population, it accounts for 52% of new HIV diagnoses. These disparities are not accidental. Limited access to health care, underfunded public health systems, lack of Medicaid expansion, poverty, stigma, racism, and political environments that threaten the sustainability of HIV programs all shape health outcomes across the region. SHIF helped address these systemic barriers by putting resources directly into the hands of communities most impacted by HIV.
Over its eight years of grantmaking, SHIF invested more than $15.3 million in funding and technical support across 105 organizations. Grantees reached more than 500,000 people through prevention, linkage to care, education, and mobilization efforts. As the Fund ended, AIDS United launched a Southern roadshow and listening process to reflect on what communities had accomplished, understand the challenges they face today, and identify what is needed next.
To reflect on SHIF’s legacy, I spoke with former SHIF Program Manager Clifford Castlebery and AIDS United Senior Manager of Impact and Evaluation Vienna Mbagaya. Both brought years of experience working alongside SHIF grantees and communities across the South. Our conversation focused on what they learned from the organizations they supported, the lessons that should guide future investments, and what comes next for communities continuing the fight to end HIV.
One of the clearest lessons from SHIF was that Southern communities did not lack ideas or solutions, they lacked resources.
Clifford emphasized that communities across the South already understand what is needed to end the HIV epidemic. The challenge is having enough funding and political support to put those solutions into practice. SHIF grantees demonstrated remarkable resilience and creativity, developing responses to local needs while navigating political attacks and limited resources.
Vienna similarly emphasized that progress depends on strengthening the community organizations already doing the work. Funding alone was not enough. SHIF paired financial resources with technical assistance, capacity building, coalition building, and relationships that helped organizations adapt as circumstances changed.
One important lesson was the value of investing in organizations themselves, not only individual programs. Flexible, general operating funding helped organizations maintain continuity and respond quickly during crises without waiting for additional paperwork or approvals. Technical assistance was most effective when it responded directly to what grantees identified as their needs.
SHIF also reinforced that community leadership and civic engagement are essential to health outcomes. In a region where voter suppression, political hostility, and stigma can make participation more difficult, supporting organizations’ ability to build power and engage their communities was part of advancing HIV prevention and care.
The final years of SHIF demonstrated how important this flexible, community-centered approach was.
Vienna reflected on how grantees “held the line” during the Fund’s final grant year as policy hostility, backlash against DEI and LGBTQ-inclusive work, and unpredictable funding created new pressures. Organizations faced staffing changes, shortened timelines, and difficult decisions about participant safety and confidentiality.
Yet they continued showing up. Grantees protected affirming spaces, maintained prevention and care linkage, adapted outreach strategies, strengthened local partnerships, and found new ways to reach people safely.
For Clifford, supporting HBCUs and Black Greek Letter Organizations was a particularly meaningful part of his work. As an alumnus of Xavier University of Louisiana and Texas Southern University, he described supporting these institutions as a “full-circle moment” and an opportunity to invest back into places that had invested in him.
These experiences illustrate a larger lesson: when communities are trusted and resourced, they can continue leading even in difficult political and social environments.
SHIF’s legacy extends beyond its grants. In partnership with the Gilead COMPASS Initiative, related investments across the South reached more than $133 million, reaching more than 651,000 people and supporting 1,645 grants to 498 organizations.
The Southern roadshow, titled “The State of the South Tour”, provided another opportunity to understand what that investment made possible and what communities need moving forward. Ten listening sessions — four in-person sessions across led by Black South Rising in Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida and six virtual sessions — engaged hundreds of community stakeholders. The conversations examined how political and social systems shape health and explored how Southern communities can continue to build, thrive, and heal.
Looking ahead, Clifford emphasized that the South needs more than additional funding. Communities need “political power to push back against harmful policies”, elected officials committed to racial justice and health equity, and meaningful opportunities for people most affected by HIV to shape decisions — not simply serve as representatives of statistics.
Vienna identified several priorities emerging from the listening sessions: sustain coalition infrastructure, support community-led data collection and storytelling, strengthen local governance and civic engagement, provide flexible funding that recognizes the connections between housing, food, harm reduction, and HIV care, support trusted messengers, and build leadership pipelines rooted in mentorship and lived experience.
The future of HIV prevention and care in the South will depend on carrying these lessons forward. SHIF demonstrated what is possible when funders invest in grassroots organizations, trust communities to lead, and provide the resources and support needed to turn local knowledge into action.
The political landscape may continue to change, but Southern communities have repeatedly shown their ability to adapt, organize, and hold the line. SHIF’s greatest legacy may be the reminder that when communities are resourced and trusted to lead, progress remains possible.
Special thanks to all the Southern HIV Impact Fund grantees who made this work possible.
For more information about the Southern HIV Impact Fund and its listening sessions, check out this link. Additionally, if you want to know how you can help in the fight against the HIV epidemic, visit Let’s Stop HIV Together.
