Tony Cox Community Fund Grantee Highlight

The long-term goal of the Tony Cox Community Fund is to facilitate an AIDS Service Organization with the resources in order to establish a long standing relationship with their local cable network, in order to partner a continuous joint effort in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This marriage of HIV prevention and media collaboration can be seen in the work done by The Penn Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2006 and 2007.

In 2006, CFAR staff and interns developed a campaign to encourage young adults to develop positive HIV/AIDS prevention strategies by emphasizing the importance of knowing one’s status, entitled “The Join Those Who Know, Get Tested.” With support and funds from Cable Positive, CFAR was able to design a campaign to encourage the youth of Philadelphia to go and get an HIV test; utilizing adolescents in order to make a campaign that spoke their language, spreading the word out as effectively and quickly as possible.

The grassroots outreach for the campaign started as an anonymous campaign logo displayed on flyers and stickers posted throughout the city (by outreach volunteers) in venues such as: local universities, coffee shops, gyms, grocery stores, etc.; two weeks before the airing of the public service announcements, the logos were updated with the Join Those Who Know, Get Tested slogan, in addition to the campaigns’ website address and toll free phone number in order to schedule an HIV test. Media venue and HIV prevention collaboration was further strengthened when CFAR partnered with the National Cinemedia in order to have the PSA played in all the mainstream movie theaters in the Philadelphia County area, before every showing of every movie, from June 16^th, 2006 to June 27^th, 2006.

The combination of good production, ingenious marketing, strong collaborations, and a passion to get the message of HIV prevention and testing across in a new and fresh way paved the road for CFAR to obtain results at many different levels. Comcast was originally slated to provide $10,000 work of in-kind media donation and ended up providing over $53,000 work of media value support. The number of hits to the CFAR website markedly increased in the months following the PSA campaign, showing an increase in the community’s awareness of the agency. Lastly, the Join Those Who Know, Get Tested PSA and grassroots was adopted up by Philadelphia Fight’s as their official National HIV Testing Day campaign for 2007. The multi-tiered and innovative approach to HIV prevention, testing, and outreach, coupled with start up funds from Cable Positive’s Tony Cox Community Fund, and truly stellar support from Comcast, allowed for a strong and lasting marriage between HIV prevention and media promotion.

TCCF 2008 Cycle 2 is just around the corner…

Did you miss the Tony Cox Community Fund 2008 Cycle 1 deadline? There is really no need to fret, as Cycle 2 is just months away; we anticipate a deadline of around September 14^th, 2008.

For those agencies that were not able to apply for the TCCF 2008 Cycle 1, the question is why did you not make use of the only unrestricted media funds available to AIDS Service Organizations in the United States? There can be so many answers to this question: not enough time to complete the RFP (request for proposals), there is no staff to oversee the project, you feel your agency does not have the infrastructure to take on a PSA campaign, your agency does not have the staff to write the application, the agency could not get a cable partner agreement, the list can go on and on. The project may have seemed like an additional headache and that completion of the grant application was easier said than done, right? Well you may be correct in understanding that TCCF 2008 Cycle 1 might not have been the best time to submit an application for your agency, but what about Cycle 2? The next few months would be a great time to identify which staff can complete the application, oversee the project, implement the timeline, and start the process of securing a cable partner.

We at Cable Positive understand the additional work that a PSA project can provide to an agency that is already strapped by overworked staff, under developed budgets, growing numbers of clients, and the trappings of paperwork, paperwork, paperwork (can anyone say a COBRA service plan??, WE KNOW!). Yet, think of that traditional pro/con’s list when you are thinking about applying for Tony Cox monies; I can promise you that the pros will always win. While the grant initial grant application may seem taxing, the results can be tremendous, including: a partnership with a local cable system (that can only grow), increased agency clientele, agency branding, increased agency recognition within your community (and in the surround areas), increased participation in agency events, increase in potential grant monies from PSA exposure, etc. etc.

Remember that creative and innovative partnerships are fostered and sometimes those relationships come from taking a risk. Take risk on media, we promise it won’t hurt; apply for Tony Cox Community Fund 08 Cycle 2, coming to an ASO near you in September 2008.