Whitman-Walker Clinic, the region’s primary nonprofit health care provider for those suffering from AIDS and HIV, has decided to cut ties with the company that organized its annual AIDS Marathon fundraiser after nine years. Walk-The-Talk Productions, a District-based for-profit company, stages fundraising marathons in several cities across the country, but the clinic said the costs associated with the marathon became too prohibitive to continue the relationship.
Although Whitman-Walker raised about $3 million in 2005 through the AIDS Marathon, expenses associated with the event meant the nonprofit only took home about half of that, said Kim Mills, Whitman-Walker’s director of communications.
Richard Zeichik, national director of the AIDS Marathon, said more than 10,000 runners raised about $25 million for Whitman-Walker Clinic over the past nine years, $14 million of which went directly to the nonprofit’s programs.
About 1,800 Washington-area runners raised funds for Whitman-Walker Clinic every year. Each runner was required to raise a set amount of money — which depended on the marathon location, but was typically above $2,500 dollars — in return for six months of marathon training, an airline ticket and hotel accommodations near the marathon site. Runners trained for marathons in cities such as Honolulu and Miami.
Whitman-Walker received all of the fundraising dollars, but also had to pay for the hotel rooms, airline tickets, marketing and about a 4 percent fee to Walk-The-Talk. As costs increased over the years, the clinic ended up spending about 50 percent of the total amount raised, Mills said.
Mills said Whitman-Walker will focus its efforts on more community-focused events, such as their annual AIDS Walk, that will get the clinic’s name out into the community. About 28 percent of Whitman-Walker’s $22 million annual budget comes from fundraising events and private donors.
The last several years have been financially bumpy for Whitman-Walker, which saw donations dip in the wake of Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina. It closed its Montgomery County location and went through several shifts in top management, including the hiring of a new chief executive in May.
Last week, Whitman-Walker announced it will absorb the Washington Free Clinic, which had 11 employees and 1,800 clients, in order to save the financially strapped organization from closing its doors.
