AIDS Fund-Raisers Deny Politics in Financial Decisions

AIDS Walk leaders reacted angrily Thursday to suggestions that politics plays a part in how their organization distributes funds to AIDS service organizations, including Laguna Shanti, which is in financial peril after being denied money from the fund-raising group this year.

“It was not an easy decision to not fund Shanti,” said Mitch Cherness, an AIDS Walk board member. “That pained all of us.”

Jim Lacy, board president of AIDS Walk, said the way his organization decides which groups should share in fund-raising profits is “a very scientific process.”

“We keep our process very clean,” he said, adding that those who make funding recommendations “are not people who are in politics in the AIDS community.”

The board members were reacting to comments by Tom Horstman, chairman of a group formed earlier this year to examine the performance of Laguna Shanti. Horstman, a former Laguna Shanti client, said Wednesday that members of his group helped persuade people within AIDS Walk not to give money to the Laguna Beach center because it was “a dying horse.”

Laguna Shanti, which has suffered staggering blows as a result of internal strife and upheavals in management, is in danger of closing down by September unless the organization gets more money, according to executive director Judith Doyle. Doyle said the group, which received AIDS Walk money for the previous three years, had hoped to get $40,000 this year but was denied a share of the profits because the fund-raising organization considered Shanti “a risky bet.”

Lacy, however, said Thursday that such factors played no part in AIDS Walk’s decision not to include Laguna Shanti in the list of 10 Orange County organizations that will divvy up the record-breaking $500,000 raised this year.

“It was really felt by the committee that, in light of all the other applications submitted, that Laguna Shanti did not merit funding based on the content of their application and what they asked the money for,” Lacy said.

Laguna Shanti had requested money for its support groups and for “general operations,” Lacy said, which includes all other services the center provides.

Laguna Shanti is considered one of three key AIDS services organizations established in Orange County to meet the needs of people infected with the HIV virus. The other two are the Irvine-based AIDS Services Foundation, the largest and most influential AIDS-care provider in the county, and AIDS Response Program in Garden Grove. Both of these two groups will receive AIDS Walk funds.

While some of the services provided by the three organizations overlap, Laguna Shanti provides some unique services, including meal deliveries, massage therapy and a variety of classes designed to give clients a creative outlet.

While AIDS activists throughout the county are watching to see if Laguna Shanti will survive--and many say it would be sorely missed if it does not--others are less sympathetic to the organization’s plight.

Horstman, for example, said the wounds that have brought Laguna Shanti to the brink of disaster are self-inflicted and have drained the organization of its credibility. He contends that the center should close so AIDS Services Foundation, which he said is a more efficiently run organization, can move into Laguna Beach.

Laguna Shanti was wedged under the magnifying glass earlier this year when a group led by Horstman and calling itself the Coalition formed to examine the inner workings of the organization. In February, the group met with Laguna Shanti’s clients, volunteers and others to solicit opinions about the center’s effectiveness.

According to a report subsequently released by the Coalition, many of the 57 people who were questioned were unhappy in one way or another with the services being provided at the center. In a summary of the findings, the group chided Laguna Shanti’s leadership for failing to take essential steps in making the organization viable, including neglecting to apply for available funding.

In a memo dated last Feb. 12, the Coalition took Laguna Shanti to task for the lack of experienced health care professionals on its staff, for giving volunteers “little or no professional training” and for becoming insensitive to its clients. “Laguna Shanti has lost its sense of focus and purpose and is out of touch with the people it was founded to serve,” the memo said.

On Thursday, Horstman reiterated his opinion, which he said many in the Coalition still share, that Laguna Shanti has suffered irreparable damage to its reputation.

But current Laguna Shanti leaders say that, if the organization was off track, it has recovered its focus. Doyle, the executive director, said the center has developed a new training procedure for its volunteers, beefed up its programs and expanded its board of directors to include people who are “highly involved with the HIV community.”

“The bottom line is, we’ve done a tremendous amount in responding to the coalition’s concerns and really did a turnaround,” Doyle said. Now, she said, Laguna Shanti has “a very positive image as being constructive and on the right track and growing, if we can just pull back our community’s financial support.”