OVERVIEW: The Staying Alive Foundation supports global HIV projects and campaigns that address discrimination, increase awareness, promote safe sex, and increase sex education in youth populations around the world.
IP TAKE: This foundation exclusively supports youth-led HIV prevention projects. Since this funder prioritizes small and grassroots organizations, it is an excellent resource for campaigns seeking to effect positive change in the field of HIV prevention within their local youth communities. Unfortunately, it’s not transparent about its grantmaking, but grantees include global outfits focused on HIV prevention. This is an otherwise accessible foundation that likes to award multi-year grants, which it caps at four years. Responsive, reach out to this funder with general questions.
PROFILE: In 1998, MTV launched Staying Alive, an international initiative focused on encouraging young people to protect themselves against HIV. MTV also created a documentary of the same name as an effort to further its HIV prevention goals. In 2005, MTV International, along with its partners, turned the initiative into the Staying Alive Foundation. The foundation seeks to "[b]uild an empowered and educated generation of young people, equipped with the tools and knowledge to protect themselves and their peers from the HIV epidemic." The foundation operates in both the U.S. and the U.K.
Grants for Global Health and Diseases
Staying Alive was specifically created to support youth-led (ages 15 to 27) HIV-prevention organizations. According to the foundation, young people ages 15 to 24 account for over 40 percent of new HIV infections and HIV-related deaths have increased by 50 percent among 10 to 19-year-olds since 2001. Generally, the foundation supports global HIV projects and campaigns that fight discrimination, increase awareness, promote safe sex, and increase sex education. The foundation also supports media campaigns that bring awareness to and create a positive response to HIV prevention. In addition to financial support, Staying Alive also offers grantees “Staying Alive materials (including programming and teaching kits), a small fund to buy technical media equipment, a local mentor, a personal grant manager, as well as training and development.”
Aside from project grants, Staying Alive also operates several special campaigns related to HIV awareness and prevention. MTV Shuga is a “ground-breaking 360-degree mass-media behaviour-change campaign” that “fuses sexual-health messaging with gripping storylines.” The series takes place in Kenya and Nigeria and is primarily aimed at African audiences. Hit Snooze is a fundraising campaign staged annually in March, in which MTV invites participants to sleep in an extra hour while also donating to Staying Alive. MTV RE:DEFINE is a contemporary art auction held each year to benefit the foundation. Finally, Someone Like Me, a partnership between MTV and Durex, is a digital and social media campaign to “change perceptions and overcome barriers when it comes to sex and staying healthy.”
Important Grant Details:
Staying Alive makes small grants that range from about $5,000 to $15,000. Exact grant amounts are difficult to clarify since Staying Alive is not one of the more financially transparent foundations. Its most recent tax filings only specify a region and total grant amounts, rather than individual grantee listings. The foundation typically makes grants for a period of 12 months, and it encourages existing grantees to reapply for multi-year support after their initial grant period has ended. Multi-year support is capped at four years. There are no stated geographic restrictions for Staying Alive grants, but the foundation largely supports projects in developing countries where HIV is most prevalent in youth.
Staying Alive accepts unsolicited applications. Grant seekers should keep an eye on its website to stay on top of upcoming deadlines.
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