In this most wonderful time of the year, 15 HIV nonprofits in Florida each received a $4,000 Holiday Hug grant from The Campbell Foundation, an organization based in Fort Lauderdale known for supporting HIV research. What’s more, AIDS Healthcare Foundation is providing matching grants for five of the awards.

“The last couple of years have put a financial strain on many organizations serving the HIV/AIDS community, not only as a direct result of COVID, but also because funding and donations they have received in the past have dried up,” said the Campbell Foundation’s executive director, Ken Rapkin, in a press statement. “These organizations provide community members with everything from bus passes to get to their doctor appointments to housing, help navigating insurance issues and food security and we are proud to be able to assist them in fulfilling their mission.”

The Holiday Hug grants provides organizations with unrestricted funds to use as they see fit, whether it’s providing HIV testing, support services, education or other programs.

Below are the 15 Holiday Hug grantees. Those marked with an asterisk received matching funds from AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

The Campbell Foundation, which celebrated 27 years of operation this year, funds nontraditional laboratory-based HIV research. It has awarded over $11.5 million over the years. To read about the research grants it awarded this year, see “Can HIV Mutate and Escape CAR-T Gene Therapy Developed as a Cure?” and “How Does HIV Persist for Decades in People on Antiretrovirals?”

To learn more about organizations that support HIV causes, see “Guess Who’s the New No. 1 Philanthropic Funder of HIV Programs,” which was one of the most popular articles of this year. To see what other stories drew the most page views, check out “2022 Top HIV News Stories.”