The Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA), in partnership with the ASID “Design Impacts Lives” Fund, will provide $50,000 in emergency grants to six DIFFA grantees who have been working diligently throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The grantees include Ali Forney Center, Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, GMHC, God’s Love We Deliver, Hetrick-Martin Institute, and Housing Works (Bailey House).

The funding for these grants comes, in part, from the ASID “Design Impacts Lives” Fund. The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) and DIFFA announced the new fund in May of 2019, when the ASID Benevolent Fund provided DIFFA with a $375,000 gift to support the organization’'s mission to offer grants to nonprofits that provide services, education and treatment to those affected by HIV/AIDS. The donation represented one of the largest ever single gifts to DIFFA and represented an effort to leverage the combined power of the two organizations to spur the design industry to action, inspiring support from the design world and maximizing its effect on communities in need.

"Whether it’s caring for at-risk LGBTQIA youth, housing those living with HIV/AIDS, or feeding the elderly and those with compromised health, the service provided by these organizations to the community has been astounding,” says DIFFA Executive Director Dawn Roberson. “We gladly stand with Ali Forney Center, Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, GMHC, God’s Love We Deliver, Hetrick-Martin Institute, and Housing Works (Bailey House) as they continue to advocate and serve the HIV/AIDS community and would like to say thank you for all that you do, and we’re proud to help make a DIFFA-rence.”