Philadelphia's first AIDS Walk raised $33,000. Over the course of the next seven years we provided 1,830 grants totaling over $721,013.
Getting to Zero Philly's (formerly AIDS Fund) mission is to educate and raise awareness about the history and current state of the HIV epidemic, support people living with HIV disease, and honor the memory of those we've lost to the epidemic. In 1987, volunteers from Philadelphia's le***an and gay community center, Penguin Place, organized a Walk-A-Thon to support area organizations providing HIV/
AIDS services and raise public awareness about the disease. Thousands of fundraising walkers gathered between 1987 and 2024 to participate in the region's largest annual HIV/AIDS public awareness and fundraising event and raised over $19 million for the fight against HIV/AIDS. In 1989, From All Walks of Life was founded to produce the annual AIDS Walk and raise awareness and funds for local AIDS service agencies. In the mid-1990s, we changed our name to AIDS Fund and expanded our activities beyond the annual AIDS Walk to include the popular monthly fundraiser GayBINGO, which gained national recognition through a WHYY documentary that aired on PBS stations nationwide. In 2000, we created a more formal version of our monthly GayBINGO event: Black-Tie GayBINGO which features a silent auction, dinner, dancing, and, of course, GayBINGO. In 2004, we expanded our public awareness efforts by becoming the local affiliate of The Names Project and hosting regional displays of The AIDS Memorial Quilt. Our public awareness and education programs were further enhanced with the addition of our unique “1981 – Until It’s Over….” Timeline, a walk through history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. In 2016, as we were marking the 35th year of the epidemic, and approaching the 30th AIDS Walk Philly, the staff and board of AIDS Fund re-affirmed its commitment to the goal of "Getting to Zero: Zero Stigma, Zero New Infections, and Zero Deaths" and made the decision to evolve our mission. The decision was the result of many in-depth discussions about the ever changing AIDS epidemic, and how we could have the greatest impact on people's lives and in ending the epidemic. While we continued to raise awareness and educate about HIV, we also started providing micro grants for the most vulnerable of those living with HIV: those who find their health threatened because of impending evictions or the loss of health insurance or utilities. To pay honor to our original name and to reflect the diversity of those affected by the epidemic and in need of assistance, we named the program From All Walks of Life Fund. In 2024, the staff and board of directors assessed the landscape and advances in the care and treatment of HIV disease, and made the bittersweet decision to take a step back. We transferred our successful GayBINGO events to our friends at Action Wellness, closed our offices, and staff sought other opportunities to make a difference in our communities. In 2025, volunteers expressed interest in continuing our annual toy drive for children affected by HIV and in curating displays of The AIDS Memorial Quilt. Consequently, we evolved yet again and began doing business as “Getting to Zero Philly”, a volunteer driven grass roots organization whose mission is to educate and raise awareness about the history and current state of the HIV epidemic, support people living with HIV disease, and honor the memory of those we’ve lost to the epidemic. As the HIV epidemic and evolved and changed over the years, so has the organization, however, since our founding, we have remained an intentionally grass roots organization committed to the philosophy that by coming together, each of us can make a difference in the fight against HIV/AIDS in our communities. Our vision has always been, and will always be, a world with Zero HIV Stigma, Zero New HIV Infections, and Zero HIV Deaths.
