2025 was an unusually eventful—and unsettling—year for STAR’s funding landscape. We faced recurring threats and moments of real disruption, yet we have so far preserved the majority of our core funding and secured several important wins. Still, the horizon remains unstable. 

Importantly, STAR is not alone. Providers and community organizations across the country—especially those serving people living with HIV, LGBTQ+ communities, immigrants, low-income families, and others facing stigma and structural barriers—have been navigating similar volatility. The uncertainty we are experiencing is part of a broader, unprecedented agenda of dismantling social services and supports, weakening civic infrastructure, and constraining public health and research—here and internationally. In this climate, maintaining continuity of care is itself a form of resilience. 

STAR receives more than two-thirds of our operating support from extramural sources—government grants funded through federal HHS programs, including HRSA Ryan White, SAMHSA, and NIH. As this newsletter goes to press, federal FY2026 appropriations remain unresolved, leaving significant uncertainty about future levels and timing. During 2025—and again as recently as this month—many academic institutions, including SUNY Downstate, received federal notices reducing or eliminating selected research and program efforts. While most STAR funding was subsequently restored, the process has disrupted staffing and operations, and we have been required to remove language from grant documents related to health disparities, gender identity, DEI, and more—changes that run counter to evidence-based public health practice and to the communities we serve. 

At the same time, Congress’ recent passage of the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” which slashes Medicaid funding and pushes hundreds of thousands of people off insurance, adds pressure on safety-net providers like Downstate—threatening the roughly one-third of STAR’s overall support that comes through institutional funding, as uncompensated care deficits grow. 

Despite these headwinds, STAR advanced major funding efforts in 2025: 

• New awards/projects in 2025:  

• $150,000 (one-year) Ryan White Part C Capacity Development grant to support professional development training on inclusive care for populations disproportionately impacted by HIV. 

• $250,000 annually for two years from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation to increase access to medical and behavioral health for re-entrants from correctional facilities. 

• $285,000 from the NIH to Sabina Hirshfield, Ph.D., for her research into HIV prevention and stigma reduction among MSM in the Georgian republic. 

• $77,000 from the NIH and New York Blood Center to Jose Diaz, Ph.D., for his research into HIV prevention among Latino gay, bisexual and other MSM. 

• Renewal success: $1.2M annually for three years (Ryan White Part A Care Coordination (CCR), through Public Health Solutions), plus an additional $445K annually in related funding for three years for Outpatient Ambulatory Health Services for older patients in the CCR program. 

We also continued expanding philanthropic support to diversify funding—securing $5,000 in event sponsorship from Gilead Sciences and $50,000 in general operating support from the Keith Haring Foundation—with further strategy-building underway for 2026. 

Through this unique time, STAR remains committed to standing with peer organizations, protecting essential services, and showing up—steadily and visibly—for the communities who rely on us.