Elton John Foundation’s Activist Works Behind Scenes at Oscars
While Elton John performs with Mary J. Blige for 700 guests Sunday night at his annual Academy Awards party in West Hollywood, Scott Campbell will be offstage leading the pop singer’s war against AIDS.
Since it started in 1992, the party has evolved from a small, glamorous gathering that raised $200,000 for the Elton John AIDS Foundation to a huge, star-studded affair that took in $4.3 million last year. The party, where tables cost as much as $100,000, begins even before the stars walk the red carpet. Huge screens broadcast the show live and the party continues into the early morning.
The organization has made a big push forward in recent years with the help of Campbell, a 45-year-old Montana native who took over as executive director three years ago. In that time, he has nearly tripled the foundation’s budget to $12 million and expanded the organization’s reach to the Caribbean by funding a program that publicizes awareness of the disease.
John’s name attracts celebrities to the party. Among those invited this year include actors Sean Penn, Eva Longoria, Ellen DeGeneres, Tim Allen, Sharon Stone, singer Ozzy Osbourne and film director John Waters.
Yet it’s the lanky and affable Campbell who pushed to get big corporate backers on board. Jewelry and watch maker Chopard & Cie SA is the party’s largest sponsor. He also lured American Airlines and VH-1, Viacom Inc.’s cable television music channel, as top sponsors.
`Laser-Focused’
“Scott is laser-focused on his job as the fundraiser,” said Kandy Ferree, president of the National AIDS Fund in Washington, whose organization received $2.8 million in funding from the foundation last year. “He’s someone who is committed to follow-up and will be on the phone” with deep-pocketed donors.
When the party under the tents at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood is over and guests have had their fill of steamed sole, risotto and long-winded Oscar speeches, the nonprofit is expected to raise $5 million. The foundation, with offices in New York and London, has funded 4,000 AIDS treatment, prevention and research programs in 55 countries since its founding.
Grant recipients are approved by the 12-member board, which includes John, who is the chairman, his partner, David Furnish, and tennis player Billie Jean King.
Last year, the foundation made 58 grants to AIDS organizations, including $350,000 to the New York-based Syringe Access Fund, which distributes clean syringes.
Reduce the Stigma
“We know that they (needle exchanges) have been effective,” in cutting down the transmission of HIV from one person to another, he said.
Campbell was instrumental in the foundation’s funding of the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership on HIV/AIDS, which uses newspapers and broadcasting to encourage people in that region to get AIDS tests. “The purpose of it is to reduce the stigma of AIDS and to make people aware of the disease,” Campbell said.
Last year, about 11,000 people died of AIDS in the Caribbean and only an estimated 10 percent of people who are HIV-positive know they’re infected, according to the foundation on its Web site.
A native of Bozeman, Montana, who was raised in California, Campbell worked for fundraising consultant J.C. Geever Inc. after college. As the AIDS epidemic grew in the 1980s, he became interested in raising money to combat the disease and joined the Foundation for AIDS Research, or amfAR, in 1992.
During his 13 years at amfAR — where he eventually became vice president of development — the organization funded early studies that were important to the development of protease inhibitors that reduced deaths.
“AIDS was very often thought of as a death sentence,” he said. “Part of that was due to the stigma that surrounds it and society’s slow response to it.”
Campbell said he hopes eventually there won’t be a need to collect donations to fight AIDS.
“I don’t think people are thrilled that they’re still here 16 years later having to support this event,” he said. “But people remain supportive because they know that AIDS is an urgent problem.”