Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Executive Director Tom Viola to Retire After 36 Years

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS executive director Tom Viola is retiring from the philanthropic nonprofit organization after 36 years.

Viola will retire at the end of 2024 and will be succeeded by Danny Whitman, current director of development at the nonprofit, starting Jan. 1, 2025. Viola will remain a consultant for the organization through 2025.

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Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has awarded more than $300 million under Viola’s leadership, including $142 million to the Entertainment Community Fund, which provides social services, emergency financial assistance and more to professionals in the entertainment field, and $160 million to 450 local organizations across the U.S.

While theaters were closed due to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS provided more than $18 million to the Entertainment Community Fund to be used as direct emergency financial assistance for members of the performing arts and entertainment industry.

Viola started working at the organization in 1988 and oversaw the merger of Equity Fights AIDS and Broadway Cares in 1992. In 1996, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS broadened beyond HIV/AIDS and donated to help create the Entertainment Community Fund’s Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative. The Fund, supported through Broadway Cares, now includes The Friedman Health Center, HIV/AIDS Initiative, Artists Health Insurance Resource Center, Senior Services, Addiction and Recovery Services, The Dancers’ Resource, the Broadway flu shot program and more.

In 2010, Viola received the Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre for his work at Broadway Cares.

“Joining the Broadway community in the creation and now nearly 40-year legacy of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has given my life purpose and meaning. I am proud of the unique collaboration between Broadway Cares and the Entertainment Community Fund in providing a safety net of social services for all in the entertainment industry and performing arts and how the resources of this now extraordinary theatrical fundraising engine reach across the country through our well-established National Grants Program,” Viola said.

“Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS will be a part of my heart always, fiercely and with great joy. I have no doubt that Danny Whitman will lead this extraordinary staff and community of volunteers in sustaining Broadway Cares’ legacy of generosity of spirit and good will,” he continued.

Whitman joined Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS in 2009 as director of development and has served as lead producer for Broadway Bets and Broadway Backwards, annual fundraisers for Broadway Cares as well as working on the Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction and annual appeals.

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