2025 Annual Report
2025 was an eventful year for POZabilities!
We continue to grow and expand our reach in the San Diego community and provide social and educational programming to combat stigma, isolation and loneliness in the San Diego HIV community. We remain an all volunteer organization with many of our events and programs led by individual volunteers.
It was also a year of transition. Several of our long time volunteer leaders retired and new leaders have taken the helm.
Board Updates
We continue to grow our board of directors and add new roles in the organization.
Jerry Turner ended his term as Chairman Emeritus and was re-elected to the board as a regular board member.
Terry Summers
Terry joined the board as a board member and Events Director developing fun events such as Let’s Flamingle! and A Sweet Affair.
Roger Al-Chaikh
Roger has joined the board as a board member and Education Director.
For more information on the full board and membership, check out our board section here. The POZabilities board of directors stands for election at each year’s annual meeting in accordance with the organization's bylaws. For 2026 the board will vote on adding a new position of Vice-Chair to serve as interim Chair when the current Chair is unavailable.
Program Updates
In 2025 POZabilities reorganized and rebranded its programs. Our classic social programs designed to bring people together in a stigma free environment to address loneliness and isolation were brought together under the Social Support umbrella. The NExT program developed over the past couple of years was rebranded as Healthy Living and now includes activities designed to promote a healthier lifestyle and improved health and quality of life. Our education program is undergoing changes going into 2026. We ended our formal partnership with the San Diego HIV Consortium and brought on a new Education Director to develop programming that provides the information the HIV community needs to take action now in order to improve life and health. For more information on each of these programs, check the relevant sections of this report linked below:
Financial Updates
2025 was a solid year of financial performance. We were able to raise sufficient funds for the programs we had planned and still retain a reserve able to support a full year of programming should we fall short. We kept our overhead expenses as low as possible, maintained our status as an all volunteer led and driven organization to ensure revenues went directly to programs serving the community. We were able to develop and implement new fundraising strategies and brought on a new volunteer Events Director to our board to lead those efforts. For more details on our performance, see the link below. It is worth noting that, as our revenue is under $50,000 annually, we don’t file a full IRS form 990 but the abbreviated 990N postcard filing.
Partnering Updates
We saw changes in our program funding small startup volunteer groups as programs of POZabilities:
San Diego Hiv Consortium (SDHIVC.org) provides events providing updated information and research on HIV, aging and treatment issues. The group, formed by Dr Joseph Caperna and John Steinmetz changed their focus to add performing research on HIV and aging. This change had them diverge from the mission of POZabilities and added the complexity and risk of HIPAA and other compliance requirements which go well beyond our capabilities. We ended our sponsorship and wish them well as they embark on their new in support of the HIV community.
Our Town San Diego (OurTownSD.org) was established by Paul Margolis when he and his husband moved to San Diego, based on similar work they did in the San Francisco area. The program provides information on resources and events important to the LGBTQ community and Paul serves as a photographer for many local events. They continue to grow and no longer draw funding from POZabilities but continue to operate as one of our programs.
POZabilities ended HIV Heroes (hiv-heroes.org) a website to serve the San Diego HIV community through storytelling.
Growth and Community Recognition
2025 was a year of growth and change. As we changed the way we funded and delivered our programs we worked to expand our visibility in the community and engage with the HIV ecosystem in new ways. Overall we had a fun and eventful year. For more information on these changes and efforts, see the section of his report linked below;
More information on our mission and organization can be found here.
Thanks for a successful year!
The Board of Directors and leadership of POZabilities would like to extend our gratitude to all of those people and organizations who contributed to our success, joined with us in celebrating 25 years and participated in our programs this year.
As we enter 2026 we look forward to another fun and productive year. Moving beyond our 25th year we will continue to grow and deliver services to the San Diego HIV community focused on fighting stigma, isolation and loneliness. We will continue our journey as an all volunteer group who delivers quality programs developed by and for our community. Let’s continue to live and love positively!
