Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Executive Director Tom Viola will retire from the nonprofit at the end of 2024, ending a 36-year tenure that saw the organization persevere through two pandemics and emerge as one of the most impactful fundraising and grant-making organizations in the country.

Current Broadway Cares Director of Development Danny Whitman, who’s been with the nonprofit for 15 years, will succeed Viola as executive director, beginning January 1, 2025. Viola will remain involved with the organization as a consultant throughout 2025, advising on Broadway Cares’ National Grants Program strategies and procedures.

Viola shared the retirement news with the Board of Trustees at its regular meeting on July 18, 2024, after discussions with the organization’s Executive Committee. The Executive Committee previously voted unanimously to appoint Whitman to succeed Viola. The full board unanimously approved the succession plan.

“Few, if any, have served the theater community with more heart, dedication, determination and distinction than Tom Viola,” said Robert E. Wankel, president of the Broadway Cares Board of Trustees and chairman and CEO of The Shubert Organization. “Tom nurtured goodwill and trust throughout the theater community in the toughest of times, building Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS into an integral part of our industry that has reached out to millions of people in crisis through the years. Fortunately, along the way, he created a solid infrastructure and I’m certain that Danny Whitman is ready to lead the organization in this next chapter, ensuring Broadway Cares’ vital philanthropic work will continue long into the future.”

Viola said: “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. 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.”

Known as the philanthropic heart of the Broadway community, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has awarded more than $300 million under Viola’s leadership: $142 million to the Entertainment Community Fund (formerly The Actors Fund) and another $160 million to 450 local organizations nationwide through its National Grants Program providing meals and medication, health care and hope to countless individuals and families.

In 2010, Viola was recognized by the Tony Awards with the Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre for “the leadership, advocacy and creativity through which he has mobilized the theater community’s response to AIDS and other critical health issues.” He’s also been honored with the Patrick Quinn Award for Distinguished Service from Actors’ Equity, the Sandy Fund Award from the Humane Society of New York, the Howard Ashman Award from GMHC and The Mosaic Award for Distinguished Alumni from the University of Cincinnati. Viola serves on the Board of Trustees for the Entertainment Community Fund and chairs its human services committee. A native of Pittsburgh, he is a graduate of the musical theater program at the College-Conservatory of Music at University of Cincinnati.

Viola’s tenure with the organization dates to its first days in 1988 when he was executive assistant to Colleen Dewhurst, then the president of Actors Equity Association. Viola served as Equity’s staffer on the committee helping it focus on raising money for the just-created AIDS Initiative of The Actors Fund (now the Entertainment Community Fund).

Working closely with Rodger McFarlane, Viola oversaw the merger of Equity Fights AIDS and Broadway Cares. On May 1, 1992, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS was born, providing annual grants to the Fund and local AIDS service organizations nationwide.

In 1996, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS began expanding its mission beyond HIV/AIDS and awarded the Fund $10,000 to help create the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative. It was the first step in an expansion of support that today includes every program and service provided by the Entertainment Community Fund for tens of thousands of members of the entertainment industry and performing arts. As the largest single financial supporter of the Fund, Broadway Cares helps ensure the continued effectiveness of 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 2023, under Viola’s leadership, Broadway Cares awarded the Entertainment Community Fund $7.6 million. Since 1988, Broadway Care/Equity Fights AIDS has awarded the Fund more than $142 million.

In addition to the Entertainment Community Fund support, an equal measure of Broadway Cares’ fundraising is distributed through its National Grants Program.

In 2023, the program provided $9.5 million in support to 451 social service providers in all 50 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, While many of these providers exclusively serve those living with HIV/AIDS, most have now also expanded their mission to include those underserved and uninsured, and millions living with other serious, debilitating illness. Since 1998, the National Grants Program under Viola’s watch has awarded more than $160 million to provide food, medication, health care, housing and emergency assistance to those living in crisis.

When COVID-19 caused Broadway to shut down for an unprecedented 18 months. Viola, with Whitman at his side, led the organization’s temporary transformation into a digital fundraiser and virtual event producer, building an extraordinary major donor program that fueled the industry-focused COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund.

During and immediately after the shutdown in 2020 and 2021, Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS provided more than $18 million to the Entertainment Community Fund for direct emergency financial assistance for members of the performing arts and entertainment industry.

Whitman joined Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS in 2009 as director of development and member of its senior staff. He has overseen corporate, individual, major and planned giving, and event underwriters and sponsors. Under his leadership, those areas of fundraising have increased from $2.4 million in 2009 to $11.1 million in 2024. In addition to guiding and expanding development efforts, Whitman has served as lead producer for Broadway Cares’ annual events Broadway Bets and Broadway Backwards, while also working closely with the Broadway community on the Broadway Flea Market & Grand Auction and annual appeals. Additionally, he has served on the human services committee of the Entertainment Community Fund.

Prior to joining Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Whitman worked at New York’s LGBT Center as volunteer manager, corporate relations officer and rising to deputy director of development. He holds a BFA in musical theater from Syracuse University and is a member of ASCAP and Actors Equity Association.