Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has announced that executive director Tom Viola will retire. The announcement came after the organization’s July board meeting on July 18. Danny Whitman, Broadway Cares’ current director of development, will succeed Viola, beginning Jan. 1, 2025. Viola will serve as a consultant to Broadway Cares in 2025. Viola previously shared his plans with the executive committee, which had voted unanimously to install Whitman as his successor. The full board confirmed this vote, again unanimously, on July 18.
Viola has been with the nonprofit since its start in 1988; he has served as its leader since 1996, when he assumed the role of executive director.
In 1988, Equity Fights AIDS was formed as a committee within the union of Actors’ Equity Association — led by president Colleen Dewhurst — to combat the suffering of those affected by the AIDS epidemic. As Dewhurst’s executive assistant, Viola was the staffer assigned to the committee. At the same time, a group of producers founded Broadway Cares to raise funds and offer grants to AIDS organizations in New York City and other urban areas hit hard by the illness. In 1992, the two nonprofits combined, and Viola oversaw the merger.
In 1996, expanded its giving beyond HIV/AIDS causes. It granted $10,000 to the Entertainment Community Fund (ECF) to create the Phyllis Newman Women’s Health Initiative. To date, Broadway Cares is the largest single supporter of the ECF, which, in turn, provides financial assistance, medical care, social programs and more to arts workers.
Under Viola’s leadership, Broadway Cares has awarded more than $300 million: $142 million to the Entertainment Community Fund and $160 million to more 450 other organizations across the country through its National Grants Program. Broadway Cares spearheads fundraising throughout the Broadway and national theater community via its signature red bucket fundraising, which leads up to the Red Bucket Follies and the Easter Bonnet Competition, as well as events like the Broadway Flea Market, Broadway Backwards, Broadway Bares and Fire Island Dance Festival.
During the COVID-19 pandemic and theater shutdown, Viola shifted Broadway Cares to a digital fundraiser and virtual event producer to raise necessary monies for the newly established COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund. For their efforts, Broadway Cares and ECF were named the 2020 “Showperson of the Year” by the Broadway Briefing.
Viola received a Tony Honor for Excellence in 2010, recognizing “the leadership, advocacy and creativity through which he has mobilized the theater community’s response to AIDS and other critical health issues.” His other notable accolades include 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 also serves on the board of trustees for the Entertainment Community Fund and chairs its human services committee.
Having been with Broadway Cares for 36 years, Viola first came to New York City in 1976 with ambitions of being an actor. After working as an assistant to a literary agent, he began a freelancing as a writer. He then became assistant to Dewhurst and continued his career with Broadway Cares.
Whitman has been with Broadway Cares since 2009. During his tenure, he has supervised corporate, individual, major and planned giving as well as event underwriters and sponsors. In the past 15 years, fundraising has increased from $2.4 million in 2009 to $11.1 million in 2024. Whitman has also served as lead producer of Broadway Bets and Broadway Backwards. He has served on the human services committee of the ECF.
Prior to Broadway Cares, Whitman worked as volunteer manager, corporate relations office and, eventually, deputy director of development for New York’s LGBT Center. He is a member of ASCAP and Equity and a holds a BFA in musical theater from Syracuse University.
“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, in a statement. “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.”
In a statement, 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.”
