Asian American Giving

Asian Americans encouraged to apply! 02/08/01

The San Francisco Foundation is accepting applications for the 2010-2012 Multicultural Fellowship in Arts and Culture, Education and Environment Program areas. 

The program aims to increase diversity in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors. The Program provides young professionals of color with challenging work experiences and leadership opportunities in the areas of grantmaking and community building. The Fellowship includes an intensive curriculum, individual coaching, mentorship, access to local service sector leaders, and countless opportunities to build a professional network. Applications are due on Monday, March 22, 2010.

The San Francisco Foundation is seeking nominations for their Community Leadership Awards.

The San Francisco Foundation Community Leadership Awards recognize individuals and organizations whose leadership has made a significant impact in their particular Bay Area communities.  This work may confront societal or civic issues, address health or environmental concerns, or promote arts and humanities. One of the four Awards is designated for an under-recognized, mature artist who has made a significant and ongoing contribution in the Bay Area. Awards are $10,000 for individuals and $20,000 for organizations. Individuals and nonprofit organizations in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo Counties are eligible. Nominations are due March 1, 2010.

Photo courtesy of Kevin

Finding solutions: What tourists won't see in San Francisco's Chinatown

On the streets of Chinatown and North Beach in San Francisco, tourists walk by shops and restaurants. But on top of these restaurants and shops and in-between alleys where few tourists venture are single room occupancy hotels (SROs) where families live. Families live in small 10x10 rooms and share a common bathroom and kitchen.  Many seniors live in these spaces and are often easy targets of abuse and coercion, with limited access to resources and assistance.

In response to the rising needs of those living in SROs, the SRO Families United Collaborative was formed. The Collaborative is a multiracial, multilingual collaboration of five community based organizations that share the common goals of organizing and empowering families living in SRO hotels to defend their rights, improve conditions in their buildings, access services, and seek decent housing. The five groups include Chinatown Community Development Center, Chinese Progressive Association, Coalition on Homelessness, South of Market Community Action Network, and a community organization serving the Mission district. These groups receive support from the government, local foundations, corporations and individuals.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, San Francisco's densely populated Chinatown is the largest enclave outside of Asia. In the 2000 Census, 100,574 individuals live in Chinatown, or about two-thirds of the overall Chinese American population in San Francisco. The Chinatown area is about 1 mile long by 1.34 miles wide.

See also: Chinatown family life - what tourists don't see; SRO History in San Francisco

U.S. - Vietnamese Social Networks

- Dien S Yuen

James H. Bao, co-founder of the OneVietnam Network generated a list of US Vietnamese Social Networks on their blog, Vietnam Talking Points. James found five networks and he provides a summary of their work. Please visit their blog to learn more. 

In particular, James writes:

Of the networks I've found, only two came out to be true social network by today's definitions: Viet Circle and Vietmee.com. The rest are better categorizes as community blogs or forums. Of the bunch, Viet Circle offers the most familiar social networking experience. Yet, the site tries to do too much (includes restaurant reviews, event planning), runs an outdated model (think MySpace), and is not actively developed.

The Vietnamese expat community still lacks a true network. With over 3 million people spread across 30 countries, there is a definite need for a network that can bring us together. I have reasons to believe that kind of network will be coming very soon (*wink).

James is talking about the exciting, highly anticipated, OneVietnam Network. The man behind the "network" is Paul Pham.  Paul was part of the team that created the first web-based email service called Hotmail. After the company was acquired by Microsoft Corporation, he went on to work as a server architect for several years, developing the main revenue generating engine for Hotmail called WebCourier.

I can't wait to see the fully functional network because it will be the first of its kind - bringing non-profit groups, volunteers, donors and supporters together on an integrated platform that uses all the tools of social media. This is where the Asian American philanthropy field needs to be headed.  The fact that none of them have a philanthropy background makes it even more impressive. I like the idea of a fresh perspective and a new approach.

Disclosure: I serve as an advisor to OneVietnam Network.

Supporting internationally focused families

There were several of us blogging from the Council on Foundation's Family Philanthropy Conference in San Diego. You can follow the conversation on COF's blog, RE: Philanthropy, What Matters Now.

My second post: Supporting internationally-focused families

The families I’ve spoken to at the conference support diverse projects overseas: from children and women to environmental issues. But many jump from project to project without clear long-term goals—for example, supporting initiatives around clean water in Bangladesh to micro-finance in Uganda. The financial support ranges from a $50 gift to buy a stove to a $100,000 grant for endowing a school. 

The majority of the families do support U.S. based 501(c)(3) organizations that are doing work overseas. Some are using intermediaries to implement particular projects while others are running their own programs in specific countries. For instance, one family hired two local leaders to implement a micro-loan project in Haiti. But many families are just lurking on the periphery—still collecting information and unclear where to start.

Read more

The first post, Where domestic and international philanthropy meet, can be found here.

Photo courtesy of spacetrucker

Korean American Community Foundation: grants available for 2010, apply now!

The Korean American Community Foundation (KACF) was founded in 2002 with the vision of strengthening the lives of individuals and families in the Korean American community and beyond. 

KACF funds organizations and programs within the greater metropolitan New York area that are focused on helping individuals and families become self-sufficient. The Foundation prioritizes programs that are addressing the critical needs of underserved and under-resourced communities, particularly low-income individuals and families; immigrants; individuals with disabilities and their families; survivors of domestic violence and other forms of violence; the elderly; and disadvantaged youth.

All grants are for a one year period and grants typically range from $12,000 to $24,000 per year.  The grant application deadline is 5 pm on Monday, February 15, 2010.

Photo courtesy of KACF

Asian Americans encouraged to apply! 02/01/01

*  The Asian Cultural Council is seeking a program associate to be based in their NYC headquarter.  ACC is a U.S. based foundation supporting cultural exchange in the visual and performing arts between the U.S. and Asia, and between the countries of Asia. ACC has representation in Hong Kong, Manila, Taipei, and Tokyo. Its geographic purview includes an extensive area of Asia, from Afghanistan to Japan. Grants are made in the fields of archaeology, architecture (design, theory and history), art history, art and architectural conservation, crafts, dance, film, museology, music, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, theatre, and video. Download Program Associate narrative (Updated on 2/5/01 - this position has been filled.)

*  The American Pakistan Foundation is pleased to announce two openings for full-time positions, a President/CEO and a Director of Development, to be filled by end of March 2010. In order to lead this important new initiative to advance the social and economic development of the Pakistani people, we are seeking professionals with senior-level executive leadership and management experience in the nonprofit, government or private sector. All interested individual send a cover letter and CV to exec-comm@americanpakistan.org by February 28th, 2010. Candidates for each position will be contacted by the APF Executive Committee after review of applications.

Where domestic and international philanthropy meet

There are several of us blogging from the Council on Foundation's Family Philanthropy Conference in San Diego. You can follow the conversation on COF's blog, RE: Philanthropy, What Matters Now.

My first post: Where domestic and international philanthropy meet

I am excited about attending the upcoming Family Philanthropy Conference in San Diego this weekend. While I have attended the Council on Foundations’ Annual Conference for several years, this will be my first time attending the Family Conference. My interest in attending the conference is to find out how families are incorporating domestic and international philanthropy and how they approach their implementation and evaluation process as an entity. 

I have met many families that support the community they currently live in. Several of them also support charitable projects overseas. The reasons they support overseas organizations and projects are diverse and many subjectively and passionately have done so for many years. However, as the philanthropic field moves towards quests for efficiency, impact and accountability, many advisors, like me, are looking for ways to help our clients/donors answer these questions in an international context.

Read more

Photo courtesy of camera-caritatis

Dr. Sudhir M. Parikh, Indian American physician, philanthropist and publisher

Dr. Sudhir M. Parikh, Indian American physician, philanthropist and publisher is named as a recipient of the 2010 Padma Shri Award. The Indian government grants this award to distinguished Indians and people of Indian origin for their contribution in various spheres of activity including the arts, education, industry, literature, science, sports, medicine, social service and public life. The award will be presented b President Pratibha Patil at a ceremony in New Delhi in March.

Dr. Parikh is a 59 year old native of Gujarat. He set up his private medical practice in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1980. His practice flourished and he is now a noted allergist and an acclaimed authority in the field of allergy, asthma, and immunology. Dr. Parikh is also Chairman and Publisher of New York based Parikh Worldwide Media, which publishes the News India Times, Desi Talk and The Indian American.

Dr. Parikh has donated more than $2 million to various charities and causes in the India and the U.S. over the years. Fifteen years ago, he set up the Parikh Foundation.  He was part of the delegation that accompanied Former President Bill Clinton to the affected areas of the Gujarat earthquake. He has also helped tsunami victims in Tamil Nadu and supports the Art of Living Foundation in providing humanitarian relief. Dr. Parikh has helped raise funds towards AIDS awareness in India and healtcare-related programs in the country.  In the U.S., Dr. Parikh gives to the Share & Care Foundation, Nargis Dutt Memorial Foundation, and the American India Foundation.

We congratulate Dr. Parikh for his professional and philanthropic achievements!

Asians share thoughts on Haiti disaster and relief efforts

Several Asians weigh in on the Haiti disaster relief and recovery efforts:

Don't Give Money to Haiti Now.  Perla Ni, founder of Great Nonprofits, writes on Stanford Social Innovation Review: If there is any lesson to be learned about how to donate to international disasters, it is this: 

Don't give your money when you first see the disaster splashed across TV. To ensure the rebuilding effort survives over the long term, donors need to stagger their funding and guarantee it over many years, instead of sending the money all at once. Yes, as hard as it may be to watch the dying and pain on our news, realize that money is not the impediment to getting aid to Haiti right now. They need military and security forces to help organize rescue, logistics and transport and security operations.

Philanthropy in Haiti: Don't miss out on the opportunity.  Penny Fujiko Willgerodt, Executive Director of Prospect Hill Foundation writes on Smart Assets: The Philanthropy New York Blog: 

Soon the news about the earthquake’s aftermath will be gone from public attention. These first few weeks are crucial for mobilizing donations even as we recognize that the problems on the ground and the struggle to recover in Haiti will continue for a long time. As we have seen from our experience in the Gulf Coast, Haiti will need lots of help just to get back to where it was prior to the earthquake. While horrific, infuriating, and ultimately very sad, this tragedy does create an opportunity to help the people and country of Haiti recover and rebuild in a way that supports sustainable development, human rights, and democracy. It is important that we do not miss this opportunity and that we advocate for philanthropy to focus on this critical approach.

Delivering aid is an inexact science. Delwar Hossain writes in the Guardian: Recent scenes from Haiti remind me of relief work in Bangladesh, where there was never enough to go around. 

As new channels beam images of aid distribution in Haiti, I am reminded of a post-emergency relief that I witnessed last year in a remote part of Bangladesh where a flood in 2007 had destroyed large areas of paddy and numerous homes. The people affected were some of the most marginal in the country, what development experts call "the extreme poor."

I came on the day tin sheets were being handed out. Even before the distribution had begun, there was trouble. The list that was originally drawn up of people from the most severely affected village had to be re-done. According to Tariq, a staff member with the NGO, this was because a local community-basedorganization that they had commissioned to make an inventory of recipients had put the names of their own relatives and friends  on it, thus denying the most needy.

See also: Directing relief dollars where they are most needed

Blogging from the Council on Foundations Family Philanthropy Conference in San Diego

- Andy Ho

Tomorrow, I will be headed to San Diego for the Council on Foundations Family Philanthropy Conference. This conference is one of the bigger events in philanthropy where family foundation trustees and staff can gather together. After a tumultuous year in 2009 with the volatile stock markets the after-effects of the Madoff scandal, and peering into the abyss of the economic crisis, families are thinking about their philanthropy differently than a year ago. It will be interesting to hear the conversations and thoughts that family trustees have as they face a new decade with new challenges, but also renewed hopes and visions for how philanthropy can make their communities a better place.

As a staff person with the Council, I have been intimately involved with the planning of the conference for the past six months. It's a lot like playing host to a very large dinner party, but on a much bigger scale. So, as a host, I won't enjoy the conference in the same way an attendee might, but such is the nature of my work. I don't anticipate a large Asian American presence here, but that's something to work towards and encourage more Asian American families of wealth to join their peers in the philanthropy network over time.

Dien and I will post our thoughts from the conference. You can also follow our tweets @asiangiving and @andyho. Track the conference on Twitter by following @COF and searching for the hashtag #cof10, and reading the conference blog at blog.cof.org.

San Francisco Japantown Foundation - apply now for the 2010 matching grants program

The San Francisco Japantown Foundation has launched a matching program for ten qualifying organizations that support cultural, community and educational activities for San Francisco's Japantown and/or the Japanese American community.

Organizations/groups selected for the matching grants program will be asked to encourage donations be made to the organization/group through the Foundation. We will match those earmarked donations dollar-for-dollar up to the amount requested by the applicant, but not more than $2,000, for a possible total grant of up to $4,000. In order to qualify for a match, donations for organizations/groups must be made to the Foundation by Midnight Pacific Time on April 30, 2010.

The Foundation was affected by the economic downturn and was unable to provide grants in 2009.  This 2010 matching program was intended to provide some support to organizations and in a way that involved individual donors from the community. In 2008, the Foundation provided $25,000 in competitive grants and also approved $60,000 in special grants to several organizations.

For more details, please visit the San Francisco Japantown Foundation's website.

Photo courtesy of tanakawho 

Upcoming conferences and events (01/29/10)

- Dien S Yuen

Several interesting conferences and events are happening this year that I thought you would like to hear about. Below are the conferences that I have tentatively scheduled on my calendar and those that I wish I could go to.

If you are attending any interesting conferences or events this year and would like to blog about it, please let us know!

These are the conferences I will be at. If you are going to any of these, please let me know. It would be great to meet up!

Council on Foundations, Family Philanthropy Conference, Jan 31 - Feb 2, San Diego, CA

Committee of 100, Annual Conference, April 7-10, San Francisco, CA

Global Philanthropy Forum, April 18 - 21, San Francisco, CA

International Advisors in Philanthropy, April 22 - 24, Chicago, IL

Council on Foundations, Annual Conference, April 25-27, Denver, CO

Social Enterprise Alliance World Summit, April 28-30, San Francisco, CA

Northern California Planned Giving Council, May 7, San Francisco, CA

Global Social Business Incubator Business Plan Presentations, TBD, Santa Clara, CA

CSR Asia Summit 2010, Sept 14 -15, Hong Kong

Opportunity Collaboration, October 15-20, 2010, Ixtapa, Mexico (by invitation only)

Below are interesting conferences that I would enjoy going to. If you are going, please let us know. We would appreciate a blogger covering the event.

Corporate Creativity: Vermont L3C & Other Dev in Social Entrepreneurship, Feb 18 & 19,VT

Indian Philanthropy Forum, March 18-19, Mumbai, India (by invitation only)

3rd World Congress of Muslim Philanthropist, March 21-22, Dohar, Qatar

FT Investing in a Sustainable Future, March 24, NYC, NY

Unite for Site/Innovate 2010, April 17-18, New Haven, CT

Business for Social Responsibility, Nov 2 - 5, NYC, NY

Photo courtesy of Kevin Kelly: Asia Grace

Jet Li - One Foundation raising funds for Haiti

From Jet Li's Facebook page: 

No matter what country you are from or where it happens, the pain and force with which a natural disaster hits is the same. I am proud of everyone for showing support for the post-quake relief efforts in Haiti whether it be with their thoughts or dollars. The One Foundation has received over 500,000USD in donations from partners and individuals. We are one world, one family. We will all help Haiti stand up again.

More or less likely to give anonymously?

 - Andy Ho

Does being Asian make you more or less likely to give anonymously? 

Ever since the Haiti earthquake two weeks ago, seeing the outpouring of charity, especially via text, has been humbling. The response has been tremendous (about $305 million in total). Much of the small amounts - the $10 for a text donation, the $25 to attend a benefit for Haiti, will never be publicly acknowledged. When the Sichuan earthquakes occurred in 2008, I noted how in Hong Kong, donors were publicly acknowledged even for very small amounts. 

Is this phenomenon of wanting recognition for your charity more likely to occur among Asians than with other racial/ethnic groups? There are probably no statistics backing up this notion, but I wonder how much one's ethnic culture, background, and values affects a person's decision to go public with their donation. Of course, altruism and charity has many complex and mixed motives and reasons, and academic research has plenty to say about this as well.

Readers, what are your thoughts? What has your experience been?

Photo courtesy of Kevin Kelly: Asia Grace

Daniel Yang: building an internet cafe in Uganda

- Dien S Yuen

We are witnessing an emerging trend in the giving and volunteering patterns of young Asian Americans and we look forward to enabling and documenting this shift. We have written about Asian Americans giving to mainstream organizations in the U.S., to Asian American groups, and to Asia-based organizations. Now, we are seeing many examples of Asian Americans giving to other parts of the world. Daniel Yang is a Korean-American working to launch an internet cafe in Uganda. His story is a great example of this emerging trend.

Daniel Yang is a second year medical student at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2006, as a college student, he was deeply impacted by a documentary film about the civil war in Northern Uganda and decided to travel there with three of his friends. Lacking money and a clear plan, he took to the streets of downtown Chicago dressed in a pink teddy bear costume bought on eBay for $150. With the support of a few thousand hugs, he made it to Uganda, handing 16 children in the slums of Kampala a camera and an opportunity to share their stories.

After returning from his trip, he co-founded Project FOCUS, a Chicago-based youth-led non-profit organization composed of artists, writers, activists and students committed to educate, inspire and empower youth through art. Currently, the project is working with a rural community devastated by HIV/AIDS in Lyantonde, Southwestern Uganda. Project Focus is partnering with local organizations to launch an Internet Café, providing access to information and communication previously unavailable to residents of the region. The Café will also provide technology skills training, a revenue source for a local community-run primary school, and allocate space and tools for the production of creative multi-media projects. They are looking for 24,999 supporters to give $1 each.

Daniel writes:

Web access provides communities with the opportunity to improve social welfare, and claim their voice in the global conversation on strategies for rural development. With this service, the local populace will benefit from direct links to job, educational, weather, and health information, as well as more efficient markets for produce and products.