Key Gaps in Funding for AAPI Community

The giving trends of the top U.S. foundations to Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities have not kept pace with the growth of these communities or of foundation assets, according to a new report released by Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP). 

The report, Growing Opportunities: Will Growing Follow the Rise in Foundation Assets and Growth of AAPI Populations? looks at the country’s top 20 national foundations’ grantmaking between 1990 and 2002 and finds significant funding disparities to AAPI communities in several areas.

Here are some key findings:

• AAPIs comprise 4.5% of the U.S. population, and the populations has grown 70% in the past decade, but 2004 foundation funding to AAPIs represented just 0.4% of all foundation dollars.   
• States with some of the largest AAPI populations, such as New Jersey and Texas, received few AAPI-focused grants from the largest foundations. 
• Large foundations’ biggest AAPI-focused grants went almost exclusively to non-AAPI-led organizations, while the majority of their smallest such grants went to AAPI-led organizations.
• Foundation investments to AAPI-led organizations do not appear to have kept pace with AAPIs’ needs for trusted, culturally competent service providers who speak their language and have expertise in their communities, particularly during times of national crisis.  For example, during 9/11 as well as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Chinese garment workers and Vietnamese shrimpers were hit hard along with other New Yorkers and New Orlinians. People from the AAPI community turned to the community agencies who spoke their languages, who were already on the ground, and who were known locally. Disaster funding, however, was slow to reach these agencies, and in some cases, still has not caught up with the service provider. 
• The number of AAPI foundation staff has increased from less than 1% to 4.5% of all foundation staff between 1990 and 2005.  However, some large foundations that provide significant funding to AAPI communities have no AAPI staff.

The report ends with a call to action to those in the philanthropy field to reduce these gaps.