The following is a compilation of news and resources related to Asian American philanthropy:
* Huntington Gardens raising $30 million for Phase 2 of the Liu Fang Yuan, Garden of Flowing Fragrance. My friend and colleague, Suzy Moser, is featured in the LA Times about her fundraising efforts with Chinese and Chinese-American donors. She successfully raised $18.3 million several years ago to launch the gardens - a majority of the funds were from Chinese and Chinese-American donors.
* Critical philanthropy. Harsimran Kaur at Sikh Coaltion's blog writes about his experience at AAPIP's gathering of the AMEMSA (Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, & South Asian) grantees. AAPIP provided a grant to establish the Sikh Coalition's Western Region office last year. The author asks, if you are a Sikh coalition funder, how would you hold us accountable for the money you've given? Do you have ideas for making us a stronger organization? Do you have feedback about the direction of our work?
* Philanthropy search engine. Tony Wang of Blueprint Research & Design unleashes the new, experimental search engine that covers 194 sites. Tony writes:
I’m hoping that philanthropy recognizes the importance of its knowledge assets in addition to its other assets as an institution and as a grantmaker. And I think one way foundations can use their knowledge assets better is by creating a more efficient marketplace of information that provides the right incentives for people to provide highly useful information. And I think that search can be part of the answer. Through an improved search tool customized for philanthropy, I was able to find many more resources on field-building than I previously was able to (including a key report by the Kellogg Foundation on its field-building initiative in service-learning, and other reports by the Wallace and Ford foundations), which in theory enabled us to write a better paper (forthcoming) and will enable foundations to have greater impact.
* The Chronicle of Philanthropy has a first person feature written by Ray Umashankar on his journey to start ASSET India Foundation (Achieving Sustainable Social Equality through Technology) with his daughter. ASSET trains children of sex workers in information-technical skills. The author writes:
The foundation administers education programs, using functional-literacy software in regional languages, and microfinance efforts, to help people establish, own, and operate their technology-based small businesses, such as computer kiosks. The sex workers are desperate for educational opportunities and a chance for a better life for their children. They do not want their children to know about the flesh trade and also wish to minimize the risk of their contracting HIV/AIDS.
Other news of interest:
* NYU researcher compiles first book on Asian American health. Dr. Mariano Rey, the director of the NYU Institute for Community Health and Research, along with Chau Trinh-Shevrin and Nadia Islam, recently compiled the recently released book, "Asian American Communities and Health." Asian Americans in NY total about 10% of the state population but they are categorized as "other" on health forms so very little information is available about the Asian community. I hope this compilation will help community groups serving Asian Americans in NY to better articulate the needs of their constituents and find the funding they desparately now need.
* The Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans selects 7 South Asians. These fellows receive one-half of tuition for two years for graduate study at an institution of higher education the U.S., including a maintenance grant of $20,000. The program is supported by income from a charitable trust of $65 million created by philanthropists, Paul and Daisy Soros.
Photo courtesy of armadillo
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