Asian American Giving

Asian Americans: the Details

Photo credit: fillinourfuture.org

- by Andy Ho

The 2010 Census, the last major survey of the American people, was the first one to detail the Asian American population into specific ethnic subgroups - Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Bhutanese, Hmong, Laotian, and on.  This detail sheds further insight into the diversity of the Asian American population, providing for some very interesting data, especially when economic, education, health, and other data are layered on top. 

It's also great the Census is spreading this information in multiple languages now.  According to the most recent WHIAAPI newsletter, the Bureau has translated and released the 2010 Census Asian Population Brief in three Asian languages, which include Simplified Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese. These in-language briefs show that the Asian population grew faster than any other race group over the last decade. The population that identified as Asian, either alone or in combination with one or more other races, grew by 45.6 percent from 2000 to 2010, while those who identified as Asian alone grew by 43.3 percent. Both populations grew at a faster rate than the total U.S. population, which increased by 9.7 percent from 2000 to 2010. Out of the total U.S. population, 14.7 million people, or 4.8 percent, were Asian alone. In addition, 2.6 million people, or another 0.9 percent, reported Asian in combination with one or more other races. Together, these two groups totaled 17.3 million people. Thus, 5.6 percent of all people in the United States identified as Asian, either alone or in combination with one or more other races. See the Simplified Chinese version here, Korean version here, the Vietnamese version here, and the original English press release here.  

The White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders National Philanthropic Briefing

- by Andy Ho

Last month I had the honor of being one of over 200 participants for a day-long National Philanthropic Briefing, hosted by the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Over 50 foundations were represented, as well as many AAPI community organizations across the country, brought together to discuss with government agency officials about the needs in the AAPI community and population.

It’s great to have a spirit of collaboration and connectedness across sectors – in recognition that no one organization or sector, regardless of how much financial resource one has – can solve our social problems by themselves. My hope is that the energy, excitement, and momentum that’s been built off of this one meeting isn’t bogged down in bureaucracy, pointless debates, and interpersonal conflict. AAPI communities are hurting too much, and growing too much, to wait too long for a difference to be made.

Here’s an excerpt from a letter by Kiran Ahuja, Executive Director of the White House Initiative on AAPIs, following the event:

Since the National Philanthropic Briefing, we have received an outpouring of responses from so many of you. We are grateful for the input, follow up, and eager inquiries regarding next steps. While we collect your feedback and strategize around a process to move this effort forward, we wanted to take a moment and share with you a few key principles that emerged from the day.

First, this effort has bigger—and better—potential than we even originally anticipated. The groundbreaking $1 million commitment by the Ford Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Kresge Foundation affords us the rare opportunity to think outside of the proverbial box, to commence a long and lasting conversation, and to expand the discussion to long-term solutions and long-range investments in the AAPI community.

Second, we recognize and respect our inextricable interdependence in this effort. Each of you—federal official, community leader, and philanthropic partner, alike—plays a critical and active role in achieving this kind of transformational change.

Third, the briefing only marks the beginning; moving forward we must work creatively and collaboratively to achieve these ambitious goals.

It is now up to “both philanthropic and governmental organizations to evaluate their strategic plans to ensure that the critical needs of these marginalized communities are addressed.” (Dr. Gail Christopher, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, National Philanthropic Briefing, April 2, 2012). The initial investment will enable us to map out a strategy to leverage significant philanthropic and government investment in the long-term. Through our collaboration with Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP), we will engage in a thoughtful and collaborative process to ensure that AAPI communities have consistent, reliable access to the resources and support they need. Both federal and philanthropic colleagues have taken note of the historic effort that we collectively embarked upon last month (Download Summary Report 04022012 National Philanthropic Briefing). We now look forward to your participation, your ideas, and your input.

It will be interesting and exciting to track the developments as this effort moves forward in the coming months.

Philanthropy News Digest 07/11/2011

* Lisa Philp was appointed vice president for strategic philanthropy and director of Grantcraft at the Foundation Center. GrantCraft helps grantmakers hone their craft and be effective in their work. It was created by the Ford Foundation and is now a joint project of the Foundation Center and the European Foundation Centre earlier this year. Lisa was chair of AAPIP and formerly served as managing director and global head of philanthropic services for the J.P. Morgan Private Bank in NY. Congrats to Lisa!

* The Asian American Arts Alliance is hosting Locating the Sacred, a 12-ay city-wide festival that will be held in NY in fall 2012.  The festival will match artists to spaces regarded as sacred, where they will collaborate to produce their own events.  Through these events, we will explore the meaning of the word “sacred” to our communities, and showcase Asian American artists as agents of change. To raise seed money for the mini-series, they've started a Kickstarter campaign which you can check out here.

* The Vietnamese Resettlement Association in Falls Church, VA will be received a $200,000 grant from the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.  Since 1990, VRA provides social services including translation assistance and mental health support to the Vietnamese community. VRA has served more than 10,000 women and the funds will be used to support healthcare promotion for women in the Vietnamese and immigrant community free of charge.

Global Diaspora Forum in D.C.

The Secretary of State’s Office of Global Partnerships is organizing a Global Diaspora Forum  in Washington D.C. from May 17-19th.  The theme is "Diaspora, Diplomacy and Development." I am very excited to see that philanthropy will be one of the major topics at the conference. I hope that Asian American diaspora philanthropy will be featured prominently as we have a great story to tell.

The website states that the Forum's goals are to:

• Recognize and celebrate the contribution of Diaspora communities to America’s relationship with their countries of origin or ancestry;
• Foster Diaspora-centric partnership models;
• Encourage intra-Diaspora collaboration and learning.

The Forum is by invitation only but the organizers are making efforts to "deploy social media and online tools to make the Forum accessible to as wide an audience as possible." Live-streaming the event or at least bringing together a team of bloggers and tweeters to cover the conference would be exciting - especially since many of the latest contributions from the diaspora are related to the technology sector.

I hope they will be bringing speakers that are leaders in the communities and can share tangible examples of contributions instead of the typical stuffy, academic or policy related researchers that are usually present at these events. Maybe even being mindful of the diversity in the "by-invitation" event would be a good start.

Some interesting facts from the website:

2 Million: Number of first- and second-generation Diasporas in America; almost all Americans have immigrant roots further back.

$48 Billion: Amount of recorded remittances sent from the United States by Diaspora communities in 2009.

#1: America ranks first as a host of the largest number of international migrants in the world.

Photo courtesy of centinel, Creative Commons, Flickr

Calling Asian Pacific Islander American Bloggers!

Asian Pacific Islander American bloggers from across the country will come together on Feb 26 on the back lot of CBS Studios in Studio City, Calif.

BANANA 2 is a follow-up to the inaugural convening in Nov. 2009 co-hosted by Lac Su, author of I Love Yous Are For White People (HarperCollins, 2009) and Steve Nguyen, a television/film producer and head of the ChannelAPA.com’s Los Angeles division, who enlisted the help of a small group of bloggers and community activists to produce an event highlighting and amplifying the online voices of Asian Americans.

“We are excited to have a talented group of established and up-and-coming bloggers from the APIA community at this second annual gathering to share their voices, knowledge, endeavors and visions with others – bloggers and non-bloggers, APIAs and non-APIAs,” said Su. “All of the bloggers expected to attend have unique views of their own community, and will share their progression as an APIA blogger.”

The conference will provide an opportunity for bloggers and their readers to build a stronger community by beginning conversations and building relationships beyond the conference. Conference panels will include topics on using blogs and social media to create meaningful social change, working with businesses and corporations and defining the role of Asian American bloggers.

Attracting Funders to the Asian American Community

I serve on the advisory board of the Philanthropic Ventures Foundation and had the opportunity to take part in their micro-documentary campaign. In the clip below, I spoke about the work of PVF and why the spirit of how the organization practices philanthropy is so important to the Asian American community. In this time of need, our community needs funders that are responsive and willing to take risks on organizations that do not get the attention of large funders.

Bill Somerville and I walked through Chinatown during the filming. We also used the Chinese Historical Society of America as the back-drop. I will write more about the impressive work of CHSA in the next post. Special thanks to Sue Lee, Executive Director, for her time.

 

Congratulations AAPIP!

- by Andy Ho

No blog on Asian American philanthropy can go without a word of congratulations to Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP). Based in San Francisco, this national membership and advocacy organization is celebrating its 20th anniversary on October 20, 2010 with a live webcast streaming and simultaneous parties in 11 cities - many of which have local AAPIP chapters. What a great way to celebrate all that AAPIP has done to bring Asian Americans philanthropists together - whether donors, trustees, or staff, and to recognize the work AAPIP has done in urging the philanthropic sector to continue to give to meet the needs of Asian American communities around the country.

Having spent some time at AAPIP five years ago now, I've seen AAPIP grow from a network of Asian American philanthropists to much more. AAPIP's influence extends into the public policy sector, to grassroots organizations working hard to achieve social justice for Asian Americans, and to showcasing the needs that Asian Americans have that philanthropy has not met yet - and should. Through the thoughtful and tireless leadership of Executive Director Peggy Saika, AAPIP is truly building democratic philanthropy for all Asian Americans.

Unfortunately my schedule doesn't allow me to attend Wednesday's event -- and I am sad to miss it. But if you're reading this and you live in one of the 11 cities where there's a celebration taking place - go check it out. And join me in congratulating AAPIP on this momentous occasion!

Philanthropy News Digest 08/02/2010

* OneVietnam Links Young Vietnamese Americans to Their Homeland. San Jose Mercury News covers the launch and vision of the new social networking platform. Participants are sharing content on Vietnam, economic issues, philanthropy, nonprofits and many other topics.

"This is the way social networking will be in the future," (Paul) Pham said. "It's the natural progression. People are becoming more demanding of what they want from a social networking site."

* New AAPIP board member, Jeanie Lee Boehmler, Director of Education Initiatives at Fight for Children in DC, shares her observations at the AAPIP event, What is the Role of Philanthropy and Government in Times of Crisis.

* New AAPIP board member, Lillian "Beadsie" Woo, Senior Associate of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, talks about foundation giving to API communities. She says:

The disparity in philanthropic dollars to API communities and organizations relative to the size of the API population in the US was shocking! For a variety of reasons (including widely varying experiences among the different communities (Hmong being different from Chinese being different from Korean), relatively small numbers in comparison to other ethnic and racial groups, and maybe a reluctance to be a "squeaky wheel"), API communities and needs are underserved by philanthropy.

 

Asian American Federation: Board Changes and New Member Agencies

The Asian American Federation is based in New York and fosters philanthropy in the API community. They also undertake research to inform policies and provide financial support and capacity-building services to community service organizations. 

William Wong, President & CEO of HSBC Securites (USA) Inc., joined as a new board member while the Federation bids farewell to Don Suk Suh and Felicia Yeh. 

The Federation welcomes three new agencies:

 

Asian Women’s Christian Association. The AWCA started 30 years ago as the NJ Homemaker’s Club. In 1985 it joined the Montclair YWCA New American Program. And in 2000, it was incorporated as an independent 501(c)(3) that is today’s AWCA. They currently operate Korean and Chinese senior centers, the Korean Family Service Center that provides mental health services, the ANGEL school, a program teaching Korean American adoptees Korean language & culture, and a home care service agency that also provides job training services to potential home care workers. Additionally, the AWCA offers walk-in social services, adult continuing education and summer youth programs.

Korean American Youth Foundation. Based in Queens, the Korean American Youth Foundation’s mission is to provide the resources for Korean American young adults to become successful, civic-minded citizens by promoting leadership skills and instilling community values, while creating networking avenues between the present and future generations of Korean American leaders. The Foundation supports a variety of programs and initiatives to empower Korean American youth to achieve their potential academically and professionally as well as the balance of a healthy body and mind. KAYF has also provided opportunities for community-building within the Korean American community. Additionally, KAYF has a scholarship fund. This year, they awarded $38,000 to 26 students. 

Korean American Voters’ Council. The Korean American Voters’ Council (KAVC) is a non-profit organization that was started from a group of volunteers in Flushing, NY in 1996. KAVC’s goal is to educate Korean Americans about the importance of exercising their voting rights, to increase accessibility in exercising the right by removing the language barrier, and to promote informed/educated decisions pertaining to current issues. Since its inception, the Korean American Voters’ Council has been playing in important role in promoting civic participation among Korean Americans, immigrants and new citizens through community education and voting rights advocacy.

Education Series Profile: Peter Kim of Glow Foundation

We are pleased to feature Peter Kim, Executive Director of Glow Foundation as part of our series on education. Glow Foundation started when its founders "were struck with the harsh reality that many college-admitted students from low income families do not enroll in college due to financial hardships." They also found that many students were not aware of financial aid options and were frightened to borrow money.  

Glow Foundation assist students from under-resourced communities:

* 80% are low income, eligible for free or reduced lunch

* 80% will be the first to attend college

* Nearly 100% are from cultural backgrounds historically under-represented in college (Hispanic, Pacific Islander, African American, multi-racial)

Peter Kim tells us more about Glow Foundation and his experience in the philanthropy sector:

1. Please share with us something about your past professional background. 

For the past six years, I have worked in the philanthropy sector designing and implementing social venture funds and grantmaking programs on environmental, education, youth development and land use planning issues. Prior to that, I worked both domestically and internationally in environmental law and policy, partnerships and corporate business. Those experiences helped shape my metrics driven and collaborative approach to the nonprofit sector.

2. You recently joined Glow Foundation. What does Glow Foundation do? 

Glow Foundation is a 501(c)(3) that provides financial education, planning, mentorship programs, and scholarships to high potential, college ready students from low-income families. We support our students in developing basic financial skills allowing them to make informed and effective decisions about the use and management of money for the rest of their lives. Students gain critical financial skills and knowledge around budgeting, saving, spending, credit and loans in addition to understanding how they can fund their education by accessing various types of financial aid. Upshot is our programs help empower students to proactively create a budget, identify and seek funding to enter and graduate from college and use these skills as the foundation for lifelong financial stability. 

Every year 200,000 low-income, college capable high school students graduate and do not pursue a college education.  - College Summit

3. What do you hope to accomplish in the first 100 days there? 

As the new Executive Director of the Glow Foundation, I want to leverage and strengthen our current partnership model to help more low-income students acquire basic financial skills to enter and graduate college. My focus will be on assessing and refining our metrics, evaluating program delivery, and meeting with potential strategic school and nonprofit partners to enhance our programmatic impact and reach. Concomitantly, I will look to develop long-term partnerships with corporations and financial institutions to secure sustaining funding channels and in return Glow Foundation will train, recruit and engage these companies’ employees in volunteer and mentorship opportunities. My first 100 days will be critical to building our internal organizational capacity and setting clear growth plans for the future. 

4. What are some of the major needs at Glow Foundation?

As a nonprofit start-up, Glow Foundation is constantly pounding the pavement for funding while refining programs to better serve more students. We are constantly trying to strike the balance between building a sustainable and stellar program versus scaling rapidly to reach more students. The more we reach the more funding dollars we can attract. 

Our programs are in demand and there is a market appetite to scale as schools and nonprofits constantly approach us to partner and deliver our financial education and mentorship programs to their students.  But we need to balance that against operational budget limits, staffing, and ensuring we grow a sustainable and stellar program.

5. Who are your go-to people for advice?

Over the years I have built up a small cadre of colleagues/friends from the public, private and nonprofit sectors that I consult on a regular basis to bounce off ideas and strategies. They are a diverse mix of lawyers, foundation and nonprofit leaders, corporate executives and government leaders. Serving as critical advisors, thought leaders, counselors, networkers, and sometimes partners, they provide me with a multi-sector perspective and approach to my nonprofit work.

Photos courtesy of Glow Foundation