In the Media

When Philadelphia released a list of its city-sponsored COVID-19 relief grant recipients, the breakdown laid bare what a lot of organizers in the Asian American/Pacific Islander community already knew:

Traditional funders often fail to support nonprofits that serve Asian ethnic groups.

“These are lived experiences,” said Jingyao Yu, a board member at local aid nonprofit Asian Mosaic Fund, about the disparity. Seeing it in print from an official source was validating, she said. “It’s great, but it’s kind of demoralizing that our lived experiences aren’t valued.”

Over the last two months, the dollars have been flowing to nonprofits that support Philly’s Black community.

As widespread protests spur awakenings about racial injustice, people want to do something. And for many, the easiest thing to do is pull up one of the many “How to support Black lives now” articles and PayPal away.

After the Philadelphia Bail Fund received $2.4 million in donations, they encouraged potential donors to also support local organizations “committed to long-term liberation work in our communities,” like Black Lives Matter Philly, New Sanctuary Movement, and others on this long list.

Since late March, the McNulty Foundation's Global Response Fund, a partnership with the Aspen Global Leadership Network, has deployed over $550,000 to organizations reaching vulnerable communities in over 20 countries. We invite you to learn more about their efforts to address the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

AAPIP is pleased to announce our Giving Circle COVID-19 Response Fund. This Fund supports AAPI focused Giving Circle efforts to address immediate economic and health concerns including anti-Asian hate (proactive and reactive responses) while also advancing civic engagement to build community power for the longer term. AAPIP’s Giving Circle Network is anchored in AAPI communities all across the country

Traditional philanthropy has historically excluded Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) from decision-making processes that impact their own communities. In response to that exclusion, BIPOC-led/BIPOC-serving giving circles exist to co-create their own solutions for their communities – while also redefining who “belongs” and creating spaces for belonging.

Lauren Susteric knows neighbors can change lives.

It was a realization she had soon after she and her parents and seven siblings came to the States in 1975 as political refugees from Vietnam. Tears welling up, she admits that coming here at age eight is not something she often talks about.

Her family was stationed in Army barracks in Arkansas before they were

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted all sectors of societies across the globe and has disproportionately impacted communities of color. After the cancellation of our “5 Years After the Baltimore Uprising” Religion|City and Philosophy and HBCUs April 2020 conference, we shifted funds to help support relief and restoration work by our community partners. In June of 2020, we were awarded an additional $150,000 by the Henry Luce Foundation to further support these efforts by our community partners and to

We’ve all been hearing the news about the rise of anti-Asian hostility re-surfacing alongside COVID-19, but what does that look and feel like locally? We checked in with two AAPIP chapter leaders Hanh Le with the Metro DC chapter and James Liou with the Philadelphia chapter.

The Asian Mosaic Fund (AMF) giving circle is a diverse group of multi-generational supporters committed to advancing the well-being of the Greater Philadelphia Asian community. Following their participation in a roundtable chat on giving circles at the 2019 SPARX Conference, we invited Peter Van Do of AMF to answer a few questions about their structure and how they build a sense of community through giving.

In his more than two decades as an entrepreneur, Dr. Keith Leaphart has noticed a troubling inefficiency in philanthropy: While charitable donations from individuals make up the vast majority of philanthropic dollars—68 percent, or a whopping $292 billion, in 2018—nonprofits in need of funds tend to seek out corporations and foundations that can write bigger checks in one visit, despite making up only 5 percent and 18 percent of national giving, respectively.

More than 50 community members came out to the 6abc studios to celebrate Asian-Pacific American heritage this week.

6abc's Nydia Han emceed the event that honored a philanthropic group and featured a motivational speaker discussing Asian masculinity.

In the last decade, the number of giving circles in the U.S. has tripled, with more than 1,500 currently active. Long popular among women (they comprise 70% of all members), giving circles have become increasingly common in communities of color, particularly Latino ones. A 2018 study of giving circles found that newer members were more diverse across age, income, gender, and race than established members, who were more

As we have noted at NPQ, giving by donors of modest means in the United States is in decline. And, it appears that the decline of donors of modest means has also hurt the nonprofits that depend on their donations, as NPQ’s Keenan Wellar recently explained. Among other things, this has led NPQ to call for the reinstatement of

When she was in third grade, Quinn Donover painted a nutty-looking orange cat with yellow eyes and purple-splotched fur, set against a multicolored backdrop of swirls and streaks so frenetic they seem to jiggle on the canvas.

Reproductions of her painting, dubbed “Crazy Cat,” have since been used by nonprofit Fresh Artists to raise thousands of dollars for art programs in underfunded schools. Kids like Donover, who is now 24, share their

A pop-up can be tiny, inexpensive, and designed with the community in mind. In 2017, Moder Patshala, a West Philadelphia-based nonprofit that provides a fully volunteer-led afterschool program in the founders’ rowhouse, hosted a ‘pop-up’ community tour as part of Young Involved Philadelphia’s State of Young Philly Week. In coordination with the Asian Mosaic Fund, a community lending circle, Moder Patshala took dozens of visitors on a tour of their building and their work. Folks of all ages took tours in staggered groups