A new foundation dedicated to funding projects benefitting the Asian American and Pacific Islander community launched today after raising $125 million from its board members.
The Asian American Foundation calls this the “largest philanthropic commitment in history by Asian Americans fully focused on supporting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.”
Currently less than 0.5% of charitable giving from foundations is allocated to the Asian American Pacific Islander community.
TAAF hopes to change that by also launching an “AAPI Giving Challenge” to raise even more money to fill the void left by the lack of giving to the AAPI community.
The organization will begin by focusing its efforts with three main focuses:
- TAAF will support organizations looking for long term solutions for measuring and defending against anti-Asian hate.
- TAAF seeks to develop data gathering and tracking standards on anti-Asian hate
- TAAF hopes to implement curriculum in K-12 and higher education about the history of Asian American and Pacific Islanders.
“We created TAAF to stand up for the 23 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders living in this country and help bring us all together in the fight for our own prosperity,” said Sonal Shah, President of TAAF.
Shah previously worked in the Obama White House and founded the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.
TAAF’s advisory council is made up of 30 leading AAPI leaders and allies including CNN hosts Lisa Ling and Fareed Zakaria, actor Daniel Dae Kim, NBA player Jeremy Lin and former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.
TAAF has already distributed $1 million to Asian
Americans Advancing Justice (“AAJC”) coalition, $1 million to Stop AAPI Hate, and $1 million to the National Asian American Women’s Forum (“NAPAWF”).
The foundation will host a virtual launch event tomorrow with remarks from former Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama on the Facebook and YouTube Channel of Now This at 3 Eastern/12 pm Pacific.
You can register here.
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