In late March 2021, the murders of 6 Asian American women in Atlanta brought new attention to a disturbing and hateful trend of growing violence against members of the Asian American community, a legacy of the anti-Asian sentiment built and nurtured by white supremacist culture in America. As philanthropy – and many other groups and sectors within the US – came together to decry the hatred, many Asian American and Pacific Islander (AA/PI) individuals within the sector were left to grapple with the impact of a moment that resonated both personally and professionally.

Below, four Asian American members of the philanthropic community – Claudia Leung, Jonny Moy, Jennifer Nguyen, and Cristiana Baik  – share their perspectives on the violence, immediate philanthropic response, and hopes for the sector’s commitment to AA/PI communities long-term.

This is part two of two reflections from these four leaders within our membership.

In late March 2021, the murders of 6 Asian American women in Atlanta brought new attention to a disturbing and hateful trend of growing violence against members of the Asian American community, a legacy of the anti-Asian sentiment built and nurtured by white supremacist culture in America. As philanthropy – and many other groups and sectors within the US – came together to decry the hatred, many Asian American and Pacific Islander (AA/PI) individuals within the sector were left to grapple with the impact of a moment that resonated both personally and professionally.

Below, four Asian American members of the philanthropic community – Claudia Leung, Jonny Moy, Jennifer Nguyen, and Cristiana Baik  – share their perspectives on the violence, immediate philanthropic response, and hopes for the sector’s commitment to AA/PI communities long-term.

What follows is part one of two reflections from these four leaders within our membership.

EPIP New York is an intergenerational home for emergent philanthropic practitioners to cultivate bold ideas, develop professional agency, and strengthen community. We are committed to building a sector that is responsive to and reflective of the social, political, and economic context of our time: rooted in social justice and inspired by intersectional vision.

We are excited to announce that applications for the EPIP NY Steering Committee are now open! The application deadline has been extended to Sunday, September 19th. 

As we count down to R/evolution, EPIP’s 2021 Virtual National Conference, we’re getting inspired by the words that come from our speakers and feature in our programming:

In Inside Philanthropy, Isabel Sousa-Rodriguez digs deeper into what makes a bad grant and how funders can shift their thinking about these grants to focus on community impact, learning, and the grantmaking process. 

R/evolution will also feature a sneak peek at our revamped Philanthropology curriculum, which gives a grounding in philanthropy with a social justice lens - the full program’s resource list includes this timely article by Michael Selzer in Chronicle of Philanthropy, which looks at lessons that can be learned for COVID-19  from philanthropy’s response to the AIDS crisis.

Plenary speaker Derecka Purnell’s book Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom won’t be out until October, but her article “The System is Built For Power, Not Justice” is a great primer. 

What does it mean to celebrate a 20th anniversary, virtually? What’s the right mix of looking back, taking stock of our present moment, and looking forward? How do we center the wisdom of those who have come before us while boldly envisioning new futures? These are some of the questions we’ve been asking among our conference committee, staff, and board as we embrace this virtual anniversary season and prepare for the 2021 EPIP Virtual National Conference.

We're thrilled with the mix of voices, perspectives, and histories that will help us answer these pressing questions and ground our conference programming in three signature plenaries - Philanthropy Reimagined: 20 Years of Changemaking, Collective Loss: Collective Care: What We Need From Our Institutions, and A World Without Philanthropy: Imagining Liberation. 

These plenary sessions will feature leaders including Derecka Purnell, Beatrice Lors-Rousseau, Kiyomi Fujikawa, Sandy Nathan, Anthony Simmons, and more. Learn more below and register at epip.org/2021conference to witness and learn from their brilliance.

Join us at our 2021 Conference, R/evolution, for the formal launch of EPIP’s new communities of practice and a celebration of our long-running People of Color Network (PCN)!

Over the last few months, we’ve been meeting with members, researching with other philanthropy serving organizations, and connecting with our CHANGE partners. As a result of this relationship-building and deep listening, we’re thrilled to be launching two new communities of practice at our virtual conference. Click here for more on the conference or to register.

The first community of practice, for emerging women of color, will serve dual purposes of strengthening the professional networks for early- to mid-career women of color in philanthropy and strengthening interpersonal leadership skills so that women of color advance and thrive in the sector. The second community of practice, in response to requests from white members of EPIP, will support white practitioners in building greater accountability in their work to combat white dominant culture within philanthropy, and to sharpen their allyship and advocacy skills. Finally, we’re thrilled to bring renewed energy and intention to our long-standing People of Color Network, for EPIP members who identify as people of color.

We hope you'll join us as we dive into these new opportunities for the EPIP community to connect and grow together!

This month, we're asking what philanthropy can learn from the past year....

• In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Tonya Allen, Kathleen Enright, and Hilary Pennington lay out ways for foundations to commit to change, including addressing inequities within their own institutions, treating grantees as partners in creating change, and exploring collaboration.
• On NCRP’s blog, Siobhan Davenport gives suggestions for philanthropy to "recover right" from COVID-19 by committing to multi-year funding, focusing on the root causes of inequities, and shifting the existing power structures in the sector.
• In Nonprofit Quarterly, Dax-Devlon Ross explores differences between the ways established and emerging leaders in the sector view racial equity work and how those differences can be bridged on both sides. Suggestions include having sector “elders” help emerging leaders better understand the history of the sector and encouraging emerging leaders to create better boundaries

...looking at recent reports from the sector on mission-aligned impact investing and narrative change, and sharing resources curated by our chapters, including a recent blog post on the need for philanthropy to address the erasure of AAPI voices.

As April comes to a close, EPIP chapters are gathering virtually to build community over coffee and on the virtual dance floor, discussing reducing bias in grantmaking and philanthropy's role in addressing homelessness, and practicing self-care. 

This month, as philanthropy offers solidarity to AAPI philanthropic leaders and communities, we’re taking a closer look at AAPI-directed philanthropy...

• AAPIP’s newly-released Seeking to Soar: Foundation Funding for Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities finds that foundation funding designated for AAPI communities accounts for only 0.20 percent of all US grantmaking and has remained stagnant even as both the AAPI population in the United States and overall philanthropic giving have risen.
• AAPI Data’s State of Philanthropy among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, released in September 2020, echoes the findings of AAPIP’s report and makes a number of recommendations to foundations to strengthen AAPI philanthropy, including developing and supporting AAPI-specific pooled funds, prioritizing language access and underserved AAPI populations, and funding intersectional and coalitional work.

We’re also continuing to look at the ways that philanthropy can and should use the upheaval of the past year as an impetus for long-term change and marking Women's History Month alongside EPIP chapters and members from across the country by reflecting on the power of self-advocacy and the need for institutions to make space for that advocacy to flourish.