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.

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...

• In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Alex Daniels and Michael Theis look at the impact of the pandemic on the 10 biggest US foundations, finding that many of the changes made in 2020 may not continue moving forward.
• On CEP's blog, Steven Lawrence and Melinda Fine argue that the current crisis alone will not force philanthropy to move past funding silos and let community power lead.
• On the NCRP blog, Manuela Arciniegas, Bryan Perlmutter, and Jessica Pierce share six ways that philanthropy can use this movement moment to challenge white supremacy and shift power, including reckoning with racism, bringing youth to the table, being accountable to communities, and engaging in solidarity philanthropy.
• On GEO's blog, Nicole Fernandes of Funders for LGBTQ Issues shares takeaways from a recent conversation between activists and philanthropic practitioners about supporting trans justice work, including making the funding process more accessible and empowering community in grantmaking decisions. These are especially important words to note as we mark the International Transgender Day of Visibility, which took place on March 31st. 

...and we're 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.

• EPIP New York reminds us of how important it is for philanthropy to include women of color in creating social change by lifting up the 2019 New York Times piece by Vanessa Daniels, "Philanthropists Bench Women of Color, the M.V.P.s of Social Change."
• EPIP member Alice Skipton profiles Growing Gardens, an organization where women-led staff advocacy and racial justice training helped to change the organization from within.
• EPIP LA shares a map of the Los Angeles area that shows where and how 21 women in fields from philanthropy to politics to physics made an impact on the city.