Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP)By the AAPIP Los Angeles Chapter (Adele Lee, Erin Limlingan, Michael Nailat), AAPIP Chicago Chapter (Sonia Mathew, Steve Hosik Moon, Rupal Soni), and AAPIP New York Chapter (Daniel Maiuri, Julia Yang-Winkenbach, Ariane Cruz)
In early February, AAPIP chapters in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York each gathered to ring in the Lunar New Year. Three chapters, three cities, one shared understanding: community is the work.
Los Angeles: A Room Full of People Who Showed Up Anyway
On February 12th, 44 members and guests gathered at NBC Seafood in Los Angeles for our third annual Lunar New Year dinner. The room was a mix of longtime AAPIP members and newer faces.
What struck us about this year wasn’t any single conversation. It was the fact that so many people made time for it at all. Our members are doing hard, grinding work right now, on wildfire recovery, on immigrant communities facing raids, on institutions under pressure to retreat from equity commitments. Finding joy together, over a shared banquet, is not a retreat from that work. It’s part of how you sustain it.
We hope attendees left understanding that they have a role in this community through introductions, ideas, time, or resources, and that their collective presence in this sector matters more than they may realize.
Chicago: Four Years of Joyful Conspiracy
In Chicago, nearly 60 people gathered for the 4th annual co-hosted Lunar New Year celebration between AAPIP Chicago/Philanthropy for Asian American Action in Chicago, Asian Giving Circle, and the Association of Fundraising Professionals Chicago Chapter API Affinity Group.
Each year this event gets richer because the relationships between our three organizations have deepened. The 2025 Leadership Series we co-produced created more touchpoints between our respective communities, so by the time the Lunar New Year gathering arrived, people weren’t meeting strangers, they were continuing conversations. Each group shared updates on our work and upcoming programming, but the real point was simpler: let people be in a room together and see what grows from that.
We call it joyful conspiracy. Something happens when AAPIP members and sector partners from multiple organizations share the same space and recognize how much their work overlaps.
New York: Showing Up Through the Storm
In New York, about 20 members, longtime, new, and prospective, gathered at Lucky Tiger for an evening of community-building and networking. The city had just come through a blizzard, and people still showed up.
The whole point of this gathering is to pause, exhale, and be in the same room as people who understand the weight of the moment. AANHPI philanthropy professionals are navigating real uncertainty right now and having a space to process that together matters. We think of it as joyful resistance: a deliberate choice to celebrate community and the new year, especially when the conditions make that feel harder. We hope everyone who joined left with a stronger sense that they are not doing this work alone.
The Community Care Pillar
Community care is one of AAPIP’s core commitments, and these gatherings are a direct expression of that. In a sector that can feel isolating, especially for AANHPI professionals navigating institutions that don’t always see them clearly, knowing there is a network of people who share your values and will show up for you is not a small thing.
These dinners don’t solve the structural problems we’re all working on but they remind us that we’re not working on them alone.
Thank you to everyone who joined us across all three cities. Here’s to the Year of the Horse and to everything we’ll build together in 2026.