Since I began my tenure at AAPIP in August, I’ve traveled nearly 18,000 miles and 6 time zones across the country, meeting with AAPIP members, regional chapters, foundation leaders, and trustees. I’ve connected with more than 680 people working in philanthropy and another 135 community-based organization leaders. I went into this listening tour with one goal: to understand what this moment demands of AAPIP and how we can best serve our communities.
What I heard was both encouraging and sobering.
What I’m Seeing: Two Sides of the Same Coin
AAPIP organizes our work around two pillars: advocacy for AANHPI communities and community care for the AANHPI professionals who do this work. The conversations from my listening tour reinforced why both matter, especially now.
On the advocacy side: I met philanthropic professionals who are deeply committed to their work. They care about moving systems, ensuring resources are invested wisely, and building a better society. But I also noticed something else, a hesitation about how to move forward at this moment. There’s real fear about the risks of continuing diversity work and race-explicit grantmaking when the federal administration is actively targeting these efforts. People are asking: What is philanthropy’s role when the list of urgent needs is limitless and federal funding has been gutted? How do we act when we’re being told that the work we’ve been doing for years is now politically dangerous? Yet on the community side, nonprofit EDs are disillusioned by philanthropy’s failure to step up during this critical moment of need.
Here’s what I’ll say plainly: Philanthropy cannot replace the federal government. But it also cannot sit this moment out.
On the community care side: AANHPI professionals in philanthropy are experiencing their own crisis. After several years of feeling like progress was finally being made – especially during the height of anti-Asian hate – with more recognition of AANHPI communities, more attention to structural racism, and more funding flowing to our organizations, many now feel discouraged. They’re asking where their identity fits into their work as the sector pulls back from racial equity commitments. Some are questioning whether they still belong in these spaces. They feel like they’re back to the basics of dispelling the model minority myth.
The chapter convenings and affinity groups have been lifelines. In every city I visited, people told me how much these spaces matter, places where they can be honest about what they’re experiencing without having to code-switch or explain themselves.
Why I’m Here
I came to AAPIP because I believed philanthropy afforded the space to be more strategic and deliberate in moving the needle in society. After spending five years at Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Southern California – the nation’s largest AANHPI legal services and civil rights organization – beginning my tenure during the height of the COVID crisis, responding to anti-Asian hate, supporting Monterey Park shooting victims, and watching our immigrant community members get detained and deported, I was exhausted from the constant reactivity. I thought philanthropy’s ability to think long-term and invest strategically could create the systems change our communities desperately need.
Now that I’m here, I’m realizing something uncomfortable: maybe philanthropy is too methodical. While I value strategic thinking, the last 10 months show that this moment demands urgency and bold action. We can’t study and plan our way through this crisis. We need to move.
The Urgency of This Moment
Let me be clear about what’s at stake. AANHPI communities receive just 0.34 cents for every $100 granted by philanthropy. That number alone should create urgency. But beyond the data, there’s the reality on the ground: immigrant families are being torn apart and nearly 6 out of 10 AANHPIs are immigrants, AANHPI-led organizations are losing federal funding overnight and many have already slashed their staff or closed their doors altogether. Community members are too afraid to leave their homes to access basic services like healthcare, food and education.
This is a historic moment. Philanthropy is one of the few sectors with the independence and resources to protect our multiracial democracy when there are government forces actively dismantling it. AANHPI communities are the fastest growing racial group in this democracy, and we cannot continue to be invisible in funding conversations, especially when our communities are directly in the crosshairs.
What AAPIP Is Committing To
Based on what I heard from hundreds of conversations across the country, here’s how AAPIP will show up in 2026:
- Strengthening community spaces. Our chapter programming and affinity groups create places where AANHPI philanthropy professionals can connect with colleagues who understand what they’re navigating. These spaces are essential for keeping talented AANHPI leaders in the sector and sharing local information and resources.
- Leadership strategy. Power in Practice for AANHPI foundation trustees and C-suite executives brings together our community members at the highest levels of our sector for collective strategy and mutual support. Our Transformational Leadership Series develops leadership skills for AANHPI mid-level professionals. .
- Raising awareness about AANHPI needs. Through our Rooted in Resilience funder briefing series, we’re making sure philanthropy understands what’s happening in AANHPI immigrant communities. We’ve already held briefings on the Hyundai/LG raids in the South and the Southeast Asian deportee crisis. Coming up in early 2026: sessions on DACA and the intersection of immigration and gender justice.
- Supporting AANHPI community organizations. Developing easier pathways for philanthropy to support the AANHPI groups doing the critical work.
This work requires resources, relationships, and resolve. I’m hopeful because I’ve seen what this community can do when we come together. But hope requires action, and I am all in. I hope you will join me in these efforts.
Join Us
If you’ve been thinking about joining AAPIP, now is the time. If you’re already an AAPIP member, thank you. We look forward to continuing our work together in 2026 with your renewed support. Our work is only possible because of this community’s commitment to each other and to the broader movement for racial justice.
The road ahead won’t be easy, but we’ll travel it together.