U.S. Institutional Giving for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Communities

For every $100 awarded by funders in the Chicago metro area, AANHPI communities receive 40 cents.

The Chicago metro area is home to more than 760,000 Asian Americans and more than 21,000 Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, nearly 1 in 11 residents. Between 2019–2023, these communities were directed $109.9 million of the $27.7 billion (or 0.40%) awarded by institutional funders in the region.

Chicago funds AANHPI communities above the national average (0.40% vs. 0.34%), and the region has the philanthropic infrastructure to go further. But above-average funding does not mean communities are adequately resourced or that funders have fully examined the assumptions driving their investment decisions. AANHPI communities face documented economic hardship, linguistic isolation, and barriers to accessing services that are routinely obscured by aggregated data and the persistent myth that these communities do not need philanthropic support. Chicago’s funders can treat clearing a low bar as sufficient, or use their scale and position to fund what the data actually shows.

Key Findings

• Chicago funds above the national average, but the baseline is low: At 0.40%, Chicago outpaces the national rate of 0.34%. That margin reflects funder engagement but it does not reflect investment at a scale proportional to community size or documented need.
• Funding is concentrated among a small group of funders: The top 20 funders account for 61.6% of all AANHPI-related grantmaking in the region, contributing $67.6 million over five years. Private foundations lead at 24.6% of regional funding, followed by community foundations (17.9%) and public charities (11.9%).
• The broader funder ecosystem remains underleveraged: Funders outside the top 20 account for 38.4% of regional AANHPI funding. That share represents a significant pool of funders whose engagement with AANHPI communities could be meaningfully expanded.
• Issue area priorities reflect both strength and potential gaps: Chicago’s AANHPI funding concentrates in Human Services, Human Rights, and Public Affairs. How this distribution compares to full community need across education, economic development, and health warrants closer examination by regional funders.

The Concentration Challenge

Chicago’s philanthropic giving to AANHPI communities is shaped by a relatively small group of institutions. When 61.6% of funding flows through 20 funders, the overall investment level is largely determined by the priorities of those institutions.

This is both a structural vulnerability and an opportunity. It means Chicago funders outside the top 20 have real room to increase their engagement with AANHPI communities, and major funders already in this space have the scale to model what strategic, need-aligned AANHPI investment looks like.

Why This Data Matters

For Chicago-based funders: Your region is home to nearly 800,000 AANHPI residents facing real and varied needs, from economic instability among refugee and recent immigrant communities, to linguistic access barriers, to health disparities that aggregate data regularly obscures. Chicago is already operating above the national average for AANHPI funding, which means pathways, relationships, and grantee infrastructure exist. The data asks you to examine whether your current strategy reflects the actual need in those communities, or a population-level assumption that they are doing fine.

For national funders with a Chicago presence: Chicago is a base for national philanthropic operations in health, economic development, education, and immigrant rights. AANHPI communities are embedded in each of those issue areas and are frequently undercounted in needs assessments that don’t disaggregate by ethnicity. When your Chicago grantmaking explicitly includes AANHPI-serving organizations, it strengthens both local impact and national field-building.

For advocates and organizers: This report provides evidence that Chicago’s philanthropic sector can and does fund AANHPI communities. Use these findings and community-level data on need to make the case that the infrastructure for expanded investment already exists.

For AAPIP Chicago Chapter members: This data gives you a regional baseline and a leverage point. You can show your institutions where they stand relative to the national average, where concentration creates both risk and opportunity, and what investment aligned with actual community need would require.

The Opportunity

Chicago’s AANHPI communities are large, established, and geographically distributed across the area. The philanthropic infrastructure to reach them through community foundations, private foundations, public charities, and corporate giving is already active.

$109.9 million over five years from a $27.7 billion regional funding pool is a starting point. The case for increasing that investment rests on two things: the size of the communities being underserved, and the documented needs within those communities that philanthropy is positioned to address. For Chicago funders with existing AANHPI grantee relationships, the path forward requires asking whether current investment levels reflect both.

Questions or want to discuss these findings? Contact us at aapip@aapip.org

Ready to strengthen AANHPI investment in Chicago? Email us at aapip@aapip.org to explore funding strategies, or learn about AAPIP membership.