AAPI Heritage Month Spotlight: Asian Giving Circle

To celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, the Trust will be spotlighting AAPI leaders and AAPI-serving organizations that have contributed to the betterment of the Chicago region – past and present. Check back throughout the month for more profiles.

For more than 20 years, Asian Giving Circle has been a leader in Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) philanthropy. As one of six affinity funds at The Chicago Community Trust, AGC pools resources from its members to provide grant funding in support of the diverse and evolving needs of the region’s AAPI community.

Currently, the Asian American community makes up roughly six to seven percent of Chicago’s population, but according to the 2020 census, it has become the fastest growing demographic in the city. Amidst this shift, AGC is looking to leverage a new sense of urgency among civic, corporate, and philanthropic leaders to bring more substantial aid to organizations serving AAPI residents.

“How do we tap into philanthropic giving at the organizational level? We have not focused a lot of our effort on that in the past, but we plan to do that going forward to amplify AGC’s impact,” says AGC co-chair LeMinh Hoang.

The needs of Asian Americans are often overlooked in philanthropy for a number of reasons, including the persistent “model minority” stereotype that portrays the community as successful, educationally and economically. However, the reality has always been more complicated.

In recent years, the largest wealth gap for any group in America has emerged among Asian Americans. This also comes at a time when anti-Asian hate crimes are sharply rising across the country. Asian Americans are also often discussed and viewed in aggregate, but they come to Chicago from more than 20 different countries, each with its own customs, belief systems, political contexts, immigration trajectories, and historical backgrounds.

Education is imperative to help increase understanding and awareness about AAPI communities, according to AGC co-chair Eric Wu. He further adds, “Even successful Asian Americans face structural biases, racism, and microaggressions.”

An AGC partner and past grant recipient, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Chicago, worked on the successful effort to pass the Teaching Equitable Asian American History (TEAACH) Act by the Illinois legislature in 2021. That law now requires that Asian American history be taught in the state’s public schools.

Wu, who was born in North Carolina to parents who emigrated from Taiwan, says he has learned a great deal about other Asian Americans and Chicago through his work with AGC. He stresses the importance of “deconstructing the monolith” — seeing and attending to individual AAPI communities.

“Everyone’s experience is different,” Wu says, noting that AGC’s grant making is sensitive to those differences.

In 2022, the affinity fund gave the Indo American Center (IAC) a grant to create a Youth Leadership Council to boost community organizing and leadership skills for 50 teenagers and young adults. Established in 1990, the IAC supports new immigrants just settling into Chicago who want to maintain strong ties with their culture.

Another 2022 grant went to People Matter for professional development training for staff, wellness and healing sessions, and a strategy-planning retreat for board members, staff and volunteers. People Matter is a South Side community-empowerment group that brings Asian, Black, and Latinx communities together to address problems they have in common.

With violent attacks on AAPI individuals in public spaces like streets and transit stops increasing over the past few years, advocating for safety will also become a new area of focus for AGC.

In February 2023, the affinity fund received a huge boost from John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. AGC received a three-year, $600,000 grant for grassroots economic development in AAPI communities in the Chicago region, as well as to enhance its capacity and streamline operations to better support worthy AAPI organizations.

“The MacArthur grant is a very big step out for us,” Wu says. Hoang notes that it provides a strong foundation for AGC’s hopes to collaborate with other large grant making organizations in the future.

AGC ordinarily funds community organizing, civic engagement, and collective healing and mental health work, distributing between $70,000 to $80,000 annually among several groups through its core grant making. Individual giving has always been key to AGC’s impact, and member donations will continue to fund the organization’s core annual grant making.

The grant from MacArthur has unlocked an opportunity for AGC to offer additional grant opportunities focusing on economic development.

“From the inception of AGC, we lean on our individual supporters to propel our mission, and this will never change. Individual supporters sustain and drive our work. The one-time MacArthur grant allows us to scale our collaboration with AAPI communities,” adds Hoang.  

While these shifts in focus areas are based on pressing issues facing the AAPI community today, Hoang underscores how important it is for AGC to remain flexible in leveraging philanthropic resources. 

“Our underlying approach is to always be responsive to the community,” she says.