Got this press release about a new report from Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy's Queer Justice Fund which reveals deep disparities in funding to LGBTQ AAPI communities: New AAPIP Report Finds Deep Disparities in Funding to LGBTQ AAPI, Despite Rapidly Growing Population.The report, Missed Opportunities: How Organized Philanthropy Can Help Meet the Needs of LGBTQ AAPI Communities, finds that funding in 2009 to LGBTQ AAPI communities amounted to barely 0.7 percent of the total amounted granted to all LGBTQ communities and organizations that year. And funding to all LGBTQ organizations amounted to barely 0.2 percent of all foundation giving in the United States. In other words, it's a tiny sliver of an already small slice of the pie.
More from the report:
The report is the first of its kind and a critical component of the Queer Justice Fund’s philanthropic advocacy strategy to bridge AAPI and LGBTQ communities, and to help redefine/reframe issues by directing funding to 1) autonomous LGBTQ AAPI organizations, 2) allied organizations, but that may not be necessarily LGBTQ-focused, and 3) faith-based institutions that support LGBTQ rights.For further information on the report and the Queer Justice Fund, and to download Missed Opportunties in its entirety, go to the AAPIP website here.
"We are at a moment where LGBTQ AAPIs are no longer viewed as belonging to single and separate communities; and this report disrupts that misperception," stated Alice Y. Hom, Director of AAPIP’s Queer Justice Fund, author of the report and a presenter at Creating Change. She added, "The organizations that serve these communities play an important, bridging role in connecting overlapping issues and concerns that affect them in a larger framework."
The report outlines five specific recommendations for organized philanthropy to increase funding to LGBTQ AAPI communities, including emphasis on capacity-building support, developing stronger links to allied communities as well as mainstream LGBTQ organizations, and strengthening relationships between secular and interfaith organizations. It also calls for increased support for community-based and quantitative research.