NEW YORK - The Asian American Federation distributed a total of $170,000 to seven organizations to ensure the continuation of their outstanding work in the Asian American community. For 2011, a new strategy was implemented to grant fewer agencies larger funding amounts for greater impact.
This year’s Community Fund recipients are: Chhaya CDC, Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, MinKwon Center for Community Action, Korean American Family Service Center, New York Asian Women’s Center, South Asian Council for Social Services, and South Asian Youth Action.
“The process was a little more competitive this year,” Cao O, AAF’s executive director. The organization received 22 applications from its member groups.
Since 1993, AAF has supported critical programs for Asian American individuals and families through its annual Community Fund, awarded to local community organizations in a competitive application process. The goal of the Community Fund is to enable groups to create new and innovative programs, sustain critical services, and respond to the needs of our City’s growing Asian American population. Since its inception, the Fund has raised and awarded over $3 million dollars to more than 100 worthy community programs.
At the Community Fund Grant Awards Presentation and Reception held at the Rockefeller Plaza, this year’s grant recipients gathered in simple rites.
“Our sponsoring agencies and we at AAF looked at ways on how we can support existing and long-term programs that have been helping the community. We want to make sure that they get training in fund-raising and workshops on how to make their organizations stronger,” Mr. O added, saying that there are actually no winners or losers in this year’s grant-giving.
AAF currently has 43 member organizations, including two Filipino-focused groups - Damayan Migrant Workers Association and the Filipino American Health Services, Inc. (FAHSI), and other pan-Asian groups such as Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF), one of the seven organizations that received a grant this year.
“We’re happy to get this grant from AAF because it will help us expand our campaigns and at the same time strengthen our organization. We have over 35 agencies and we want to make sure these direct service providers are working on the ground with the communities,” Wayne Ho, CACF’s executive director told the Asian Journal.
CACF is the country’s only pan-Asian children’s advocacy organization by overseeing agency administration, program oversight, board relations, staff supervision, community partnerships, and fund-raising to improve the health and well-being of Asian Pacific American children and families.
Like many other non-profit organizations, CACF also went through a rough patch as donations and grants became harder to find.
“These are tough economic times for all non-profits, whether you are big or small. This grant will help us in coming up with better fund-raising programs. We feel fortunate to be among the seven at the same time, we feel bad for all the other agencies who are also struggling,” Ho added.
AAF focused on individual and family philanthropy when they realized that institutional giving was on a decline because of the economic uncertainty that began a few years ago.
“As the economy went into a recession, our member agencies suffered significant levels of funding shortages and struggled to sustain the services they provide. All the while, the needs of our community continued to grow. In the face of such hardship, the Federation’s mission persevered,” said Jeffrey Chin, AAF’s chairman of the board.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(NYNJ Dec 16-22, 2011 Sec A pg.4)
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