Everything in John Long’s upbringing taught him to be humble, to stay backstage. But in recent years, he’s emerged as a prominent Asian-American philanthropist: Here he is speaking at the Global Chinese Philanthropy Initiative, which his family foundation funds to bring together American and Chinese philanthropists. There he is chairing a real-estate research institute, a University of California at Los Angeles center made possible by his major gift.
“Chinese philanthropists, and Asians as a group, have been pretty low profile about their giving,” Long says. “We’ve been brought up to let our actions speak louder than our words, and even today my preference is to not be upfront.”
One out of every seven Americans was born outside the United States. Among those immigrants are a number of big donors who have become an important yet overlooked force in charitable giving.
At age 6, Long left a village in Guangdong Province to join his father, a merchant in Los Angeles. He rose from a desk job at a homebuilding company to become founder and CEO of Highridge Partners, a global real-estate firm that today has an investment portfolio of more than $10 billion. As he grew comfortable as a corporate leader, he decided he had an obligation to serve as an example as a philanthropist.
“Being reticent,” he says, “is not necessarily the way to maximize impact. I have a responsibility to use the talents and resources I have to advance philanthropy.”
Unexpected Giving
Just as John Long has evolved, the 26-year-old Long Family Foundation, which his wife, Marilyn, chairs, is evolving from emphasizing predictable causes to a focus on the unexpected. Early projects included the founding in 2000 of the real-estate center at UCLA, which he attended, and a sculpture donated to Hartnell College, where Marilyn studied. Another favorite: The Long U.S.-China Institute, which they established at the University of California at Irvine in 2010.
John Long is particularly proud of the Global Chinese Philanthropy Initiative, whose work with Chinese and American philanthropists eschews politics. “China has more billionaires than the U.S.,” he notes. “We wanted to do research, to cross political lines, to come together and start creating a bridge of unification, a bridge of commonality.”
Today, as the couple’s three grown daughters become more influential at the foundation, John, 71, and Marilyn, 66, are also promoting women’s rights and social justice, which they believe will be defining issues in the lifetimes of their daughters and their four grandchildren.
Daughter Vivian Long, who works for the foundation, says this is a continuation of her parents’ interest in “creating, supporting, and sustaining” partnerships that make a difference.
Marilyn puts it this way: “There’s so much going on now with the #MeToo movement, and I’ve always encouraged our three children to speak up. It is so wonderful to see this happening all over.”
Marilyn discovered a deep personal interest in the couple’s new work. The mother of three daughters, she grew up in Salinas, Calif., south of San Jose, as one of seven siblings — six of them girls. Their parents were Chinese immigrants: The father was a chef in a small restaurant, and the mother earned money by bunching green onions at a farm. The children, Marilyn recalls, were “little translators.”
She adds: “It was challenging growing up Chinese-American in a society that was very racist to us. But I think that over time I learned to dispel that, to teach my daughters that we can overcome discrimination, in a long journey.”
A Patriarch and Women’s Rights
The Longs say their giving is guided by Christianity, which John embraced as a teenager and which was part of Marilyn’s upbringing.
Archie Kleingartner, founding dean of the UCLA School of Public Affairs, is a China expert who has worked for years with the Longs. He says their philanthropy “reflects a sense of obligation, rooted in their shared religious faith.”
Members of the family say the foundation work inspires them to talk about the world they envision. The discussions were enriching even before the daughters joined the board, John says. “Marilyn and I have been kind of parallel brains, and we work really well together. I probably approach issues from a more academic side, and Marilyn approaches from the soul.”
A few decades ago, John observes, the patriarch of an Asian-American family foundation might have surprised people by highlighting women’s rights. But that’s changing. “Partly because of their daughters, men today are driven to diversify their thinking, and that’s positive.”
Asked about the direction the foundation will take under his daughters’ leadership, John responds, “Marilyn and I don’t try to influence where they see needs.”
He adds: “Hopefully, by not legislating what they should be doing to advance our legacy, this becomes a living philanthropy.”
