Leaders of nonprofits that serve Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and those that assist Native Americans say foundations’ understanding of and support for their causes lags behind grant makers’ support for other groups in need of help, according to two new reports by the Center for Effective Philanthropy.
The reports suggest foundation support for nonprofits helping people of color generally increased amid the pandemic, but that response was stronger for nonprofits that aid Black and Latino people. For example, 58 percent of leaders of nonprofits serving primarily Asian American people say foundations provided new, unrestricted support in 2020 compared with 68 percent of the leaders of nonprofits that meet the needs of all other groups , according to the report.
The reports draw on data from a number of sources including surveys of nonprofit and foundation leaders and interviews with leaders of nonprofits that serve Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders.
Other data from the report includes:
- 19 percent of foundation leaders said they provided no grant money to nonprofits that focus primarily on Native Americans, and another 44 percent allocated less than a quarter of their grant money to those nonprofits. Twenty-seven percent said they weren’t sure.
- 11 percent of foundation leaders said they provided no grant money to nonprofits that mainly assist Asian American people, and another 53 percent allocated less than a quarter of their grant money to those nonprofits. Twenty-seven percent said they weren’t sure.
- 28 percent of foundation leaders said they provided no grant money to nonprofits that largely help Pacific Islanders, and another 33 percent allocated less than a quarter of their grant money to those nonprofits. Thirty-five percent said they weren’t sure.
“Since early 2020, some foundations have made greater efforts to address systemic inequities by increasing their funding to nonprofits serving communities of color,” the report states. However, the report adds, some groups of people, “including Asian American and Pacific Islander and Native American communities appear to have been overlooked.”
The reports include anonymous feedback from leaders of nonprofits that mainly serve Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans. Many expressed frustration that foundations lack a deep understanding of the problems facing the people they aid and that their nonprofits have gotten less attention amid the recent equity movement compared with other groups in need.
“A lot of folks believe Asian Americans are all wealthy and we all do so well at school so we don’t need scholarships, we don’t need funding, we don’t need social services,” said one leader of a nonprofit serving Asian American and Pacific Islanders. “I’ve been explicitly told that other communities of color have been priorities and the Asian Pacific Islander community has not.”
And a leader of a nonprofit that assists Native Americans said, “There’s an assumption that we would be able to go to the tribes to get the funds we need, that the tribes are flush with funding, which is not the case.”
