Asian Community Fund announces $275,000 in grants to nonprofits serving AAPI communities

Boston – The Asian Community Fund at the Boston Foundation today announced its largest to-date grants docket, awarding $275,000 in funds to 39 nonprofits led by and serving Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities across Massachusetts. The 2023 grants program sought out organizations that are working to advance AAPI community empowerment and belonging, particularly in response to rising anti-Asian racism and the systemic inequities magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“On behalf of the Asian Community Fund and its advisory committee, we are honored to partner with this group of organizations that provide critical support to the full spectrum of AAPI people in Greater Boston and beyond,” said Danielle Kim, Executive Director of the Asian Community Fund. “While each of these nonprofits serves unique roles, communities and geographies, they provide a common thread of advancing AAPI visibility, empowerment, and collective power across our region.”

With its grantmaking, ACF strives to catalyze new partnerships, expand the capacity of the local AAPI nonprofit and business sectors, and respond to emerging community needs. ACF aims to ensure representation across AAPI ethnicities and geographies in Massachusetts, and uplift historically marginalized populations within the AAPI community. Toward those ends, the Fund is pleased to share that more than half (56%) of all grant partners are organizations with annual budgets under $100,000, and 38 percent have never received a grant from the Boston Foundation before.

“This process was a reminder of the grassroots vitality of AAPI community organizations in cities and towns across the state,” said Paul Lee, co-founder of the Asian Community Fund and chair of its Advisory Committee. “Where we as a society have fallen short has been not about the work, but rather our own outdated and misplaced assumptions about Asian communities and their needs. We are hopeful and proud to be at the forefront of changing perceptions, at a time when philanthropy is just beginning to recognize the chronic underinvestment in AAPI-led and -serving organizations and address it.”

All grants in this cycle are for general operating support, giving the organizations maximum flexibility.