U.S. Foundations Giving to Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities Lag

New Report Shows Key Gaps in Funding for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

San Francisco, Calif., June 21 – The giving trends of the top U.S. foundations to Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities has not kept pace with the growth of these communities or of foundation assets, according to a new report released today by Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP). The report, Growing Opportunities, looks at the country’s top 20 national foundations’ grantmaking between 1990 and 2002 and finds significant funding disparities to AAPI communities in several areas. The report concludes with a call to action to the philanthropy field to reduce these gaps.

Today, at a launch event at the Ford Foundation, AAPIP is discussing the report’s findings with leaders in the field of philanthropy, including Ford Foundation Senior Program Officer Christopher Harris, The Annie E. Casey Foundation Senior Associate Irene Lee, Ms. Foundation President and CEO Sara Gould, Foundation Center Senior Director of Research Steven Lawrence, and Consultant Henry Ramos.

“The time for a significant investment strategy in AAPI communities is now. Our communities must be involved in shaping and impacting the policies and conditions that affect their lives and society as a whole,” says Peggy Saika, president/executive director of AAPIP. “Growing Opportunities invites the philanthropy field to consider the investments that will be necessary to support growing AAPI communities in the 21st century.”

The report shows that even though Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders now comprise 4.5 percent of the U.S. population, 2004 foundation funding to AAPIs represented just 0.4 percent of all U.S. foundation dollars. This funding does not appear to correlate with the significant social and economic challenges that continue to hinder AAPI community progress, including high poverty rates, growing health risks, increased hate-related violence, and major educational achievement gaps in many AAPI populations.

Another key disparity highlighted in the report is that foundation investments to AAPI-led organizations do not appear to have kept pace with Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders’ need for trusted, culturally-competent service providers who speak their languages and have expertise in their communities, particularly during times of national crisis. The report reveals that AAPI-led organizations received significantly smaller grants from the largest foundations than did other organizations serving AAPI communities.

“Growing Opportunities highlights the continued lack of investment by organized philanthropy in AAPI communities and the field’s lack of progress in supporting all communities of color,” concludes Ms. Saika. “We hope that the findings will challenge foundations to initiate funding strategies that address the specific needs of marginalized communities.”

For more information about Growing Opportunities, to download a copy of the report, or to access related materials, visit www.aapip.org. To receive a copy of the report, contact AAPIP at membership_AT_aapip_DOT_org.

Founded in 1990, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) is a national membership and philanthropic advocacy organization dedicated to advancing philanthropy and Asian American/Pacific Islander communities. AAPIP is structured into eight regional chapters across the United States, and members include foundations, staff and trustees of grantmaking institutions, and nonprofit organizations.

Consultation on the Future of SF Chinatown Churches

On Saturday, Jan. 13, 2007, over 45 representatives from several Chinese churches in San Francisco's Chinatown gathered at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco to discuss the future of Chinese churches in Chinatown. The day-long session was facilitated by Rev. Don Ng, the Senior Pastor of First Chinese Baptist Church. This consultation kicked off the public phase of the Bay Area Chinese Congregational project, led by Rev. Dr. James Chuck, and sponsored by ISAAC. In the next several months, Chinese church consultations will be held in the South Bay and East Bay areas.

The consultation notes will be available in the next few weeks. Check back to the ISAAC website for these notes.

Dr. Chuck's presentation can be downloaded here.

Report: Pacific Islanders Lagging Behind in Higher Educational Attainment

For Immediate Release
Melany Dela Cruz-Viesca, melanydATuclaDOTedu
(310) 206-7738

In an economy that increasingly requires a college education to be successful in the labor market, Pacific Islanders have fallen behind and current admissions patterns will perpetuate this problem, according to an analysis conducted by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, the UC Asian American and Pacific Islander Policy Initiative, and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center. The analysis uses data released November 14, 2006 from the 2005 American Community Survey, iterated by race, Hispanic origin, ancestry and age released today by the U.S. Census Bureau, along with previously released data.

Major Findings include:

* Among those 25 years and older, single-race Pacific Islanders are only about half as likely as non-Hispanic whites to have at least a bachelor's degree (15% versus 30%). The gap is even wider when compared to Asians (49% with a bachelor's or more advanced degree).

* Pacific Islander levels of educational attainment (15%) are similar to African Americans, in which 17% have at least a bachelor's or more advanced degree.

* Pacific Islanders in Hawai'i have lower educational attainment than those in the other 49 states.

* Among Pacific Islanders, Samoans, Tongans, and Fijians have the lowest percentages with a college degree.

* Prospects for future educational attainment are bleak. Slightly less than a third (29%) of Pacific Islanders between the ages of 18 and 24 are enrolled in a college or university, a rate comparable to African Americans (29%). In contrast, the college enrollment figures are 39% for non-Hispanic whites and 57% for Asians.

* Public schools are failing to prepare Pacific Islander students for high school and college levels. The lack of culturally-appropriate programs and a hostile educational environment contribute to social alienation and a high dropout rate among Pacific Islander youths.

The full nine-page report, Pacific Islanders Lagging Behind in Higher Educational Attainment, which includes graphs and tables, is available free for viewing and downloading on the web site of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. Please click here to download the report (PDF).

Report: Philippine human rights concerns registered with State Department, embassy

[Episcopal News Service, Nov. 9, 2006] Concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation in the Philippines and the extra-judicial killings which have claimed the lives of journalists, human rights workers and religious activists -- including the recent killing of former Supreme Bishop Alberto Ramento of the Philippine Independent Church -- have been registered, by church officials, with the Philippine Embassy and the State Department in Washington, D.C.

The Rev. Canon Brian Grieves, director of Peace and Justice Ministries, and the Rev. Dr. Fred Vergara, national missioner for Asian American Ministries, represented outgoing Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, and the new Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, while visiting the Philippine Embassy and the State Department November 2-3.

"We told Ambassador Willy Gaa at the Philippine Embassy that we were there as a courtesy to let him know of the deep concern among U.S. denominations over the deplorable number of extra-judicial killings in the Philippines, and that we are supporting our partner churches there as they prepare to document these human rights violations," said Grieves, who will visit partners in Manila in December to coordinate the church's support of their efforts. "The Episcopal Church is fully engaging this issue."

Gaa, who promised to relate the matter to Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, noted that the Philippine Human Rights Report of the ecumenical churches should also be submitted to the Melo Commission of the Philippine Government, which is in charge of investigating the killings.

Jefferts Schori, underlining the church's mission priority framed by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), said that "the advancement of human rights and religious freedom is an integral part of human development. The Episcopal Church will be strongly supportive of the efforts of our ecumenical and concordat partners in the Philippines and Asia in work for human rights, justice, freedom and peace."

Grieves noted that the Episcopal Church (TEC), through the offices of Anglican and Global Relations, Episcopal Asian American Ministries and Peace and Justice Ministries, is jointly funding the Philippine Human Rights project in partnership with the United Methodist Church and other denominations. The documentation and writing of this project will be spearheaded by the National Council of Churches in the Philippines.

During their visit to the State Department, Grieves and Vergara conferred with Scot Marciel, director of Maritime Southeast Asia; Clarissa Adamson, officer for human rights and labor; and Tamara Crouse, foreign affairs officer for Asia.

Grieves and Vergara expressed their anxiety that, in light of the U.S. war on terrorism and concern for Southern Philippines (Mindanao) as a possible haven for terrorists' training, the Bush Administration would turn a blind eye to human rights violations in the Philippines, especially if some sectors of the Philippine military are involved. They were assured by the State Department that the human rights issue is their top priority in the Philippines and Southeast Asia and that they support the sentiments of the churches.

The U.S. State Department also informed Grieves and Vergara that the U.S. Ambassador in Manila, Hon. Kristie Kenney, is gravely concerned about this issue and very direct in expressing her concern to the Philippine government. "We believe it is to the best interest of the Arroyo administration to safeguard human rights and ensure a strong judicial system to bring to justice the perpetrators of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines as a mark of its democracy," Marciel said. "Prosperity in a democracy cannot happen at the expense of human rights, political and religious freedom."

"The spate of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines that included the outspoken human rights advocate, former Supreme Bishop Alberto Ramento, is unacceptable and despicable and we express our hope that the perpetrators of these killings be brought to justice and the killings stop," Vergara said.

Ramento, who was found stabbed to death at his rectory in the Parish of San Sebastian, Tarlac City, on the morning of October 3, had been an outspoken critic of the Philippine government and a leading advocate for peace and human rights in the country. Within days of Ramento's murder, another clergy member of the Philippine Independent Church received a death threat via SMS (Short Message Service) on his cellular phone, the Asian Human Rights Commission reported.

Ramento was a member of the committee that drafted the renewal of the terms of the concordat of full communion between the Episcopal Church and the Philippine Independent Church (PIC), which was signed by Griswold and incumbent PIC Supreme Bishop Godofredo David during the Episcopal Church's 75th General Convention in Columbus, Ohio, in June 2006.

Deploring Ramento's murder in an October 4 statement, David "denounced in the strongest possible terms this barbaric and dastardly act against a man of the cloth within the premises of his own church," and urged the authorities to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation and bring the perpetrators of Ramento's murder to justice.

Ramento's death was the latest in a string of killings of Christian leaders in the Philippines. According to various human rights reports, there have been more than 700 political or extrajudicial killings in the Philippines since President Arroyo took power in 2001. Arroyo's presidency followed the second "people power" movement that unseated former President Joseph Estrada on charges of corruption.

The first "people power revolution" happened in 1985 following the assassination of Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino that brought an end to the martial law regime of President Ferdinand Marcos and catapulted Aquino's widow, Corazon C. Aquino, to presidency and restored the country to democracy. Arroyo won the second term in the last Philippine presidential election in 2004 amidst protests and charges of election fraud.

ENS coverage on the death of Bishop Ramento is available here and here.

Report: Theology of inclusion empowers ethnic communities

[Episcopal News Service, Nov. 6, 2006] The theology of inclusion in the Episcopal Church is drawing in 'unchurched' people from ethnic minorities who have historically been marginalized in American church and society, said the Rev. Dr. Fred Vergara, national missioner for Asian American Ministries of the Episcopal Church.

Speaking at a Book Forum at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia, October 23, Vergara said that many Episcopal dioceses in the country reported welcoming Asian communities receptive to the inclusive trends of the Episcopal Church.

"I think the message they are getting is that if the Church is capable of welcoming and empowering women, gays and lesbians as equal members of the Body of Christ, then it is capable of welcoming and empowering almost everybody," Vergara said. "It is a radical form of hospitality that says, 'you are accepted whoever and whatever you are and you don't need to be like us.' It is a closer approximation of God's unconditional love."

Promoting his book, "Mainstreaming: Asian Americans in the Episcopal Church," Vergara noted that ethnic congregations in the Episcopal Church had historically "suffered from being marginalized." Many dioceses looked upon ethnic congregations as "specialized ministries" rather than an integral part of its life and mission. "There was a lot of paternalism and tokenism in these ministries and many ethnic clergy felt like 'second-rate' ministers, Vergara said.

In history, American churches participated in racial and cultural injustice such as Black slavery, Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese Internment and other forms of racial and cultural prejudices.

"They had not lifted the prophetic voice for the rights of minorities and disadvantaged immigrants whom Jesus would call harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd," Vergara said. "There are still vestiges of racism in the structures of the church that must be dismantled and that can only happen if we 'mainstream' the marginalized, include and empower them in the decision-making bodies of the Church."

Vergara explained that the Episcopal Church is serving as an "avant garde" in radical hospitality and affirmative action toward ethnic missions.

"The election of a woman Presiding Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, who strongly believes in inclusive theology is a great and bold step towards this new 'mainstreaming' in The Episcopal Church, which Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold had also upheld."

Radical hospitality or "mainstreaming" does not mean conformity to the values of the dominant culture but acceptance and learning from each others cultures, Vergara explained.

"The new phenomenon in the Body of Christ is not one of a melting pot where one dominant culture melts the lesser ones in some kind of a stew," he said. "Rather we look at the images of a salad bowl, a patch quilt or a mosaic. There is a lot to learn from each other's cultures and ethnicities. Nature itself, as in the case of flowers and fruits, favors diversity. Church planting is also a natural congregational development."

Vergara reported that during the past two years, ethnic churches have began to blossom in the Episcopal Church. At St. Paul's, Minnesota, more than 600 Hmong immigrants have joined Holy Apostles' Parish and revitalized its multicultural ministry; in Hacienda Heights, Los Angeles, a Taiwanese congregation is growing in the context of a multi-ethnic parish of St. Thomas; in Nashville, Tennessee, a former Korean Pentecostal congregation has become an Episcopal parish; in Las Vegas, Nevada, a Filipino congregation is rapidly growing; and in Queens, New York various Asian and pan-Asian churches are thriving.

In October, Vergara met with Filipino, Vietnamese and Chinese communities in Maryland and Virginia "and all of them are excited to be part of The Episcopal Church," he said. "In Sacramento both the outgoing and incoming bishops of Northern California jointly planned to develop two Filipino ministries in partnership with its neighboring Diocese of El Camino Real. I say that the future of The Episcopal Church in Church planting and Church Growth has to do with 'mainstreaming the formerly marginalized.'"

Vergara noted that the mainstreaming in dioceses has risen to the national level. In the preface of his book, which was published prior to General Convention in June 2006, he wrote that there was only one Asian member in the Episcopal Church's Executive Council and hardly any Asian member in the national commissions, committees, agencies and boards (CCABs). "Now I am glad to report that there are four Asian members of the Executive Council and ten Asians in the CCABs," he said.

"I firmly believe we will continue to see the results of this 'mainstreaming' in the flowering of Asian, Black, Latino and Native American ministries along with the growth of women, youth, gay and all ministries which were once marginalized," he said. "I am glad that recent events indicate that the Church is recovering its role as a leader and advocate for justice, equality and harmony in society."