A little digest for your week’s reading and listening pleasure – let us know what you think and what you’re reading!
- Read this interview at Asian American Giving with Meghna Shah, formerly with Rockefeller Professional Advisors, on diversity and foundation grantmaking.
- Listen to “Real Talk about Race and its Impact on Social Justice Philanthropy,” a BlogTalk Radio feature with fellow Women Rule! participant Rosetta Thurman and other folks that we at SAPP love to hear from – like Rusty Stahl of EPIP.
- Check out this feature in the Chronicle of Philanthropy on cultural difference and major gifts in India and North America, with insights from Canadian fundraising consultant Tony Myers.
- And finally, take a look at this two-part series on Bangladeshi-American diaspora giving, also at Asian American Giving.
Some of you may remember a Special Feature we did a few months ago on why diversity in grantmaking is important. We’re extremely proud that this post was picked up by the Council on Foundations’ Thought>Action>Impact yesterday. Our post was featured among commentary from other illustrious bloggers and organizational representatives, including Funders for LGBTQ Issues, New Voices of Philanthropy, and the Women’s Funding Network.
Check out the conversation – I think you’ll find it fascinating to see why people from so many different backgrounds believe it’s important for foundations to think about diversity in grantmaking.
Reading Venu’s post below brought up a few thoughts/questions for me. Difficulty in engaging South Asian Americans to contribute monetarily is frustrating because many have the financial means to do so. For instance, much of the literature on South Asian giving practices has shown that the average income of South Asians is much higher than the national average. This makes me wonder if South Asians in the U.S. feel like their needs and interests are already being represented at the policy level. Technically many South Asian’s have white collar jobs that include health care and retirement planning benefits. So, what is going to motivate us?
I had no good answer to this question so I asked my mother what she thought would be the benefit of having an elected official that was South Asian. Her first response was “we can declare a holiday for Deepavalli!” Admittedly, it would be fun to get a day off to set off fireworks and eat good food! As our conversation continued my mom revealed that for her, it was an issue of pride. She felt that the 1st generation of immigrants had worked so hard to establish themselves and having a South Asian public official would be a representation of that experience. The conversation with my mom got me thinking about what it means to be American. I realized that for me having a South Asian public official would work to broaden public notions of what “American” looked like. It would represent the losses, struggles, and joys of South Asian immigration.
So, what would it represent for you?
Two days ago, Roll Call (a publication that writes about the people, politics, process and policy on Capitol Hill) published a story entitled “Indian-Americans Priming the Pump,” about the deluge of Indian political candidates and the corresponding deluge of political contribution requests being made to the Indian/Indian-American communities across the country. The article suggests that the Indian American community is rising to the challenge, and “Uncles and Aunties” are better and better understanding the need to “have one of their own at the table.”
I generally agree that South Asian Americans increasingly are willing to donate to political campaigns. But the article makes it sound easy, and it’s still not. My husband (Sendhil) and I are supporting an Indian American candidate for Illinois Comptroller – Raja Krishnamoorthi. In addition to committing our own financial resources and serving on Raja’s Asian American Advisory Committee, we have held informal friend-raisers and fundraisers and plan to hold more. It may be easier than it was, but it still is very, very hard work to convince South Asian folks (even my friends) to give to political campaigns. (By the way, it’s even more difficult to get South Asians to give philanthropically.)
To be fair, it may be that it’s difficult to get anybody to give to political campaigns (especially in Illinois for reasons having to do with an ex-Governor) or that I’m not an effective fundraiser. Even if true, this experience is shared by others I know who attempt to raise funds from the South Asian community. I’m not saying we haven’t come far, but the lack of Indians successfully elected to public office suggests that we haven’t come far enough.
There is a very lively conversation taking place at Sepia Mutiny about the Roll Call article. The comments suggest some tension about giving as a general principle as well as between giving to political campaigns versus giving to charitable causes. It’s good that we’re hashing this out. We, as a minority community within the United States, need to talk more often and more openly about our giving, political or otherwise.
Wishing everyone a happy diwali and a prosperous New year!
- Archana, Venu, Ramya, and Priyanka
southasianphilanthropy@gmail.com
President Obama Lights White House Diya
President Barack Obama is re-creating a federal panel to address concerns of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders and to work on improving their health, education and economic status. The panel was created during the Clinton administration. But it expired during George W. Bush’s presidency and was not reauthorized. The full text of his speech can be found here. Not surprisingly, many website and blogs are covering the event. Coverage can be found on Sepia Mutiny here, on SAALT here, and on the SAJAForum here.
President Obama also took the occassion of the announcement to observe Diwali, or the “Festival of Lights,” a holiday celebrated across faiths in India. He even lighted a diya and invited Penn Masala and Dj Rekha to perform! Considering I haven’t even lit a diya in my house yet (and frankly probably wouldn’t have thought to do so without the nudge from the President), I think the announcement highlights the importance the Obama administration puts on AAPI communities both in the United States and abroad.
As always, our focus here is philanthropy. My hope is that the re-creation of the AAPI federal panel will inspire South Asian Americans to get more involved in their communities, especially philanthropically. What do you think of the White House announcement and celebration?
I just read this recent article from the Times of India about the dropoff in philanthropy among India’s major industrialists for large-scale national infrastructure projects. Among many interesting points, three stuck out for me:
- Individual philanthropists in India generally channel their giving through their corporations because of the red tape associated with individual giving and a wish to be anonymous (surely motivated in part by corruption and extortion).
- There has been a move from national or large-scale projects to more narrowly focused and localized programs like water harvesting and microfinance in particular regions of India.
- The notion that charities should be run on a shoestring budget pervades in India, just like it has here in North America. We’ve talked before about the importance of overhead/operating funds for nonprofits to build capacity.
We’re written here before about philanthropy in India because there are connections to North America in our globalized world – for example, take a look back at our posts about Jindal Global University and Ratan Tata’s gift to Cornell.
(Hat tip to Rahul!)
We haven’t run a post in our “Apply for this!” series in awhile. Luckily, this week Dien at Asian American Giving brings us some links to funding and jobs – South Asians encouraged to apply!
First, the Asian Giving Circle in Chicago. (*Venu is a new member of this Circle and will be writing about her experiences here soon!):
The Asian Giving Circle is pleased to announce that it is accepting proposals from metropolitan Chicago area nonprofit organizations serving the Asian American community for its seventh year of grantmaking. Funding for 2010 will support projects focused on increasing organizational capacity for fundraising. The Asian Giving Circle will award grants ranging from $2,000 to $7,000 with awards made in May 2010. The deadline for submitting applications is October 30, 2009.
And next, a bunch of new jobs you should apply for:
- Managing Director, Global Philanthropy, Council on Foundations (DC area)
- Constituency Services Manager, Council on Foundations (DC area)
- Director, International Philanthropy Services for NGO Repository, TechSoup Global (San Francisco)
- Senior Philanthropic Advisor, NY at Tides (New York)
- Executive Director, APA Family Support Services (San Francisco)
Last Saturday, October 3rd, the Indiana University the Delta Phi Omega Sorority, Inc. hosted the event, “National Gandhi Day of Service: Be the Change 2009” in celebration of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday.
The birth of Gandhi is commonly known as Gandhi Jayanti or Gandhi Day. Mahatma Gandhi was a very simple man and held very high values. He believed in non-violence and was instrumental in getting India its independence from British rule in 1947.
“Be the Change is the annual national day of service coordinated by South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) to inspire and foster civic engagement through volunteerism and community service. Every year, thousands of volunteers participate in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi’s famous quote: ‘ You must be the change you wish to see in the world.’ Be the Change 2009 was Saturday, October 3rd in cities and campuses nationwide under the theme, ‘Giving in Action’.” (SAALT, 2009)
Over 75 students (both South Asians and non south Asians) gathered on Indiana University’s beautiful campus and were sent to different charitable organizations in Bloomington, Indiana. These organizations included the Red Cross, Salvation Army, the Shalom House, Middle Way House, and Parks & Recreation.
This is yet another very innovative and meaningful way for Asian students in universities to get involved with philanthropy and volunteer opportunities. After all, what better way can there be to pay respect to “Bapu.”
“This experience was a wonderful opportunity for all of the students and was definitely something new for Indiana University. I hope this event will encourage more students to engage in philanthropic giving and inspire students to regularly take part in volunteering opportunities like this. “ – Nishi Patel, Service Chair of Delta Phi Omega Sorority, Inc. Indiana University.
The Harvard Business Review reports on some MAJOR changes in grantmaking policy by the Boston Foundation. The most striking – and in my opinion, most important – is that the Boston Foundation will focus on giving unrestricted operating support to nonprofits. In other words, their grants can be used for “overhead” – the cost of keeping the lights on” as they say – rent, staffing, administrative costs, supplies, etc.
When I was a grants officer at Interplast, I was always struck by how resistant foundations are to giving any amount to overhead – even if it was allocating a percentage – say 10% – of a program grant towards it. If all foundations protest in giving general operating support, and more and more individual donors follow their lead because of the message that sends – then more and more money goes toward specific programs with no money for the home of those programs. All this created a great deal of anxiety about how we would fund the things that kept us going – an outstanding fundraising team, for example. With a $700 million endowment, Boston Foundation’s commitment is surely going to affect the way that other major foundations do grantmaking.
Their decision should make all of us, even individual donors, stop and think about our own giving. Do you usually give just to restricted purposes or specific programs? Or do you just write a check to an organization and let them decide how to use it? Do you do both, depending on the situation? How do you feel about nonprofits receiving unrestricted support for administrative needs?
