Unexpected donations have streamed in to nonprofits that support Asian Americans and Asian Pacific Islanders in Minnesota, reflecting a nationwide trend in the wake of numerous anti-Asian incidents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the past three weeks alone, corporations and donors have given $40,000 to the Coalition of Asian American Leaders in St. Paul. Another St. Paul nonprofit, the Hmong American Partnership, has drawn a record $3,200 from individuals.
The support follows the attack last month in Atlanta where a white gunman shot and killed six women of Asian descent and two white people. About $26 million has been pledged for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) groups or causes nationally, according to the Associated Press — up from less than $600,000 committed this year before the incidents.
But because philanthropic funding has long lagged for AAPI communities — as it has for all communities of color — Bo Thao-Urabe worries it's just one-time emergency aid.
"We're glad for the support ... [but] there is a lot more that could be done," said Thao-Urabe, executive director of the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL). "I am hopeful … that it is the beginning of recognition that this community also deserves support."
AAPI communities make up about 7% of the population of the United States, but AAPI groups received only 0.2% of all foundation funding in 2018, according to a new report by Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy.
In Minnesota, $23 million was distributed to AAPI groups between 2014 and 2018, according to the report. However, Thao-Urabe said most of that money went to universities, churches or major organizations, not small cultural nonprofits — perhaps partly because of the "model minority myth," a stereotype that sees Asian Americans as successful and without need of economic assistance.
"I think philanthropy is waking up to the issue," said Mai Moua, interim chief operating officer at the Hmong American Partnership. The model minority myth, she said, "really does create even more disparities for us, because people don't think that the community needs support or resources."