Reflections on 5 Years of The Asian American Foundation

What was the driving force behind the founding of TAAF five years ago?

The surge in anti-Asian hate during COVID was a wake-up call for our community and for the country. It exposed not only urgent safety concerns, but also the deeper challenges facing AAPIs around belonging, representation, and long-term investment in our communities.

TAAF’s Founders came together with a broader vision: to build a national organization that could unite the AAPI community across cultures, sectors, and geographies, while also helping the country better understand the role AAPIs play in America’s future.

In the early years, our work focused heavily on anti-hate, data and research, and education. Over the past five years, that work has expanded into a much broader effort to advance safety, belonging, and prosperity for AAPI communities nationwide.

What did you hope TAAF could achieve for the AAPI community?

Our Founders identified two fundamental challenges facing the AAPI community: a high level of fragmentation and a historic lack of investment and infrastructure.

We set out to build TAAF as a leading national organization that could bring together AAPIs while also unlocking greater philanthropic and institutional investment into our communities.

From the beginning, our vision was not simply to respond to a moment, but to help build the long-term infrastructure, leadership, and resources needed for future generations of AAPIs to thrive. That’s what led to initiatives like our $1B Giving Challenge and our broader efforts to strengthen philanthropy and investment in AAPI causes.

What are some TAAF initiatives that you’ve been most proud of?

Over the past five years, I’m proud that we’ve helped establish TAAF as one of the leading investors, innovators, and conveners for the AAPI community. We’ve built trusted relationships and partnerships with other AAPI leaders in the nonprofit, corporate, media and government sectors to achieve significant progress.

In addition to our incredible convenings, such as our annual TAAF Summit & Awards Gala, the achievements I’m most proud of include:

• Investing more than $40M in AAPI community organizations, including our TAAF National Safety Network partners, which provides safety and other services to more than 200,000 community members in 14 metropolitan areas around the country.
• Launching our TAAF Cities strategy—including our Safety Ambassador program in Seattle, TALA career and leadership development in SF and NYC, and our $5.5M Elevating Small Businesses platform in NYC—all in the past 12 months.
• Promoting AAPI history nationwide via legislation, curriculum development, and teacher training in more than 10 states and sharing our 300+ classroom-ready lesson plans via AAPIHistoryHub.org.
• Investing in AAPI storytelling through our CAPE x TAAF Rising Filmmakers Finishing Fund, Heritage Heroes series, and partnerships with Sundance, HIFF, CAAM, and Rideback RISE.
• Producing proprietary research like our STAATUS Index to better understand the experiences and perceptions of AAPIs in America.
• Launching our Asian+American campaign to celebrate our full identities without limits or compromise.

‍What challenges have you encountered in building a national organization for AAPIs, and what have you learned?

The AAPI community is incredibly diverse, and one of the challenges — but also one of the greatest opportunities — is building an organization that reflects and serves that complexity.

That means listening carefully and making sure we are creating space for a wide range of perspectives and experiences, including nonprofit and corporate leaders, immigrant and American-born communities, East Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, Filipino, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities, and people across the political spectrum.

We have learned how we are able to build power by coming together around shared goals and shared investments in our future. Ultimately, we achieve the largest impact when we work together on behalf of our community.

One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned is that while our communities may come from different histories and backgrounds, we share many values and experiences in the U.S. We have learned how we are able to build power by coming together around shared goals and shared investments in our future. Ultimately, we achieve the largest impact when we work together on behalf of our community.

‍Where do you see TAAF going in the next five years?

Over the next five years, TAAF will expand in three major areas – innovative programming, community visibility, and philanthropy leadership:

• With community partners, TAAF will continue to leverage its venture philanthropy model to pilot and scale innovative solutions to address the most serious challenges for AAPI communities both in TAAF Cities and nationally.
• In addition to our innovative programming, TAAF will increasingly raise its visibility not only among leaders but also with the broader AAPI community via traditional and digital media, convenings, and other events.
• In philanthropy, TAAF will bring together leading AAPI families and foundations to learn and collaborate to provide increased funding to support our community.

Looking ahead, I’m very excited about the opportunity for TAAF to continue building a stronger, safer, and more prosperous future for our communities and our country.

You can read more about TAAF's initiatives in our 2025 Impact Report.