A new foundation formed by prominent Asian-American business leaders announced on Monday a US$250 million initiative to fund work on a range of problems affecting the community including a rise in violence and harassment tied to the coronavirus pandemic.
Chaired by Li Lu, founder of hedge fund Himalaya Capital, the TAAF board includes billionaires Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo, and Joseph Tsai, co-founder of Alibaba Group Holding, among other executives. Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post. “Together, we can take action against hate and violence, and build the infrastructure needed to promote AAPI’s advocacy, power, and representation in every facet of American society.”
Stop AAPI Hate, a project launched last year to keep track of physical and verbal attacks against Asians, as well as cases of shunning and civil rights violations, documented 3,795 racially motivated incidents from last March, when coronavirus cases began to spike in the US, to February this year. Stop AAPI Hate is one of TAAF’s beneficiaries, having received US$1 million already, according to the foundation’s announcement.
“Historically, AAPI communities have received less than 0.5 per cent of charitable giving from foundations,” said TAAF, which vowed to “address this severe underinvestment by offering funding and resources to the ecosystem of advocates and organizations committed to AAPI causes”. The organisation’s board includes Joseph Bae, co-president of private equity firm KKR & Co; Peng Zhao, CEO of market maker Citadel Securities; Sheila Lirio Marcelo, founder of Care.com; and Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League.