Asian Pacific Community Fund (APCF)

The Asian Pacific Community Fund wrote a letter to the board of supervisors of Los Angeles County, California, calling for more diversity and equity amongst county staff. The organization stated in the letter that it “considers the equity and diversity of the County of Los Angeles’ employees to be a high priority,” and asked the board of supervisors to “continue to develop and retain the talent within County staff that supports the AAPI community.” ³

Background

The Asian Pacific Community Fund, also known as the Asian Pacific Community Fund of Southern California, is a network of organizations that provides funding to Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) groups across the ten counties in Southern California. The ACPF began with 12 nonprofits but now has 80 nonprofit organizations in its network. ¹

The APCF has established employee giving campaigns at federal, state, county, and city agencies; private companies; and nonprofit organizations. The APCF also provides grants, donor-advised funding, scholarship funds, and giving circles. The organization has awarded more than 333 grants and has distributed approximately $2.6 million as of June 2026. ¹

The APCF provides $5,000 to $15,000 grants to nonprofit organizations every year. The APCF provided grants to the Chinese American Museum Los Angeles, the YouStar Foundation, Mercy Health, and Faith and Community Empowerment in 2025. ²

The APCF was the administrator of the API COVID-19 Recovery Fund, which was supported by the Asian Pacific Fund, a San Francisco-based grantmaking organization that supports left-of-center causes, and the James Irvine Foundation, a California private foundation with a history of left-of-center grantmaking. ^{2 4 5}

The APCF also hosts a bi-annual “Meet the Funders” event at which a panel of funding organizations discuss funding priorities. Organizations that attend are also able to have one-on-one meetings with the funders, which include the Tides Foundation, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, and the California Community Foundation. ⁶

The organization also holds workshops on topics such as public speaking, fundraising, and marketing. According to its website, as of June 2026, the APCF has held 70 workshops in which 484 nonprofit organizations participated. ⁷

Diversity and Equity

The Asian Pacific Community Fund wrote a letter to the board of supervisors of Los Angeles County, California, calling for more diversity and equity amongst county staff. The letter, dated March 15, 2024, referred to data from the County of Los Angeles Workforce Demographics website from February 2023, which stated that eight percent of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) managers were executive managers, “despite AAPI constituting 19% of the County workforce and 17% of the population.” ³

The APCF stated in the letter that it “considers the equity and diversity of the County of Los Angeles’ employees to be a high priority,” and asked the board of supervisors to “continue to develop and retain the talent within County staff that supports the AAPI community.” ³

People

Chun-Yen Chen is the executive director of the Asian Pacific Community Fund. She was a senior budget examiner in the New York State Government and received the “Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month – Women’s Issue Award” from U.S. Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA). She was also a community development officer at First General Bank from 2013 to 2017, and was an appointed recreation commissioner for the city of San Marino, California, from 2007 until 2022. ^{8 9}