Rising Voices Fund is an educational nonprofit that works with its affiliated advocacy organization Rising Voices to organize Asian-Americans in Michigan to advance left-of-center policy priorities and social causes. ¹

Rising Voices Fund was launched as a project of the Tides Foundation and is now a project of the Center for Empowered Politics Fund, a charitable affiliate of the advocacy organization Center for Empowered Politics and the San Francisco-based Chinese Progressive Association, a left-wing community organizing group that has been criticized for aligning with the government of the People’s Republic of China. ^{2 3 4}

History and Leadership

Rising Voices Fund is a left-of-center advocacy organization that focuses on organizing Asian-American women in Michigan, which it defines as including “cis, trans, Gender Non-Conforming and femme-identifying” people. It was founded in 2019 as Rising Voices of Asian American Families. ⁵

Its programs attempt to grow the political power of the Asian-American community in Michigan, which in the 2020 Census made up 4.1% of the state’s population and in 2022 was identified by the state’s demographer as Michigan’s fifth-largest racial/ethnic group, after White, Black, Hispanic/Latino, and multiracial. ^{6 7 8}

Rising Voices Fund was created in 2021 when the Rising Voices of Asian American Families combined with the Michigan Asian American Progressives advocacy organization. ^{9 10} The new Rising Voices Fund 501(c)(3) charitable organization and Rising Voices 501(c)(4) advocacy organization became projects of the Tides Foundation and Tides Advocacy, respectively. Rising Voices of Asian American Families was formally dissolved in January 2022. ¹¹

In 2023, Rising Voices Fund became fiscally sponsored by the Center for Empowered Politics Fund, which is the 501(c)(3) affiliate of the San Francisco-based Chinese Progressive Association, a left-wing community organizing group that has been accused of aligning with the government of the People’s Republic of China and has received favorable coverage from the state-affiliated China Daily newspaper. ^{12 13 14} Rising Voices became a fiscally sponsored project of the 501(c)(4) Center for Empowered Politics at the same time. ¹⁵

The co-executive directors of Rising Voices Fund are Regina Tsang and Jasmine Rivera. ¹⁶ As of April 2024, founding executive director Laura Misumi, who left that role in 2022, was general counsel at Resilient Strategies, an outsourced nonprofit management company that provides infrastructure for progressive political and activist organizations and is partly controlled by Rising Voices Fund’s fiscal sponsor, the Center for Empowered Politics Education Fund. ^{17 18 19}

Advocacy

In addition to traditional left-of-center topics such as government-provided taxpayer-funded health care and increased spending on government-operated K-12 schools, Rising Voices Fund also promotes radical left-wing social policies such as “the abolition of all prisons and all policing systems that only punish and incarcerate”; “dismantling of systems of oppression, including but not limited to white supremacy, colonialism, imperialism, anti-Blackness, ableism, and the heteropatriarchy”; and opposition to “the prioritization of written history and formal education from western perspectives.” ²⁰

It also promotes the mandatory inclusion of Asian and Asian-American history in K-12 curricula as well as increased funding for English -language education for native speakers of Asian languages.

Rising Voices Fund operates a youth fellowship program that uses an “anti-racist and anti-oppression curriculum” to train young Asian-Americans as community organizers. ^{21 22} It also operates an Asian Pacific Islander American Labor Alliance Fellowship in partnership with the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO (APALA). ²³

In the 2020 election, Rising Voices of Asian American Families created multilingual voter registration and education materials for Bangladeshi and Chinese speakers, as well as digital ads in Arabic, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Korean, Bengali, Khmer, Cantonese, Hmong, Mandarin, and Spanish. ²⁴

1. “Home.” Rising Voices. Accessed April 1, 2024. https://www.risingvoicesaaf.org/.
2. “Our Work.” Rising Voices. Accessed April 1, 2024. https://www.risingvoicesaaf.org/copy-of-about.
3. Gonzalez, Mike. “Fact-Checking New York Times Fact-Checker on BLM’s China Links.” The Daily Signal. Heritage Foundation, September 23, 2020. https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/09/21/fact-checking-new-york-times-fact-checker-on-blms-china-links/
4. Zhu, Lia. “Growing Global Support for US Protests over Killing by Police.” China Daily, June 8, 2020. http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202006/08/WS5edd7ef0a3108348172515cc_1.html.
5. “Home.” Rising Voices. Accessed April 1, 2024. https://www.risingvoicesaaf.org/.
6. Wong, Eddie. “Building a Pan-Asian Community and Multiracial Solidarity in Michigan: Interview with Jungsoo Ahn and Regina Tsang of Rising Voices.” East Wind, October 9, 2022. https://eastwindezine.com/building-a-pan-asian-community-and-multiracial-solidarity-in-michigan-interview-with-jungsoo-ahn-and-regina-tsang-of-rising-voices/.
7. Butler, Jaclyn. “Michigan Demographic Trends.” Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget, December 5, 2022. https://ippsr.msu.edu/sites/default/files/LLP/22/MI_Demographic_Trends.pdf.
8. “Michigan’s Population Topped 10 Million in 2020.” Census.gov, July 17, 2023. https://www.census.gov/library/stories/state-by-state/michigan-population-change-between-census-decade.html.
9. “Rising Voices 2021 Annual Report.” Rising Voices, 2022. https://www.risingvoicesaaf.org/annual-report.
10. “We’re Rebranding and Moving!Rising Voices Is a 501(c)(4) Organization Focusing on Civic Engagement and Organizing for AAPI Women and Families in the State of Michigan.Join US: Facebook and Twitter Accounts @risingvoicesaafwebsite Https://T.Co/5wl8wozom5ig @risingvoices_aaf Pic.Twitter.Com/Eveoarekho.” Michigan Asian American Progressives, April 27, 2021. https://twitter.com/MichiganAAPs/status/1387115005137534978.
11. “State of Michigan Nonprofit Corporation Search: Rising Voices of Asian American Families .” State of Michigan Corporations Division, January 2022. https://cofs.lara.state.mi.us/CorpWeb/CorpSearch/CorpSummary.aspx?token=nBxILn58HwVtv4JMRDwTmwBsdSF1F1x6AfvNR1uxy811699bs5NKBLztVOcdYUBcBQnv3NrrAci1Bd%2F75MdnVJpudN73ufesiPK%2FJNMjXOWiJQ4I8E9SFQ0cQqVmsUfIveSE%2FrGtus2BuZl7uURN0ElSsAxahIuoS2AvcjnyOFo6oxr4WZNmnv3BNbd38suikCR5fUnqXIH4lY%2BBo46VoLYCtUlgaYSE4Ur3aN6J3%2BpVBQZ20ajNuEaGvl76TdiLjKDKRkwk24gpZiqt0zV3jViQhpMFC0aEEagLbvyPr2kxsa2E%2B8AS%2Fy2Q4Fi6QhEziL7TL9VcrQvTdcmBcNNI%2BABio%2Bv2PBFi.
12. “Our Work.” Rising Voices. Accessed April 1, 2024. https://www.risingvoicesaaf.org/copy-of-about.
13. Gonzalez, Mike. “Fact-Checking New York Times Fact-Checker on BLM’s China Links.” The Daily Signal. Heritage Foundation, September 23, 2020. https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/09/21/fact-checking-new-york-times-fact-checker-on-blms-china-links/
14. Zhu, Lia. “Growing Global Support for US Protests over Killing by Police.” China Daily, June 8, 2020. http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202006/08/WS5edd7ef0a3108348172515cc_1.html.
15. “Our Work.” Rising Voices. Accessed April 1, 2024. https://www.risingvoicesaaf.org/copy-of-about.
16. Tsang, Regina. Regina Tsang: LinkedIn profile, 2020. https://www.linkedin.com/in/regina-tsang-438ab022b.
17. Misumi, Laura. “Laura Misumi – General Counsel – Resilient Strategies LLC | Linkedin.” LinkedIn. Accessed April 1, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/lmisumi/.
18. “About Us.” Resilient Strategies LLC. Accessed April 1,2024. https://www.resilientstrategiesllc.com/
19. “Center for Empowered Politics Education Fund, Full Filing.” ProPublica, November 15, 2023. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/843636499/202313199349306801/full.
20.  “Rising Voices 2021 Annual Report.” Rising Voices, 2022. https://www.risingvoicesaaf.org/annual-report.
21. “Rising Voices 2021 Annual Report.” Rising Voices, 2022. https://www.risingvoicesaaf.org/annual-report.
22. “Youth Fellowship.” Rising Voices. Accessed April 1, 2024. https://www.risingvoicesaaf.org/youthfellowship.
23. “Rising Voices 2021 Annual Report.” Rising Voices, 2022. https://www.risingvoicesaaf.org/annual-report.
24. Lander, Daniel. “Rising Voices of Asian American Families Experiments with In-Language Digital Organizing.” Medium, February 10, 2021. https://medium.com/the-cooperative-impact-lab/rising-voices-of-asian-american-families-experiments-with-in-language-digital-organizing-812de35c6cd7.