How AAPN is Creating National Political Infrastructure for the Asian American Community
Photo: Nadia Nisha Belkin, Executive Director of the Asian American Power Network
Nadia Nisha Belkin is the Executive Director of the Asian American Power Network (AAPN), a growing alliance of 10 state-based, 501(c)(4) organizations that are building political and electoral power within Asian American communities across the country to help to create a reflective democracy grounded in racial, economic, gender, and environmental justice. Together, these organizations are creating first-of-its-kind 501(c)(4) coalition infrastructure in many battleground states where such infrastructure has never existed before, and bringing decades of combined organizing experience to engage Asian American voters year-round at both the state and local levels.
WDN Action is proud to be an early funder of Asian American Power Network. We had the chance to talk to Nadia further about what AAPN is doing differently.
The Asian American Power Network (AAPN) is a relatively new organization and you just took the helm as Executive Director. Tell us about this moment and your vision for the future.
With the Asian American Power Network, we're creating something that's never been done before in the 501(c)(4) space. It’s a new vision in service of cultivating and harnessing the Asian American vote. Right now, the Asian American community has taken on a new presence in America, partly because of the diversity of the current administration as well as the release of 2021 census data, which shows that Asian American Pacific Islanders or AAPIs are the fastest-growing racial and ethnic group in the country. The white supremacist-driven Asian American hate crimes seen in Georgia and across the country due to the racialization of the COVID-19 pandemic have also opened people’s eyes to some of the Asian American experience in the US.
The Asian American Power Network is here to engage the community in a culturally competent way that both builds our power as Asian American people and unpacks what it means to be Asian American within our communities at a granular level.
How are you building power for AAPI communities?
AAPI is a census designation, so while it holds relevance to our communities, it’s also an institutionalized term. It's our goal as the cultures and communities that make up the AAPI community, to advocate for culturally competent voter programs, messaging, and language that will help mobilize us as a powerful voting bloc. At the same time, we need to unpack the layers of what it means to be AAPI within our communities. As an example, while our current focus is on Asian Americans nationally, we know we’ll need to deepen our work with Pacific Islander organizations.
Building power within AAPI communities is about empowering a group of voters who have not been traditionally sought out or engaged through campaigns or base-building efforts. This means being in community 365 days a year to help our communities understand the power of their voice and their vote. This looks like talking to voters at the start of their legislative session, educating around key issues and candidates up and down the ballot, providing information about how and where they can vote, and doing it in languages spoken by the communities and through culturally relevant touchpoints that actually make the voter feel seen, valued and engaged.
Our anchor organizations, ten organizations across nine states, are the ones on the ground making this happen and we have seen their efforts succeed. To share a specific example, one of our anchor organizations, the Asian American Advocacy Fund, sent out in-language pieces targeting first-time voters during the 2020 election cycle. Some of my community members received them and said that, for them, to receive voter information in Hindi and Urdu was incredible; they felt more willing to open the piece of mail and read it through than they ever had before. These are the kinds of gaps we’re responding to and the kind of community-specific support we’re building.
What is the value of having a network like AAPN?
Our anchor organizations have acknowledged that they are often the only 501(c)(4) Asian American groups at the table in electoral organizing spaces, which is challenging given the magnitude of the work that still needs to be done. Our anchor organizations have been working on the ground to develop progressive Asian American power, and we want to scale that work and cultivate, convene, and develop progressive Asian American power across the country. AAPN is designed to help eliminate working in silos and foster collective knowledge sharing and an aligned strategy for power building within and across the community.
AAPN is committed to:
Scaling grassroots Asian American electoral organizing with an eye towards base and power building and supporting the growth of long-term infrastructure.
Developing the agenda for Asian American-specific research, analysis, and polling, including voter data, models, and tactical testing that is crucial to day-to-day work on the ground.
Developing and investing in leadership pathways and training programs.
Allocating and raising the necessary resources to execute our national and state-specific strategies. Regranting to our anchor organizations to support the coordination and implementation of federal and state electoral and legislative programs.
Photo: Asian American Power Network’s anchor organizations
Why is it important to invest early in 501(c)(4) infrastructure and base-building?
Having the 501(c)(4) tax designation means that we can be more specific about who we talk to, the types of questions that we ask, and the way that we talk about candidates, issues, and elections. Investing in 501(c)(4)s early means that we can invest in targeted projects like research and data refinement, which will help us better understand our communities.
Unfortunately, there isn't much research available about Asian American voters, and the research that’s been done hasn’t had large enough sample sizes to allow us to draw meaningful conclusions and fully understand what matters to the Asian American community. 501(c)(4) dollars can help do that work, which directly ties to our ability to implement electoral programming later on. If we know how to talk to you as a voter, if we know about the issues and the values that move you early on, we can engage in that conversation tomorrow as opposed to waiting until right before the election. Early money, for us, also gives us the ability to harvest, cultivate, and foster a pipeline for Asian American campaign practitioners instead of outsourcing that work to vendors.
Early investment is more impactful than investment closer to the election cycle because it gives us the time and resources to implement, refine, and perfect a really strong program.
What do you have to say to donors and anyone else who might be reading this interview about how they can help the Asian American Power Network accomplish your mission?
Prioritize investing in on-the-ground organizations doing this work. They are the organizations that have their finger on the pulse of the work and can identify the culturally specific needs, challenges, and successes associated with Asian American power building. AAPN is set up to elevate those on-the-ground voices, their needs, and the strategy required to properly execute our power building strategy.
I would also say, be curious. Talk to us, me, AAPN, and our anchor organizations. There are nuances in what building Asian American power looks like, be hungry to understand things like how the qualitative and quantitative interact in our work, what it means to talk about the AAPI monolith, but also to leave room for flexibility and respect to talk about the Asian American community as their sole identities or by regions and cultures. There’s a lot of innovation happening and infrastructure that needs to be built for long-term power building and electoral success; there's ample opportunity for growth and support.
Early investing is also incredibly meaningful to our success. The fact that there are projects that we can and should invest in now that will have positive, power-building implications for the next cycles – 2022, 2024, 2026, and beyond – should inspire and excite us.
Support AAPI Power-Building
Support the Asian American Power Network. With the 2022 and 2024 elections underway, now is the time to invest in 501(c)(4) base-building and help AAPN meet their 2022 goals. Please email Nadia Belkin at info@aapowernetwork.org for details.
Fund AAPI-led organizations. According to a report from Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, only 20% of foundation giving between 2009-2018 went to supporting AAPI communities. Trailblazers like New Breath Foundation seek to disrupt this cycle by channeling funds directly to AAPI immigrants, refugees, people impacted by incarceration, and survivors of violence.
Move past allyship and into action. Whether it's forwarding this to 5 friends, investing in multiracial coalition building, or hosting a funder briefing with AAPI-led organizations in your state, there are a myriad of ways you can deepen your allyship in support of power building.
