UCA Community Fund (UCACF) announces today the first two recipients of its microgrants. They are:
1. The “Silent War” documentary film production project of UCA WAVES
2. Iowa City Area Chinese Association’s “Love of Art” fundraising auction for the “Books for Love” campaign
Congratulations to UCA WAVES and Iowa City Area Chinese Association for receiving the grants from UCACF!
Silent War: Asian American Reckonings with Mental Health is a full feature documentary profiling multiple members of our community stepping up to share their own battles with mental illness. Their accounts highlight our unique challenges as Asian Americans and the unspoken toll it has taken on us. The project is led by professor and award-winning filmmaker, Changfu Chang, who has produced a series of documentaries on identities and cultural issues. His releases, Ricki’s Promise, has won of several awards at prestigious international film festivals and was part of the Smithsonian Museum’s series on cultural identity in celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in 2016. His other documentary, “Meet Me on the Bridge”, was viewed by over 60 million people within several months after its initial release on the BBC website.
“Depression and Anxiety are getting common among the younger Chinese generation due to the cultural differences in their education during growing and the increased college and career competition. We need to raise awareness to address the problem properly. But we need to ensure the film includes the correct perspectives and have a plan to promote the film to reach all the needed communities,” commended by a member of the Grant Review Committee of UCACF.
The “Love of Art” fundraising auction of the Iowa City Area Chinese Association (ICACA) organizes local youth artists to donate their art pieces to raise funds for their “Books for Love” campaign. The “Books for Love” campaign purchases multicultural and diverse books for children and donates them to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital. Each year around the Mid-Autumn Festival, the ICACA will hold a particular project as the primary fundraising channel.
“ICACA’s ‘Love of Art’ auction event will help promote the Chinese American cultural heritage and holiday spirit. Our grant will serve like a seed money to encourage them to raise the rest of the needed fund”, commended by one of the nine members of the Grant Review Committee.
We welcome more local Chinese American community organizations to apply for our grants. To start, the applicant organization needs to visit our website at ucacf.org, fill in an online grant application form and submit it. The objective of the project must be well aligned with UCA’s mission. It should be a charitable startup project. It should have an established project management team. It should be unique and creative and has the potential for significant and broad social impacts. For more information about the grant eligibility criteria and grant application requirements, please visit: https://ucacf.org/.
About UCACF
UCACF is a new initiative launched by UCA to help local Chinese American community organizations to raise funds for startup charitable projects and programs, addressing the long-time challenges of small-and-medium-sized local community organizations in fundraising for their projects and activities. UCACF’s mission is to provide microgrant ($500 to $5,000) of seed funds to startup community projects aiming to enrich and empower Chinese American communities through civic engagement, education, heritage sharing, youth development and a greater understanding between the people of the United States and China.
UCACF works like an “angel fund” for nonprofit causes. We accept grant applications online and adopt a simple-and-fast application review and approval process. Unlike the typically lengthy and complicated application process of charitable grants, which may consume a lot of time and resources of the applicants, our application takes less than a few hours to complete. Our Grant Review Committee meets monthly to review applications submitted during the period and make grant decisions. It takes less than two months for an applicant to receive the grant.
The UCACF organization comprises four teams of volunteers, the Board of Trustees, the Grant Review Committee, the Executive Committee and the Board of Advisors. The Board of Trustees is responsible for the governance and fundraising of UCACF and the Executive Committee is responsible for grant application collection and validation, grant issuing and follow-up. Since a “test launch” of UCACF’s website, we have received the first batch of 8 applications by August 16, 2022. The Grant Review Committee its the first meeting on August 19 and cast its vote on August 26. The review of the first batch of applications took less than two weeks. The grant checks will be sent to the recipients within one week after approval.
UCACF itself is a startup project. We are still in the “test-run” phase by learning from doing. We welcome more volunteers to join our team. We look for feedback and suggestions. Please contact us at ucacommunityfund@gmail.com or visit our website for more information.
About United Chinese Americans
ucausa.org
The United Chinese Americans (UCA) is a coalition of grass-root community organizations dedicated to the enrichment and empowerment of the Chinese American community in the United States. UCA was formed at the first Chinese American Convention in September 2016 and was later incorporated and received IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in 2017. UCA has since grown into a national federation of 12 local chapters in Atlanta, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, Washington State, West Virginia, Wisconsin, New York City and San Francisco and over 30 community partners nationwide.