The Very Asian Foundation

We raise money for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander causes. We run The May Book Project, which is an Asian American youth literature guide for all readers. We also launched a Creators Microgrant program in 2023 to help those who are pivoting careers.

The Very Asian Foundation was launched by journalists in 2022 after sparking a global moment of unity. The foundation was formed after a viewer left a racist voicemail to veteran broadcast journalist Michelle Li on New Year's Day after Michelle talked about eating dumplings for the holiday. The caller said Michelle was being "very Asian" and that she "needed to keep her Korean to herself", and that she "needed to talk about what white people eat."

Michelle, also a Korean adoptee, shared a video of her listening to the voicemail, and fellow broadcast journalist Gia Vang shared the tweet with Hmong foods and used the hashtag #VeryAsian.

People all around the world shared their celebrations, their traditions, their solidarity, and their multicultural families. Michelle appeared on the last season of The Ellen Show, and Ellen Degeneres gifted her $15,000 that launched the foundation.

Michelle never revealed the identity of the caller to protect her from intense scrutiny, but the movement lived on to raise awareness that the Asian American story is an American story and that no matter who we are, where we live, or who raised us, we all have the right to bring our full humanity to the table. In the first 100 days, the foundation raised tens of thousands of dollars for other Asian American nonprofits, and has since supported AANHPI community members with The May Book Project, microgrants, and events like panel discussions, DEI events, cooking demonstrations, documentary screenings, and mixers.

Executive Director: Soogi Hong, soogi@veryasianfoundation.org
Based in St. Louis, but serving the world