Description

Special Grant recommendation of $100,000 to the Yale-China Association for general support of its activities.
 
Yale-China Association (YCA) was founded in 1901 by Yale graduates and faculty in response to the suffering of the Boxer Rebellion. Its focus has been education and medicine. Institutions it helped establish, including a secondary school, a hospital, and a school of nursing, are still in existence. The relationships and trust built over 100+ years of people-to-people exchange have served YCA well; it was one of the few U.S. organizations able to continue sending Americans to China during the pandemic. Independent of Yale University, YCA depends on a small endowment, alumni support, and foundation grants to run its programs in China, Hong Kong and New Haven. Since the early days, when it chose a base in Hunan Province, YCA has worked with communities in remote areas and on the margins. That ethos is reflected in current efforts to further diversify its teaching fellows and its outreach in New Haven, all detailed in the proposal. After years of complying with the onerous “temporary permit” requirements of China’s Foreign NGO Law, YCA has determined to open a permanent representative office in Changsha, an added cost. A grant for general operations would provide a cushion as YCA’s new president John Frisbie, formerly with the U.S.-China Business Council, develops new fundraising and financial strategies. It would help maintain a needed and longstanding channel of friendship and connection in the midst of bilateral tensions.
 
This grant would further the Asia Program’s Goal 3 – enhance public awareness of and engagement with Asians and Asian Americans, and counter misunderstanding and misinformation by elevating Asian and AAPI Stories – particularly through our strategies to support people-to-people exchange and learning in places and communities with less exposure to Asia/AAPI.