Advocacy and allyship is not limited to community organizers or those in the highest levels of leadership. Anyone can make a difference and it starts by speaking up. In the second episode of the Glowing Up Asian podcast, we talk to Prisca Bae, Chief Partnership Officer at The Asian American Foundation. Better known by their initials, TAAF is a non-profit organization that advocates for the AAPI community. It was founded during the height of the “Stop Asian Hate” movement and really caught people’s attention when they raised a 5-year commitment of nearly $1.1 billion for the AAPI community.
Prisca shares her glow up origin story. She grew up in the suburbs of Chicago after immigrating from South Korea as a young child. Eventually, she fulfilled her parents’ dreams by getting a great education and becoming a lawyer. But that’s just where her story begins. Prisca’s dream for herself was to make a positive impact on her community. After a brief stint at a lawyer, she pivoted her career into corporate giving and philanthropy.
One day, she got the call. A group of business leaders were coming together to form a national organization for the Asian American community across all sectors and lend support from the highest levels of power in business, politics, nonprofits, and entertainment. It included names like Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo, Joseph Bae, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts (KKR), Peng Zhao, the CEO of Citadels Securities, and Sheila Lirio Marcelo, co-founder of Care.com. The goal was to change the games for Asian Americans, whether it is bringing more resources into the community, advocating for representation, or fighting racism. After pacing her apartment for 10 minutes thinking, “this is exactly what our community needs,” she joined to lead the organization’s efforts to galvanize corporate support. As Prisca describes it, her goal is to make companies and CEOs care more about the Asian American community.
In our conversation, Prisca shares her insights on the state of corporate giving for the Asian American community, Asian American representation in management, and how it’s improved over time. We also explore the importance of starting somewhere, even if it’s performative in the beginning. She also offers her advice to Asian leaders advocating for the community within their companies but are getting pushback, as well, as to those who want to get involved but don’t know how to start.
Glowing Up Asian is a podcast series produced by LingoAce that breaks down the stereotypes and expectations about what it means to thrive as an Asian in America. Each episode welcomes a new guest to reflect on what it was like growing up Asian, how that’s changed for the next generation, and what that means for parents today. Together, we’ll explore their ‘glow up’ origin story and the role that education and culture played in their lives, while also exploring the issues that matter to the broader Asian American community.
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Glowing Up Asian podcast show notes
Episode 02 | Interview with Prisca Bae of TAAF (The Asian American Foundation)
Meet Prisca Bae, Chief Partnership Officer at The Asian American Foundation (TAAF). Better known by its initials, TAAF is a non-profit organization that advocates for the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. It was founded during the height of the “Stop Asian Hate” movement and really caught people’s attention when they raised a commitment of nearly $1.1 billion for the AAPI community. (0:34)
What was your glow up origin story? Prisca shares her “very Asian American” story of how she grew up in the suburbs of Chicago after immigrating from South Korea as a young child. Like many Asian families at the time, her parents made this move to give her and her brother more opportunities and a great education. In reflecting on their sacrifice for the American Dream, she shares that “back then that was what we believed in” and how it had motivated so many families to immigrate to the United States. (1:17)
Did your parents have a specific career path in mind for you growing up? For Prisca’s parents, success meant financial security and they believed becoming a lawyer would make that dream possible. Prisca once told her father that she would love to make movies when she grew up. While not discouraging her dream, her father advised her that she could become a lawyer and make movies as well. Though her aspirations aligned with her parents earlier in her career, she would eventually make a pivot to become a social impact leader, working for corporate foundations and corporate diversity teams. In reflecting on her path, she is grateful for being able to pursue so many opportunities that her parents would have never dreamed possible. (2:33)
What does The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) do? Prisca recounts the story of how she learned about TAAF during the height of the pandemic and anti-Asian violence. While in her walkup one-bedroom apartment in New York City, she got the call. A group of business leaders were coming together to form a national organization for the Asian American community across all sectors and lend support from the highest levels of power in business, politics, nonprofits, and entertainment. It included names like Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo, Joseph Bae, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts (KKR), Peng Zhao, the CEO of Citadels Securities, and Sheila Lirio Marcelo, co-founder of Care.com. The goal was to change the games for Asian Americans, whether it is bringing more resources into the community, advocating for representation, or fighting racism. After the call, she paced her apartment for 10 minutes thinking, “This is exactly what our community needs.” (5:03)
As TAAF’s Chief Partnership Officer, can you share what you do to lead the top-down approach to securing support and funding through corporate partnerships? AAPI organizations and causes are rarely on company agendas and budgets for corporate giving and philanthropy. In her role at TAAF, Prisca wants to change that. Leveraging her skillset and experience from working at company foundations and diversity teams, her goal is to make companies and CEOs care more about the Asian American community. But this is just one part of TAAF’s efforts to influence change. The organization takes a very holistic approach, taking both a top-down and bottom-up approach. Prisca shares, “At TAAF, I feel that regardless of what we’re focusing on, we’re trying to do the same thing. We’re trying to do good in the world. We’re trying to support the Asian American community. So whether it’s focusing on CEOs or working with community leaders, I do believe it’s all very important and just making sure that we’re working together. That’s our ultimate goal.” (7:02)
Since TAAF launched in 2021, what changes have you observed since you started doing the work to build corporate partnerships? Prisca shares, “When it comes to the movement within corporate America to support Asian Americans, so much has happened in the last two years that I feel positive that that excitement will continue to build.” Before TAAF launched, a report by Asian Americans / Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy found that “foundation funding designated for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities only accounts for 0.20% of all U.S. grantmaking.” In response, TAAF initiated an AAPI Giving Challenge to encourage companies and leaders to make annual commitments. The goal was to encourage continued support for the Asian American community year after year – not just when anti-Asian violence is getting media attention. In the two years since launching, TAAF has observed many of its 70 corporate partners expand their support, philanthropy efforts, and diversity initiatives. (9:14)
What would you say to critics who say that these “efforts” being made by corporate America are just performative? “We have to start somewhere,” says Prisca. “I’d rather them be performative with us right now than not care about us at all.” In fact, she adds that the fact that companies feel like they need to be performative is a victory already. We see this as our foot in the door to start conversations, encourage them to do more, and more importantly, help them understand why this is good for business. (11:35)
For Asians in leadership roles who are trying to advocate for their community within their companies and getting pushback, what advice do you have? Prisca shares that this is sadly happening, where partner contacts have been asked: “Isn’t it time to stop?” “Didn’t we do enough in the last two years?” Her hope is that TAAF can be the partner to help these leaders stay motivated and engaged. One initiative is to support professional development so that more Asian leaders make it to the C-Suite where they can continue to influence greater change as executive sponsors. (12:15)
How can people get involved, especially if they have never done any advocacy work before? The short answer is that we need to speak up. As a community, Asian Americans have no problem being vocal about issues with each other. But to influence change, we need to have those conversations with others. The good news is that this is happening more now than ever. “To me, I love that. It means our community is demanding things that we should have been demanding for years.” This can take many forms. For example, parents can advocate for Asian American history to be taught in their child’s school. Everyone who can vote should vote and should encourage their family members and friends to vote. (14:04)
Going back to glowing up Asian, many Asian Americans have grown up in this country feeling split between two cultures. How did you navigate that experience then and now? Prisca describes the Chicago suburb where she grew up as being a culturally diverse immigrant community where 40 different languages were spoken at her high school. Surrounded by a large extended family, she was able to maintain a strong connection to her Korean heritage while growing up. When she went off to college and started her career, she was very intentional about where she wanted to live. She sought out similarly diverse communities – people and places that would help her become who she is today. Reflecting on her journey, she shares, “Living in New York City, working at TAAF in the diversity space, I’m the product of all of that.” (16:18)
Prisca wraps our conversation with her hopes for the future – as we live in a present where Asian American representation is increasing, and the community is speaking out more than it ever has before. She says, “I would like to see more of us in positions of power – all of us. Whatever sector you want to be…I want us to realize our fullest potential.” More importantly, she hopes that Asian leaders can lead without changing themselves, meaning they can be present as their full selves. (20:26)
Meet Prisca Bae
Prisca Bae is the Chief Partnership Officer at The Asian American Foundation (TAAF), the largest philanthropic organization led by Asian Americans fully focused on supporting the Asian American community. Previously, she was an executive at PepsiCo where she oversaw the gender diversity and women’s strategy for the Global Diversity & Engagement Center of Excellence. She developed and launched a $100 million commitment to women and girls and worked with leaders company-wide on gender parity and pay equity issues. She also served as chief of staff to PepsiCo’s Global Public Policy and Government Affairs group. Prior to PepsiCo, Prisca advised companies and non-profits on strategic women’s initiatives as Vice President at Seneca Women, the advisory firm founded by the former U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues, Melanne Verveer, and as the Director of the Women in the World Foundation, a public charity founded out of Tina Brown’s Women in the World Summit at Newsweek & the Daily Beast. Prisca first transitioned into corporate social responsibility leadership at Goldman Sachs, where she managed Goldman Sachs Gives, a billion-dollar charitable fund available to partners of the firm. Prisca began her career as an attorney at Latham & Watkins, LLP and received her B.A. from Columbia College, Columbia University, and J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. She lives in New York City.
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