NEW Leadership Research Series Report 
2011 API Representation on the Top 100 Nonprofit Boards

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Key Findings

• Just 47 of the top 100 nonprofits have API representation on their boards.
• Seventy-five APIs hold 78 board seats at the top 100 nonprofits.
• The 78 board seats represent 2.55% of the total 3,061 board seats in the top 100 nonprofits.
• No APIs head a nonprofit in the role of executive director, president and/or CEO.
• Two API directors serve as chair of a top 100 nonprofit board: Rajive Johri and Immanuel Thangaraj.
• Twenty-four (32%) out of the 75 API directors are women.
• The ethnic breakdown of these API directors is as follows: Chinese (24), Asian Indian (22), Japanese (13), Korean (7), Filipino (4), Vietnamese (2), Indonesian (1), Malaysian (1) and Pakistani (1).
• Two API directors sit on more than one Top 100 nonprofit boards: John C. Liu (3) and Dinakar Singh (2).
• Two of the top 100 nonprofits have four API directors on their boards: Metropolitan Museum of Art and Special Olympics.
• Four of the top 100 nonprofits have three API directors on their boards: The Nature Conservancy, New York Public Library, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Scholarship America.
• Twelve of the top 100 nonprofits have two API directors on their boards: Catholic Charities of the USA, United Way, Habitat for Humanity International, Boy Scouts of America, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Girl Scouts USA, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Public Broadcasting Service, MAP International, International Rescue Committee, American Diabetes Association and Wild Conservation Society.
• Rotary Foundation of Rotary International has six Asian directors on their board. However, all six are foreign nationals.

About Asian and Pacific Islanders (APIs)

People of Asian and Pacific Islander descent make up more than half the world’s population and 5.4 percent (16.5 million) of the total U.S. population making it one of the fastest-growing groups in the United States.

There are several terms used to refer to this community: Asian, Asian American, Asian Pacific Islander, Asian Pacific Islander American, Asian Pacific American and Asian American and Pacific Islander to name a few. There are two major groups that comprise the community: Asian and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.

The U.S. Census Bureau defines the Asian category as “a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent,” which includes over 20 different ethnic groups.  Southeast Asian generally includes Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian and Vietnamese.  South Asian generally includes Asian Indian, Bangladeshi, Bhutanese, Nepalese, Pakistani, and Sri Lankan. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2009 American Community Survey, the largest Asian groups in the U.S. include: Chinese, Asian Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese.

The Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islandercategory is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as “a person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands,” which includes 20 different ethnic groups. Native Hawaiian, Samoan and Chamorro (Guamanian) are the largest Pacific Islander groups in the country.

Disclosure

LEAP made every effort to achieve a high degree of accuracy. Information on race, ethnicity and gender composition of board members is not always publicly available. If errors or omissions are discovered, LEAP will make necessary adjustments.  Please contact the report author, Rima K. Matsumoto, Vice President of Research and Strategic Alliances at (202) 412-4190 or via email at rmatsumoto@leap.org

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