Welcome to The Beautiful Foundation USA

2009 Grant Award Ceremony & Donor Appreciation Night

2009-10-20T09:39:00.000-07:00

We are so pleased to share with all of you the "2009 Grant Award Ceremony & Donor Appreciation Night" was quite a gathering not just because the room was full but because there was a consensus that the reaching out to the community as how as we can is in the right direction to bring the community together. The new 10 grantee partners and participated donors also had a meaningful time together to share their perspectives.
Commissioner Fatima Shama from the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs delivered wonderful encouragement speech and Ms. Eun-Ju Ryu, one of our donors, illustrated dynamic presentation about the BFUSA’s 2009 briefing and President S.J. Jung from MinKwon Center for Community Action shared his thank you message on behalf of all the grantee partners.

As adopting one grant-making cycle, the foundation selected 10 new grantee organizations to distribute $108,000, which have strived to meet the imminent community challenges with effective, efficient and innovative approches.

After thorough review, the Board of Direcfors of the Foundation has gladly accepted the final recommendation from the Grant Advisory Panel consisting of 7 community welfare and grant making experts. As adopting one grant-making cycle, the foundation selected 10 new grantee organizations to distribute $108,000, which have strived to meet the imminent community challenges with effective, efficient and innovative approches. In the past three years since its inception as a community foundation in 2006,the Foundation has distributed $496,426 to 39 social service and educational institutes.

Community Senior Center of Flushing (CSCF), Program : Senior Program $10,000
CSCF’s Senior Program consists of daily free lunch program, education programs and other leisure activity . Currently, CSCF serves 80-120 seniors for lunch program and 20 for education programs(computer and writing class) and 30 for leisure activity (mostly, line dance class). The grant is expected to sustain the program while individual member donations, which take 40% of revenue, have declined due to economic recession.

Hamilton Madison House, Program: Korean Caregiver's Program $10,000
Korean Caregiver’s Program will allow Korean seniors to age in place within Korean community. The program will provide supportive counseling, case assistance, caregiver training and support groups, benefits and entitlements assistance, homecare, informational and referral assistance and supplemental services.

Jabiwon Social Services Center, Inc. ,Operation Fund $5,000
With the mission to enhance life quality of seniors, Jabiwon provides assistance services for seniors who do not speak English to receive government benefits/ assistance such as SSA/SSI Benefit, medicaid & medicare benefits, public assistance for low income people, food stamps, SCRIE,and etc. 2008 year alone, the center has dealt 5,412 cases and served 6,151 visitors.

YKASEC(Young Korean American Service and Education Center),
Program: Immigrant Right Clinic, $15,000
YKASEC’s Immigrant Right Clinic aims providing recent immigrants a comprehensive legal counseling/assistance service. For that, YKASEC has combined tax assistance clinic and immigrant workers right clinic and educational portion under the Immigrant Right Clinic. The Foundation has supported tax assistance clinic (2007 Second Half for $6,000) and immigrant worker’s clinic (2008 Second Half for $10,000). The grant will help the YKASEC to serve 1,165 people across all of immigration law, housing law, labor law, income tax assistance, government benefits, and other legal issues.

Korean American Family Service Center ( KAFSC ),
Program: Women's Domestic Violence Program , $15,000
The grant will sustain women's domestic violence program and continue outreach efforts. The program has served 2,500 individuals with culturally sensitive, linguistically appropriate free services annually. The Foundation supported the same program once for 2008 Early-Half Grant Making ($4,000)

The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF),
Project Document Achievement to Transform Accountability (Project DATA) $15,000
Project DATA documents the academic success and opportunity gaps within the diverse Asian Pacific American student population of NYC. Once the project completed, the data will be the baseline for Asian American agencies to assess the challenges of Asian youth across the city and to prescribe future policy changes. Project DATA was supported through 2008 Second-Half Grant Making ($10,000). With the support from the Foundation, CACF successfully collected data sets last year and with the new grant injected, it will develop and maintains data sets, conducting quantitative analysis while CACF collaborates on data collection, qualitative analysis, and dissemination.

Day One,
Project: Lowering Youth Violence in Immigrant Communities Project $10,000
Day One is a champion organization dedicated to raise awareness of domestic violence among teenagers, provide educational workshops to middle and high school students , and offer legal assistance to young victims. The grant will be used in sustaining and strengthening Day One’s operation in Queens area where Korean-American teenagers are concentrated.

Korean-American Special Education Network (KASPED)
Project: Exploring Service after School Age, $5,000
KASPED has a mission to inform, education, and empower Korean-American families of children with special needs in the metro New York area by providing resources and services to the families. Exploring Service After School Age program will combine and translate the government benefits/ assistance services available for mentally challenged youth in transition from K-12 to the beyond. KASPED will make the translated information in Korean booklet and distribute it at least to 200 parents and 200 Korean-American CBOs. In tandem, it will host parents workshop to inform about public service available for mentally challenged youth after K-12.

Asian Women’s Christian Association New Jersey Korean Family Service Center , Project: Grace Hotline $13,000
The AWCA New Jersey Korean Family Service center has instated Grace Hotline program to provide prompt service to Korean in mental health crisis. With preexisting counseling program of the center, the Grace Hotline service will assist callers going through a critical mental condition as referring the cases to professionals and related agencies.

Rainbow Center, Project: Shelter Program $10,000
The grant will empower the clients with infants/single-moms in crisis to gain financial and emotional independence by providing safe shelters, transitional housing, crisis support, case management, public and legal assistance, and advocacy. Part of the grant will hire a shelter manager.

Capacity Buliding Project

2009-09-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

From left, Moderator JuWon Choi-Vice President for Educational Services of Foundation Center, Panel Albert Chung - Senior Communications Associate of Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, Miguel Bonilla - Director of Strengthening New York City Nonprofits at United Way of NYC, Randall Quan - Managing Director of Community Resource Exchange, Bill Chong - Deputy Commissioner of NYC Department of Youth and Community Development

[Capacity Buliding Project] 2009 Giving Conference

Successful Key for NPO management

: Human Resource Capacity

On August 7, the Foundation hosted the Second Seed of Giving Conference at the UJA-Federation of New York from 9AM 3:30PM, focusing on the “Empowering of Human Resource”.

About 90 people from different organizations had come to the conference. It was an opportunity for different non-profit organizations to learn about how to strengthen and sustain human resource functions. Especially the conference was very useful for 3 types of core HR groups in NPOs: Board of Directors, Executive Staffs, and Volunteer Managers.

In the panel discussion, capacity building experts from government, public foundation, and private foundation emphasized that the process of capacity building should be started from reviewing their mission first of all. Then it is needed for every NPOs to forecast 5-10 years of their organizations and consider what what the community needs are and what the organization can offer for the community.

After the panel discussion, there were some group sessions, where participants could choose which session to attend; BOD Capicity1, 2 & Volunteer management. Through whole sessions of the conference, the participants of non-profit organizations were able to think about how to wisely use the human resources that they have especially at this economy recession.

[Capacity Buliding] Financial Management Workshop

On August 14 and 21, as one of our capacity building project, Financial Management Workshops were held for non-profit organizations. These workshops are for the Korean-American service organizations to improve their financial management capability and ability to mobilize resources to improve the sustainability of their programs.

These workshops gave organizations a chance to learn :

* how to set up and execute a budget plan

* how to fill out the IRS990 Form

* how to use QuickBooks software program

* how to deal with financial crisis

Fiscal Management Association consulted the contents for the workshops and Mr. James Yoo (AICPA) gave the lectures. Thank you so much Mr. Yoo and we thank all of you who attended and completed the financial courses.

The 2nd Giving Conference

2009-09-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

Come and join us at the Second Seed of Giving Conference on Friday, August 7 (9AM - 4PM) at the UJA-Federation of New York.

With the focus of Empowering Human Resource, the Second Seed of Giving Conference will provide a great opportunity to learn about how to strengthen and sustain your human resource functions.From a recent survey conducted by our foundation, we learned that Korean-American CBOs are endowed with relatively strong human resources in terms of the level of educational background and numbers. To reap the best benefits from the richly endowed human resources, we should strengthen the leadership and human resource capacity by nurturing the quality of our human resources.

The Second Seed of Giving Conference is for;

* Board of Directors who want to re-define their roles as board, and want to strengthen strategic planning, and supervising function to accomplish your mission.
* Executive Staffs who want to review their planning and executive strategies and want to tune up their working relation with their board for the success of their mission.
* Volunteer Managers who want to achieve strategic skills in recruiting, training, and continuing working relations with volunteers.

Financial Workshop on August 14 & 21 (9AM - 1PM)
@ Foundation Center, 79 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY (between 15 & 16 st)

The BFUSA has launched a technical assistance grant as part of our grant program. This year, we will focus on improving financial record keeping and management skills in our community based organizations. To apply for the Technical Assistance Grant, applicant organizations should participate in the Second Seed of Giving Conference on August 7 and Financial Workshop on August 14 and 21.During the two-day financial management workshop, participant organizations will learn basic budgeting and other necessary financial skills.

Financial Statements 2007 - 2008

2009-09-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

Revenue 2007 -2008

Grants & Expense 2007 -2008

3rd Gala - Beyond Charity Toward Change

2009-09-30T07:25:00.000-07:00

Thank YOU!

We thank YOU for your generous support to our 3rd gala

“I Love Nanum Beyond Charity Toward Change”,

held on Friday, May 15.

We hope you had a wonderful evening and also hope that the evening provided you with an opportunity to re-energize and expand the culture of giving and serving in the community. Especially in light of the downturn and difficult economic recession, the success of the turnout of the guests are greatly appreciated and it tells strongly that we all concern and have dreams to outreach to the community in need.

There is still much that needs to be done for the community and many existing projects we must continue to build. We believe that through proper guidance, constant effort, and continued partnership, our ability to serve more strategically and more meaningfully is multiplied each year and we are eager to deliver even greater progress next year.

Thank you again for being a part of our event through your support, and more importantly for being a friend and a believer in the mission of The Beautiful Foundation USA.

Giving for “Sustainable Development”

Jeffrey Lee / Keynote speaker

Keynote speaker, Mr. Jeffrey Lee has 30 years of banking experience, including 12 years as the chief executive. Currently, Mr. Lee is serving as the CEO of Urwego Opportunity Bank of Rwanda (UOB) from February 1, 2009. UOB is a licensed bank, focusing on microfinance serving the needs of the most vulnerable in Rwanda. In his speech, he emphasized that giving can gain tremendous value and meaning with a clear purpose spelled out in it, leading to substantial change in the lives of people and the society. We really appreciate again for his inspiring life dedicated himself to community development.

The 2nd Shinhan Beautiful Spirit Award

We also announced the second Shinhan Beautiful Spirit Awardees on our gala night."Shinhan Beautiful Spirit Award" is designated to recognize an extraordinary individual who has sacrificed him/herself for the benefit of others in the community.

For the 2nd Award, we found these precious three people; Ms. Soon Kim, Ms. Joori Shin, and Ms. Jean Sung.Ms. Kim, 83 years old, has been serving the community 4 hours a day during 22 years. Up to now, her volunteer time is about 9,100 hours and she still challenges herself to achieve the amount of 1,000 hours. Ms. Shin has been dedicating herself to the disabled for three years. No matter how busy with her school and numerous part-time jobs, she is always trying to find her time to give some help to those in need. Ms. Sung is a survivor of teen dating abuse and has volunteered with Day One, a youth-serving domestic violence preventive and legal services organization. Jean demonstrates tireless energy and extraordinary courage in speaking out to help other youth avoid what she went through.

Once again, we are really grateful for the dedicated efforts of all of you.

Meet Our Board of Ambassadors

The BFUSA's Board of Ambassadors (BOA) is born out of a recognition that institutionalizing the involvement of 2nd generation Korean-Americans is a vital part of fulfilling the BFUSA's mission and safeguarding its future. The BOA is composed of a group of civic-minded young professionals in the NY/NJ metro area who are willing to commit to the vision of the BFUSA and prepared to invest in its continued success. We believe that the BOA offers a unique opportunity for 2nd generation to utilize their skills and talents to influence the community in a meaningful way and are excited to welcome them as partners of the BFUSA.

[BFUSA] Request for Proposal 2009

2009-06-05T06:43:00.000-07:00

┃The Beautiful Foundation USA Request for Proposals 2009┃

The Beautiful Foundation USA (BFUSA)’s tagline, “Beyond Charity Toward Change,” encapsulates the Foundation’s new strategic direction in its grant-making activities. It is the BFUSA’s goal to act as a catalyst for the Korean American and other community-based organizations in the New York metro area as they evolve to next stage of development. BFUSA aims to strengthen the capacity of CBOs and to facilitate sustainable institutional change so that they in turn can achieve greater social impact on the community.

Overview
BFUSA is pleased to announce the request for proposal of grant-making 2009. This year, there are three categories of support: Project Support, General Operating Support, and Technical Assistance/Capacity Building Support. Grant period is one year.

Organizations can only apply for either the Project Support or General Operating Support, not both. All organizations are eligible to apply for the Technical Assistance/Capacity Building Support in addition to either of the above grants.

Grant guidelines and proposal submission forms are available on the BFUSA web site at www.beautifulfoundationusa.org.

For questions, please contact BFUSA by email beautifulfoundationusa@gmail.com or by phone (201) 461-0060.

Eligibility Criteria
Nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations located in the New York metro area, that have the charitable purpose to improve the welfare of Korean-Americans and others.

Additional eligibility criteria for applicants to the Technical Assistance/Capacity Building Support: participation in the BFUSA’s 2nd Seed of Giving Conference (July 2009).

Restrictions
BFUSA does not provide funds to:
▪ Organizations outside the New York metro area
▪ Individuals
▪ Government agencies
▪ Programs for religious purposes
▪ Endowments
▪ Private foundations
▪ Real estate purchases
▪ Fundraising events
▪ Political causes or campaigns to elect candidates to public offices

Grant Range
▪ For Project Support: up to $ 15,000 per grant
▪ For General Operating Support: up to $5,000 per grant
▪ For Technical Assistance/Capacity Building Support: up to $500 value per grant.

Grant Support Priorities
▪ Project Support
Priorities will be given to organizations that promote welfare of low-income/immigrant community members with programs that:
-Prevent or treat mental health problems
-Provide free/low-cost legal aid/advocacy
-Assist to receive government benefits for free or low cost
-Provide educational programs such as ESL and vocational training
-Support senior citizens’ welfare
-Provide disability programs
-Provide services for domestic violence counseling/prevention/treatment
-Discover scientific/statistical findings about low-income immigrant challenges such as health condition, socio-economic disparity, or educational/economic opportunities

▪ General Operating Support
Priorities will be given to organizations with a proven track record of providing excellent services to improve the welfare of Korean-Americans and others in the New York metro area.

▪ Technical Assistance/Capacity Building Support
This year, the BFUSA focuses on improving financial record keeping skill through technical assistance/capacity building support. In order to apply, participation in the BFUSA’s 2nd Seed of Giving Conference (July 2009 TBD) is required. Preferences will be given to organizations that:
-Provide a vital service in our community
-Have a clearly defined mission
-Have a proven track record for carrying out the mission
-Have been in existence for at least three years.

Timeline: Application Process

Announcement of Application ┃Monday, April 13th, 2009
Application Deadline ┃Friday, July 31st, 2009
Site Visit Notification(Optional) ┃September, 2009
Notification of Grant Decisions ┃October 2009
Announcement of 2009 Grant Distribution ┃November 2009

*All dates are not confirmed and will be determined ASAP.

*Applications must be received by this deadline. We do not accept any late applications, including those postmarked Friday, July 31st but arriving after the deadline. Submission in advance of the deadline, therefore, is highly encouraged. Applications submitted after the deadline will not be returned. Faxed and emailed applications will not be considered. Applications without the requisite number of copies (two copies) will not be considered. No staples and no wired folders. Please use binder clips.

Applications can be mailed directly to:

The Beautiful Foundation USA
1605 John St. #202
Fort Lee, NJ, 07024

*BFUSA first notifies all applicants of its decisions by mail, then issues a press release to local media that highlights the organizations and projects awarded grants. Grantees are encouraged to also publicize their awards themselves and to acknowledge BFUSA support through press releases, newsletters, web sites, and annual reports.

Mission and Principles

2008-12-02T11:05:00.000-08:00

The Beautiful Foundation USA is a 501 C(3) non-profit Community Foundation that serves the Korean-American community and others in the metro New York and New Jersey area. Sharing the heritage and legacy of the Beautiful Foundation Korea, the Beautiful Foundation USA strives to promote a culture of giving among Korean-Americans in the metro New York and New Jersey area. As the Beautiful Foundation Korea has created a new culture of giving and has become a force for social transformation in South Korea, the Beautiful Foundation USA hopes as well to help give rise to a new culture of giving by Korean-Americans to help those in need.

Under the motto “Beyond Charity, Toward Change,” the Foundation believes that raising and disbursing funds to support neighbors in need will transform and invigorate the community for future generations.

The Beautiful Foundation of Korea is the first community foundation established through grassroots fundraising. Since the establishment of the Foundation in 1999, more than 20,000 individuals and corporations have joined the One Percent Giving Campaign while growing an initial fund of 0.7 billion won (approximately $700,000) to 38 billion won in 2006. The funds have been raised from thousands of giving hearts in Korea to be disbursed to the impoverished population through the social agencies that serve them.

OUR LOGO- Giving Seed Tree
Trees give humans a wide range of gifts. They give us shade to take rest under, woods to build things, fruits to feed, and seeds to grow another tree. The Beautiful Foundation hopes to be a foundation that gives a wide range of gifts to our neighbors as a tree does to the human.The Seed Tree of the Beautiful Foundation is special. As its name stands for, the Seed Tree is loaded with seeds. Loaded on the tree, the seed grow bigger and at the same time supports the tree to grow bigger. The seeds and the tree symbolize the ideal relation between donors and the Foundation.

The Beautiful Foundation is not made up of one person, one corporation, or one group. It includes every person who engages in small acts of sharing for their neighborhood and society. We believe that the Foundation and donors are reciprocal in assisting to make each other’s dream come true.

Orange colored, each seed beams out warm hearted hope to reach out on the ground and to sprout a tree after another. Someday, the seed will grow a forest of giving for the next generation to dream hope.

PRINCIPLES OF OPERATION
The Beautiful Foundation USA believes that community foundations should guide the community to be more charitable. Toward that end, the Foundation hopes to help improve foundations’ fundraising professionalism and grant-making efficacy so that our communities are transformed. Dedicated to the establishment of a sprit of sharing and giving, the Beautiful Foundation USA operates according to the following set of principles.

IMPARTIALITY
The Foundation believes that an impartial process of grant-making helps to target disbursements more effectively. To achieve the impartiality, the Foundation convenes a special advisory board with the responsibility for grant selection.

TRANSPARENCY

The Foundation cherishes the trust of its donors. The Foundation fully discloses any decisions on its finances, programs, and operations with donors and members of community. This is because the Foundation considers donors as vital partners for health and welfare of our community.

PROFESSIONALISM

The Foundation invites the participation of highly-respected specialists who have expertise in social welfare and in the regional community. Experts in fields such as in religion, law, civic society, social welfare, and non-profit management, volunteer to work with the Foundation.

PUBLIC ENTITY

Raising large amount of donations from just a few donors is not the objective the Beautiful Foundation USA. The Foundation seeks to have a broad donor base.

Meet Our Grantee: 2008 Second-Half

2008-12-02T08:47:00.000-08:00

We announced seven grantee organizations to receive a total of $60,000 as part of the Beautiful Foundation’s 2008 Second-Half Grant Awards. The Second-Half Grant Awards target improvements in the welfare of immigrants and people with disabilities. For the welfare of immigrants, the Foundation distributed $50,000 from the Dream & Hope Fund to six community-based organizations. $10,000 of Community Fund was presented to one New Jersey based agency that provides after-school program to children with disabilities.

The grant selections were finalized by the Board of Directors following on the recommendations from the Grant Advisory Panel. The Grant Advisory panel is an independent panel of community welfare experts which The BF USA assigns with the task of reviewing final grant applications.

IMMIGRANT WELFARE

Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE)
AAFE seeks to advance the rights of Asian Americans and all those in need by empowering and fostering a sense of unity among this diverse population. The AAFE serves the Asian-American population through programs in Advocacy & Community Education, Community Preservation and Development, Community Development Fund, Community Planning and Research, Immigrant Services, and Renaissance Economic Development. The Foundation recognizes its exclusive service in community housing development and its dedicated leadership among the diverse Asian communities.

Hamilton Madison House, China Resource Center
China Resource Center is one-stop shop immigrant services center for Chinese-speaking immigrants in lower Manhattan. Established in 1898, Hamilton Madison House has pioneered the development and protection of humane policies and programs and has fostered social well-being among the vulnerable segments of the population.

South Asian Council for Social Services (SACSS)
SACSS was established in 2000 to encourage underserved South Asians to actively engage in the civic and economic life of New York City. Its focus is on empowering the South Asian community through an array of programs, including ESOL, mental health initiatives, parenting workshops, and general social services. Its pioneering work and dedication has been recognized by receiving the Union Square Award.

The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) for DATA Project
CACF has awarded grant for their Documenting Achievement to Transform Accountability project. Documenting Achievement to Transform Accountability (DATA) is a project that focuses on documenting academic successes and opportunity gaps within the diverse Asian-Pacific American student population in New York City. By analyzing the various socio-economic factors in determining academic success of Asian-Pacific American students, CACF strives to eliminate the model minority prejudice and uncover the impact of socio-economic influences under a scientific methodology.

Young Korean American Service and Education Center (YKASEC) for Worker's Rights Legal Clinic.
YKASEC, as a leading Korean-American social service agency, strives to meet the needs and concerns of the community. Its focus is in the area of immigrant rights, social services, civic participation, education and culture. YKASEC is receiving its third grant from the Foundation for its efforts for the Worker's Rights Legal Clinic, which provides free legal consultation related with labor and immigration rights to low income immigrants.

YWCA of Queens for Evergreen ESOL program.
Evergreen Care Program is a senior homecare program. Evergreen ESOL program aims to train home aides with health-oriented ESOL programs to ultimately provide qualified home aide workers for the Evergreen Care program.

PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY
American Wheat Mission in NJ for Agape After-School Program.
America Wheat Mission serves immigrant families with mentally challenged children in New Jersey. Through various classes on areas such as sign language, social abilities, and independent living, the America Wheat Mission provides practical help to immigrant parents with disabled children.

The Beautiful Foundation USA Named as Uprising for Social Justice Awardee

2008-12-02T08:45:00.000-08:00

The BF USA received the great honor of winning the Standing Up for Justice Award. Standing Up for Justice Award is awarded by the Young Korean-American Education and Service Center to recognize the role of individuals and organizations in enhancing justice and community development. Previous awardees have included Patrick Young, a human right activist dedicated to immigrant advocacy, and Taryn Higashi, the director of the immigrant welfare program at the Ford Foundation. YKASEC stated that the award is in recognition of the Beautiful Foundation USA's efforts in cultivating the sprit of giving to help marginalized neighbors in the community. Father Paul Ouderkirk was another Standing Up for Justice Award recipient this year. Father Ouderkirk has supported deported immigrant families and has worked to heighten public awareness of inhumane aspects of certain laws pertaining to immigrants.

The Korean-American Community Need Project: Preliminary Report

2008-12-02T08:35:00.000-08:00

The Beautiful Foundation USA is pleased to announce the successful completion of the first environment scanning project for the welfare needs of the local Korean-American community. With the goal of establishing a strategic direction for public resource investment in the community, the Korean-American Community Need Assessment Project identifies the high-priority welfare needs of the community. We presented the preliminary findings of the project to an audience of immigrant community experts on Friday, October 31.

The Korean-American Community Need Project consists of two separate surveys: 1) a Community Need Assessment Survey (target: key individuals in the fields of commerce, social service, culture, government, and journalism) and 2) a Community-Based Organization's Capacity Assessment (target: Korean-American community-based organizations). The design and execution of the survey has been assigned to the New York/ New Jersey Korean-American Social Worker’s Association and to Dr. Hye-Kyung Kang at Smith College respectively.
For the validity of the result, the Community Need Assessment survey targeted professionals only engaged in social welfare services, health care services, government, and business. The survey asked how important and satisfied each respondent feels about 35 community issues and public services. The respondents identified free legal aid and advocacy service and mental health prevention/treatment service as the most important service area that community should provide. Least satisfied services were those addressing gambling and substance addiction and mental treatment.

Dr. Hye-Kyung Kang, Assistant Professor at Smith College School for Social Work, collaborated on a capacity survey of 40 Korean-American community-based social service organizations in the metropolitan New York/New Jersey (NY/NJ) area. This project aimed to understand the capacity of these organizations for providing necessary social services to Korean-Americans in the area. The survey explored various domains such as the organizations' mission statements, service areas, human resources, financial resources, client characteristics, and organizational needs.

For the analysis, Dr. Kang compared the preliminary finding with that from Dr. Codero-Guzman’s previous work, Community-based organizations and migration in New York City . Compared to Codero-Guzman’s sample, Korean-American CBOs are relatively younger and more endowed with human resources in terms of volunteers. Dr. Kang recognized the strong endowment of volunteers as the potential for Korean CBOs to improve their services. On the other hand, the financial resources of Korean CBOs lack diversity distinctively compared to Codero-Guzman’s samples. Particularly, few CBOs have received government supports. Dr. Kang emphasized the importance of technical support to improve the CBO’s record keeping capacity, a prerequisite to attract institutional giving such as governments and other private foundations.

Appreciation Dinner Night for One Percent Giving Donors

2008-12-02T08:26:00.000-08:00

The BF USA hosted “Appreciation Dinner Night for One Percent Giving Donors” on October 22. The event was designed to thank our One Percent Giving Donors. It was a night to get to know fellow donors and share stories about each other’s giving. Donors posed in front of a photo-wall of the Foundation as if they were celebrities. The highlight of the night was the bingo game. Questioned what we can share with neighbors, each group of donors participated in the bingo game with zeal.

Donors learned more about how their donations contributed to make the community better. Ms. Jennifer Oh, the president and CEO, emphasized the importance of information sharing and increasing accountability toward donors. With its One Percent Donors, the Foundation will continue to strive to cultivate giving as a part of established habit beyond one-time special charity activity.

Grant Writing Workshop 08' July 17

2008-12-02T08:15:00.000-08:00

Grants from governments and foundations are one of the most critical resources for the Community-based organization in carrying their mission. The BF USA organized a grant-writing workshop on July 17 to provide practical help for organizations in securing grants and applying for Second-Half Grant Making of the Foundation. Dr. explained how to write grant application with step-by-step in Korean. 41 Participants from 25 organizations found the workshop led by Dr. JuWon Choi (Vice President at the Educational Services, Foundation Center) easy to follow. After the workshop, more than half of the participants expressed that the workshop motivated to apply for grants with confidence in the evaluation.

MEET OUR GRANTEE: 2008 First-Half

2008-12-02T08:06:00.000-08:00

We have announced seven grantee organizations for 2008 First-Half Grant Making. The First-Half Grant Making, with total amount of $45,000, was targeted toward the welfare of the seniors, the women, and the youth. The Board of Directors decided to approve the recommendation of the Grant Advisory Panel, an independent panel of community welfare experts. The Panel recommended the final seven organizations.

Korean American Senior citizens Society of Great New York
Established in 1976, KASCNY helps Korean senior citizens to adjust to new life at new homeland by providing education and consultation service to senior members in the metro New York area. $10,000 of Kiss-Gold grant supports KASCNY's legal consultation program.

SENIOR WELFARE: KISS GOLD

Korean American Senior citizen's association of New Jersey
With the mission to support senior citizens residing in Bergen County, the KASCANJ has won the grant of $10,000 for the social/ health benefit consultation service. To provide qualified service, the KASCANJ assigned all the volunteer consultants to take special training program provided by Bergen County government.

Friends of Grace Seniors Community Center FGS
According to its mission of empowering everyone to help oneself, neighbors, and the community, the FGS has designed special Senior Computer Program. The program leads seniors to apply information access skill to browse social/health benefit information. The program won $5,000 of grant.

WOMEN'S WELFARE

Rainbow Center
Rainbow Center provides a shelter, case management service, and vocational training to Asian/ Korean women who are neglected, battered and in crisis by spouses. A grant of $6,000 will support general operation of the center.

Korean American Family Service Center
KAFSC provides 24-hour-hotline service, professional consultation and prevention programs for domestic violence victims. $4,000 of grant will assist KAFSC to continue the domestic violence program.

YOUTH WELFARE

Young Korean American Service & Education Center
YKASEC, missioned to empower the immigrant community and improve their living quality, runs Youth Empowerment Program for 1.5 and 2nd generation of Korean-American youth. With support of $6,000 grant, Youth Empowerment Program will facilitate to understanding better decision-making process of governments and develop community leadership and communication skills.

Day One
Day One serves to end dating abuse/ violence through community education legal advocacy, supportive services and leadership development. We support Day One’s prevention workshop in high schools at Queens area with the grant of $4,000.

Meet Our Grantee 2007

2008-12-02T07:43:00.000-08:00

SENIOR WELFARE

YWCA of Queens
For the last 29 years, the YWCA of Queens has been serving the Korean elderly community through programs and services that enhance the social, mental and physical well-being of the senior-citizens.

The Jaibiwon Social Service Center
Founded in 1999 at Flushing New York, Jabiwon provides Korean-American senior citizens and other residents in Flushing with an array of social services. For immigrant senior citizens, Jabiwon offers social benefit counseling, referral services and bilingual/bicultural assistance free of charge.

Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York, Inc.
Founded in 1973, Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York (KCS) has grown into a leading provider of social services in the Korean American community of New York City. In response to the needs faced by the first generation of Korean immigrants, KCS provides over 26 programs in the areas of immigration, youth and family, employment and education, aging and public health.

PEOPLE WITH DISABILITY

New York Mil Al
Founded in 1993, New York Mil Al is a leading human service organization dedicated to serve the people with developmental disabilities and to promote public awareness of their needs. The Mission aims to assist Korean-American families with the members who suffer from developmental disabilities by providing educational and social services. For K-12 children and young adults, the Mission runs an after-school and weekend school program. For the adult clients, the Mission provides vocational training program and operates a group home for adults who cannot receive a proper care at their home.

KASPED
Established in February 2004, the Korean-American Special Education Resource Center Inc. (KASPED) is a non-profit organization, run by parents and professionals working in the field of special education and related fields. The KASPED Inc. is an independent, private, non-profit organization located in the Greater New York City area. The mission of this organization is to serve Korean-American parents of children with developmental delays or disabilities, particularly the underserved, low-income and newly-immigrated parents with cultural barriers and limited English proficiency.

YOUTH WELFARE

Service and Education for Korean American
Service and Education for Korean American was established to provide Korean immigrant youth with cultural and education services to nurture them into bring a responsible U.S. citizens with a strong sense of cultural identity. SEKA intends to be a cultural buffer zone for the immigrant youth while they struggle to get assimilated into the mainstream American culture. SEKA has run Saturday Korean Culture School and Thema Trip in the vicinity of New York for immigrant youth.

Hana Mission
Located in Paterson (New Jersey), Hana Mission aims to instill hope in the lives of homeless individuals, substance abusers and children from inner city areas. It provides housing, case management, counseling, and after-school program for children.

IMMIGRANT WELFARE

Young Korean American Service & Education Center (YKASEC)
Established in 1984, YKASEC has sought to empower the Korean-American Community by providing important social service programs. Based in Flushing, Queens, YKASEC has emerged as a leading community organization with successes in building a sustained community for marginalized individuals, including recent immigrants, minorities, low income residents, limited English proficient persons, elderly and youth.

Korean American Behavioral Health Association (KABHA)
Korean American Behavioral Health Association (KABHA) is committed to improving mental health care and services for Korean Americans in the Greater New York City. KABHA is composed of psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners, psychologists and social workers who are working in the mental health field. Those professional members of KABHA bring their own professional skills and knowledge and take interdisciplinary approach to improve the mental health of Korean Americans.

Seed of Giving Conference- February 2008

2008-12-01T13:34:00.001-08:00

The First Seed of Giving Conference
: Toward Strategic Community Building

February 15, 2008(9:00~ 3:30) at Union Theological Seminary
Sponsored by Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church

The Beautiful Foundation USA host a conference for Korean-American philanthropic and community organizations in February with the generous supports of the United Methodist Church. In the process of disbursing grants to community-based organizations, the Foundation realized the vital importance and necessity of improving community-based organizations financial security so that they improve the execution and sustainability of their noble missions. The conference provided a one-stop opportunity for our community’s leaders to learn from the experiences and practices of their peer organizations and leaders in the field of philanthropy.

[PROGRAM]

9:00~9:30 Registration and Reception

9:30~9:40 Welcoming Speech by Rev.Jong Sung Kim, GBGM, UMC

9:40~ 9 45 Conference Overview by Ms. Jennifer Oh

9:45~10:00 Motivational Speech by Mr. Stuart Tauber, Senior Vice President of The UJA-Federation of New York

Session I. Key Presentation: Philanthropy and Volunteerism within Korean American

Community support for human service community-based organizations is crucial in bridging individual needs with community service. To determine the next steps to increase community support, it is critical to review how the community has been involved in providing social service to those in need within the community. Prof. Min delivers his presentation assessing the effectiveness of Korean-American social service providers within the community. Followed Prof. Min’s presentation, Prof. Hyekyung Stella Kang will reinforce this theme from the social work perspective.

Presenter: Prof. Pyung Gap Min
(Sociology, Queens College and Graduate School of the City University of New York)
Discussant: Prof. Hye-Kyung Stella Kang
(Graduate School of Social Service, Fordham University)

Panel I. Models of Successful Funding for Accomplishing the Mission.
This session provides an opportunity to explore successful cases of securing operational funds from the Korean-American community. Each organization talks about how to secure resources from public foundations, boards of directors, and private foundations.

Moderator
Mr. Sung-Min Yoon, President, Korean-American Social Worker’s Network.

Panel List
Dr. Shin Son, Executive Director, Korean Community Service of Metropolitan New York
Ms. Mia Youn, Chair of Board of Directors, Asia Women’s Christian Association
Ms. Jihyun Chae, Esq. Staff Attorney, Young Korean American Service and Education Center

Panel II Grant Makers, who are they and what do they consider?
Having explored different approaches to raising resources for charitable causes, it is now time to get to know better the ‘who’ and ‘what’ in the donor community and what resources they have to offer. Dr. JuWon Choi, the V.P. of Education service at the Foundation Center will provide a snap-shot of grant-makers operating on the East Coast. Followed Dr. Choi, Ms. Bomsinae Kim will introduce the Korean-American Community Foundation, which she leads as Executive Director.

Moderator
Ms. Aiyoung Choi

Panel list
Dr. JuWon Choi, Vice President, Education Services, Foundation Center
Ms. Bomshinae Kim, Executive Director, KACF　

Photos from the Conference

History

2008-12-01T12:13:00.000-08:00

2003. August
Registered as IRS 501 (c)3 non-profit organization

2005.
August
The first meeting of organizing committee - The first presentational meeting of the Beautiful Foundation

September
Public lecture by Mr. Won Soon Park, esq., the founder and CEO of the Beautiful Foundation Korea.

First One Percent Giving Store (Rainbow Party Store) & First Individual Donor (Mr. Boksoo Lee, Giant Food)

October
Inauguration of the Board of Directors

2006.
January
Opening of the secretariat office

February
First giving clinic: Lee Euichul Dentist

April
Join-Campaign of One Percent Giving with Korea Daily
Kiss Products, Inc. initiates Kiss-Gold Fund for the Asian Seniors’ Welfare

May
Secretariat office moves to Fort Lee, NJ

August
ShinHan Bank America kicks off “Beautiful Deposit”

September
JL Entertainment invites friends with disabilities to Lee Mun Se’s recital

October
General Fund passes $100,000 (with the exception of donations designated for the operation)

2007.
January
The First ‘I Love Nanum’ dinner
Korean Community Center in the Greater Princeton area(KCCP) consigned the fund for the KCCP center

March
Received grant from Denver Foundation Grant
Received grant from Korean Community Church of New Jersey

April
Announcement of Kiss-Gold Grant Making Plan

August
First grant disbursement of Kiss-Gold Grant
Joint-campaign for senior citizens’ welfare program with TKC: Broadcasting special documentary on seniors’ welfare in the metro New York area

October
Board of Global Ministry pledges to support the first Seed of Giving Conference
Announcement of grant making plan for the welfare of people with disabilities and new immigrants

November
Khym Foundation initiates “Dream & Hope Fund” for immigrant welfare
The first issue of newsletter, “Sallang”

December
The second Grant Award Ceremony

2008.
January
Announcement of ShinHan Beautiful Spirit Award plan

February
The first Seed of Giving Conference
Announcement of grant making plan for the welfare of seniors/ women/ youth
Received grant from Consulate General of the Republic of Korea

March
“Korean Community Benefit Fund” awarded by the Holy Name Hospital

May
The Second Annual Gala, I LOVE Nanum- Generation to Generation

June
2008 First-Half Grant Award Ceremony- for Elderly, Women, and Youth

July
Grant Writing Workshop
2008 Second-Half Grantmaking RFP Release
Commencement of Community Need Assessment Project

October
1% Donor Appreciation Dinner
Preliminary Reporting of Community Need Assessment Project

November
Awarded "Stand for Social Justice" by the Young Korean-American Service and Education Center
2008 Second-Half Grant Award Ceremony- for recent immigrants and people with disability