A struggling Vietnamese American non-profit serving Philadelphia and South Jersey area is nearing its fundraising goal to revitalize the agency.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports after just two months, VietLead is halfway towards its goal of raising $500,000.
On May 22, its three co-executive directors issued an open letter taking full responsibility for its fiscal troubles and announcing they would need to lay off 70% of its staff by the end of the year.
The trio acknowledged they lacked “the backend infrastructure or support to sustain large budgets and growing teams.” At the same time, they pointed to
“federal funding cuts under the Trump administration that eliminated critical safety nets and erased the limited financial buffers we had built.”
They say the short-term funds from the fundraiser will support “staff severance and core operations—and allow us to invest in the capacity and infrastructure necessary for a more sustainable future.”
VietLead has a nine-year history in the Philly, South Jersey area of grassroots organizing,
“We have always believed that our community is our greatest refuge, and meeting this huge fundraising goal in such a short amount of time only affirms this,” VietLead said to the Inquirer. “This is our time to be supported by our community, and we are immensely grateful.”
Registration is closed for Common Ground: Building Together conference and gala award banquet in San Francisco on January 24. A shoutout to our planning committee: Jane Chin, Frank Mah, Jeannie Young, Akemi Tamanaha, Nathan Soohoo, Mark Young, Dave Liu, and Yiming Fu.
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