Investing in Nonprofit Capacity
Building & Talent Development

Our support goes beyond funding. Through KACF’s one-of-a-kind Capacity Building Program, we help our nonprofit partners grow more effective and sustainable in their work to serve the community.

One of the key strategic initiatives to achieve this goal has been to invest in developing strong Korean American nonprofit leaders through our Capacity Building Fellowship Program.

We need to build a strong pipeline of emerging leaders who can leverage their talents, lived experiences, and cultural understanding to lift up their community in unique ways. 

For the past 8 years, KACF has been steadfastly investing in training and embedding Korean American talent in nonprofits through the Fellowship program. We have learned that this:

  • enables effective, transformative work in under-resourced organizations

  • counters a flight of young Korean American talent from the nonprofit sector

  • bridges cultural gaps, enabling inter-generational collaboration

After the completing our 12-month Capacity Building Fellowship Program, Monica Lee was hired as a Communications Officer by Korean Community Services (KCS), one of KACF’s grantee partners. Today, she is helping to tell the stories of some of marginalized community members served by the organization, which is first and largest organization to serve low-income Korean Americans in New York.

“I think the dream of many of our parents and grandparents is for us to “get out” of the community. I never thought i'd find myself back here in the community that i grew up in, but through the KACF’s Capacity Building Fellowship Program, I came to the realization that there was something for me to do here.”


Monica Lee
Communications Officer, Korean Community Services
(KACF Capacity Building Fellow)