Raising Funds for FANHS

Through the generous support of donors and volunteers—including full time volunteers and cofounders, Drs. Dorothy and Fred Cordova, Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) Executive Director and Archivist--the FANHS has gathered and promoted Filipino American history through publications, public programs, films, and artistic expressions for more than 25 years.

The FANHS hopes that it is included in people's charitable giving so that the organization can continue to promote Filipino American history for “the next generations.” When communities throughout the nation celebrate Filipino American History Month each October, it is because the FANHS launched the very first Filipino American History Month events in 1988, with a resolution that has been officially adopted in the state of Virginia and elsewhere. Just this year, events held by some of the 28 FANHS Chapters included a documentary film premiere in Sonoma (CA), book launches with jazz in Berkeley (CA), a film festival in Vallejo (CA), a collaborative museum exhibit in New Mexico, a symposium in Portland (OR), and a nationally recognized speaker’s banquet in Philadelphia (PA).

FANHS Hampton Roads (VA) published two oral history collections through a unique intergenerational collaboration between high school student groups, professional organizations, community elders, professors, and local leaders.

Filmmakers , writers, scholars, artists, students, elders have used the thousands of artifacts--print materials, oral histories, photographs, and other memorabilia--housed in the FANHS National Archives in Seattle, Washington. Many have seen the FANHS photos and documents on book covers, in multimedia curricula, in films, in museums, and in the Smithsonian’s current traveling exhibit, “Singgalot: The Ties that Bind.”

Generations have also been inspired by the 12 biennial national FANHS conferences that draw hundreds of participants to memorable panels, films, authors’ receptions, awards banquets, and historic tours. At the 2008 conference, the Governor of Alaska proclaimed “Thelma Buchholdt Day” in honor of three-term FANHS President and state legislator from Anchorage, Alaska.

FANHS is one of the few national conferences that subsidizes the registration of youth participants. Many “former FANHS youth” are now in leadership positions where they are making a positive impact in academic institutions, in their own businesses and communities, and as young political leaders.

Now, more than ever before, the FANHS needs support to continue its work. Preserve and promote Filipino American history by making a financial contribution to the FANHS. Gifts of any size are appreciated. While these are challenging financial times, gifts of membership to the FANHS are always welcome as meaningful gifts for any occassion. Donations to the FANHS also express a special way of honoring the memory of loved ones.

Donations to FANHS will support:

• The FANHS National Archives in Seattle, perhaps the most extensive collection of oral histories, photographs, and historical documents on Filipino Americans in the United States, needs to preserve its growing archival collection (where the need for an additional room has increased rent). We hope to eventually digitize materials to include collections
  in the “satellite archives” of its 28 FANHS Chapters.
• Youth interns and researchers are needed to work with the FANHS National Office.
• The FANHS Filipino American National Museum, a Filipino American cultural and youth center in the historic “Little Manila” neighborhood of Stockton (CA), which is a collaborative project of Stockton’s Little Manila Foundation and the FANHS.