In early 2020, like many of you, I was feeling super anxious, angry and fearful seeing the rise in hate crimes against our community - especially against small businesses and our elders. When I saw @mkhanabusa’s IG post about wanting to address the rising hate, I immediately DM’ed her. Within days, we hopped on the phone together where she shared more about a campaign she was brainstorming alongside @kariokubo and @saulopez, joined forces with @bryanvuongpham and started prepping the launch of the campaign. As public discourse evolved, we identified a community need for a national organization that could direct attention and resources to the ongoing work of grassroots organizations doing impactful work at the local community level. Hate Is A Virus became a non-profit community of mobilizers and amplifiers dismantling racism and other forms of hate. For the first time since starting Hate Is A Virus back in 2020, we hosted our very first in-person event, UNITE: A Community Celebration, as a thank-you and dedication to the incredible people in our community who have helped us make an impact since March 2020, including activists, partners, grantees, amplifiers, donors and more. With the help of community, here’s some of the impact we’ve been able to make so far! ✊ Of $19B awarded, AAPI orgs only receive 0.18%. We’re making a small but mighty dent in that statistic through our commUNITY Action Fund, which has raised over $1M so far. ✊ Given over $650K in grants ranging from $5K-$30K with more to be distributed in the remaining months. ✊ Over 37 grantees across the nation. There is so much work to be done and we’re honored to be able to keep building and doing this good work in community with each of you. Thank you to our performers, artists, sponsors, vendors, team and alumni and so many more who was a part of making this such a celebration.