Prior to the fires, the County of Maui was awarded a second consecutive federal RAISE grant of $25 million, to build extensions to Līloa Drive, a critical North-South collector road. Besides providing a much-needed alternate route to flood-prone South Kīhei Road, this road infrastructure project supports the development of 394 affordable housing units within three adjacent housing projects. The House Maui Initiative made this grant possible by bringing Maui County and the state together, and by funding a grant writer to develop the proposal, providing capacity within the Maui County’s Public Works Department, and making a compelling case for this project.
House Maui also launched several projects in 2023 that will come to fruition in 2024.
As a resident of West Maui I am acutely aware of the serious housing shortage existing not only on the west side but throughout the entire island. Finding a solution to this complex problem is not simple. Burdensome regulation, ill-advised zoning policies, and substantial use of the existing housing stock for the visitor industry are all contributing factors to making housing unaffordable for our Maui families. I believe the work of HCF through their House Maui Initiative is well-aimed at finding long term sustainable solutions to help mitigate our housing crisis, and I am pleased to support this mission.
- Jonathan Kindred, House Maui Initiative donor, Managing Member of KR Farms LLC, as well as Founder & CEO of Volcano Wasabi grown sustainably on Hawai‘i Island
In 2023, the Promising Minds Initiative formalized a financial sustainability working group that has developed financing goals for organizations and programs working on prevention, intervention, and treatment for infants, toddlers, and their families.
Some of the most important learning in achieving the necessary workforce in Hawaiʻi happened during the Consultation Intensive Program put on by the Association for Infant Mental Health—Hawaiʻi. This program focused on competencies needed to be an Infant Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) consultant and work with childcare and other types of early childhood programs; 16 people participated in the cohort. That training cohort informed the statewide group working on developing an IECMH Consultation Model for Hawai‘i (with technical assistance provided by childhood development organization Zero to Three).
In 2023, the Integrated Infant and Early Childhood Behavioral Health Plan (IECBH) and its partners found a new cadence with the hiring of a full-time IECBH Plan coordinator, housed at Early Childhood Action Strategy, funded by the state Department of Health, HCF’s Promising Minds Initiative, and Hawai‘i Early Childhood Action Strategy.
Promising Minds also collaborated with local organizations to provide parents with the resources they need to support their child’s early brain development through ParentPowered, formerly known as Ready4K. ParentPowered is a text-messaging service used to support parents with children between the ages of zero to 18. Promising Minds helped expand the program, and now seven Hawaiʻi organizations use the service with their client families, with a new total of 1,758 active participants (a 49 percent yearly increase compared with 2022), including some receiving Spanish-language messages.
Approaching health from a holistic perspective is vital to ensuring that all of us, and particularly our keiki, are able to grow and thrive in supportive and loving communities. The work of Promising Minds includes critical aspects of this approach, from workforce development to mental health, and supports the trauma-informed care strategy that is key for families and communities to thrive.
- Sulma Gandhi of the Stupski Foundation, a longtime supporter of the Promising Minds Initiative
In 2023, the Fresh Water Initiative laid the groundwork for the launch of the Hawaiian Islands Environmental Finance Center, which was officially announced in January 2024. See our Stories of Impact section to learn more about this project.
Through the work of the Fresh Water Initiative over the last 11 years, 19.3 million gallons a day is being conserved, recycled, or recharged, with an additional 41.5 million gallons per day in the process of being planned and/or built.
In 2023, FWI launched the first phase of a communications campaign to raise public awareness about the importance of conserving our precious fresh-water resources, in partnership with Honolulu Board of Water Supply, with paid media placements at Honolulu airport, in Hāna Hou Magazine (the magazine of Hawaiian Airlines), and the Hawai‘i Visitors Guide. We anticipate further partnerships to expand the campaign to other island airports, hotels, and other media.
FWI funded nine community partners with a total of $555,000 through a 2023 grant program. Projects include the installation of water-efficient fixtures, meter upgrades, green stormwater infrastructure community programs, youth education, rain catchment systems, and potential reservoir remediation.
As stewards of the environment, the Marisla Foundation proudly supports the Hawai‘i Fresh Water Initiative’s commitment to preserving our most precious resource. Their work creating a sustainable culture around water has achieved tremendous results and sets a model for other communities to follow.
- Sara Lowell, Board Member and Marine Conservation Director of the Marisla Foundation, a Hawai‘i Fresh Water Initiative donor for more than a decade
In early 2023, the Holomua Marine Initiative received a comprehensive assessment of the Makai Watch Program, a collaboration between communities and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), which at its core recognizes that the people who use a resource ultimately are responsible for its long-term health. The assessment highlighted several key areas of the program that could benefit from focused efforts, and our Holomua Marine Advisory Committee recommended funding support to advance some of those recommendations.
To that end, the Holomua Marine Initiative granted $296,545 to DLNR to expand coordination of the Makai Watch Program, including the hiring of new staff on Maui and Hawai‘i, updating of the program’s strategy, and addressing other recommendations from the comprehensive assessment.
A total of $265,338 was also granted to six community-based organizations to strengthen the organizational capacity of the Makai Watch Community Organizations working in partnership with the state DLNR. There are plans to expand the number of Makai Watch communities funded through this work in 2024.
Over a three-year cycle, the ALICE Initiative Cohort members are collectively working to develop and implement impactful and scalable programs that help Oʻahu’s ALICE households. After the first year of the ALICE Initiative Cohort, AUW reports that the program has increased partnerships, collaborations, and referral services by 233 percent. In addition, 96 percent of ALICE Initiative grantees engaged in advocacy to raise wages and benefits, scaling proven programs. In total, 15,741 individuals have benefited from job training, matched savings, and financial education provided through this program.
Along with ALICE grantee work, the ALICE Initiative partners successfully advocated for legislation that builds support for ALICE households, including:
With the support of HCF engagement and technical assistance, the borrowers of the SII Fund have more than tripled their total assets since 2019, growing from $17.6 million to $70.7 million in 2023.
The long-term goal of the SII Fund is to lead others to make investments in Hawaiʻi alongside HCF. And, in fact, most of our borrowers have now received funding from a new source following HCF’s investment. For example:
In addition, the investment entities of the SII Fund have been doing impactful work in 2023. A few highlights:
In 2023, the program saw a major legislative victory for tobacco prevention and control efforts in Hawaiʻi. The passing of Senate Bill 975 allows e-cigarettes to be taxed on par with other tobacco products, and requires retailers to obtain the appropriate permitting and license to sell e-cigarettes. This measure also helped close the loophole of online shipping, which previously allowed many Hawaiʻi teens to purchase and obtain harmful e-cigarette products. HCF celebrated this win with its tobacco prevention and control partners at Governor Josh Green’s bill-signing ceremony in June 2023.
The Youth Electronic Smoking Device (ESD) Prevention grant program had its first in-person grantee gathering since the beginning of 2020. All 12 grantee organizations from across the state came together at HCF’s headquarters to learn, create new connections, and share tips on how to discourage youth in Hawaiʻi from initiating ESD use.
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In 2023, HCF’s Scholarship Program awarded $7.4 million in scholarships, the highest annual total awarded in HCF history.
In addition, HCF staff were able to notify students of all internal scholarship decisions before May 1, known as National College Decision Day, when new students must confirm their enrollment with their preferred college. HCF’s goal was to help students, both new and returning, make a more informed college plan from a financial standpoint, which continues to be one of the highest barriers to college enrollment, persistence, and completion.
After the destructive fires that hit Maui in August 2023, HCF activated the Maui Strong Fund, to support the immediate and long-term recovery needs for the people and places of Maui.
On August 8, 2023, wildfires ignited and spread quickly in red flag conditions on Maui, fueled by dry winds from Hurricane Dora passing south of the state, resulting in one of the largest natural disasters in state history. Overnight, the fires destroyed much of the historic heart of the island in Lahaina, a place that was once the political, cultural, and spiritual capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom and site of the sacred piko (center of divine energy) known as Mokuʻula—an island in the 17-acre spring-fed wetland pond Mokuhinia—where King Kamehameha III long resided.
Authorities have confirmed 102 deaths due to the fires in Lahaina, leaving the tight-knit community grieving the loss of people ranging in age from 7 to 90 years old. Fires also burned for weeks in Upcountry Maui, 25 miles east of Lahaina, destroying 17 homes and burning 202 acres in Kula, and three homes and more than 1,000 acres in Olinda.
On August 9, 2023, just hours after news of the fires’ devastation began to spread, the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation (HCF) activated its Maui Strong Fund to support the immediate and long-term recovery needs for the people and places affected by the devastating Maui wildfires.
The Maui Strong Fund has been a testament to the power of collective action, thanks to the generosity of donors across the world who each wanted to help make a difference. “We often think about the total amount of money that came in, but behind every dollar was a person, making a commitment,” says HCF vice president of philanthropy Mary Leong-Saunders. “People gave what they could, and every single act of generosity helped. The collective impact that everyone was able to make has been just astounding.”
In all, more than 240,000 new donors from 78 different countries contributed to the Maui Strong Fund, totaling more than $195 million, including interest earned, as of July 19, 2024.
In the hours and days after the fires, the need for immediate support on Maui was significant and immediate. HCF relied on, as a starting point, templates and action plans created during past disaster responses such as the COVID-19 pandemic. We also reached out to existing partners that had existing capacity, expertise, and relationships to provide rapid and effective relief to Maui’s communities.
Within the first week of the disaster response, HCF was able to award $5 million in Maui Strong Fund grants to 42 partners on the ground for a wide range of critical, time-sensitive services including:
As the situation on Maui evolved, and additional Maui-fire-relief funders, both public and private, came online, HCF made sure to draw on all available information in order to continue to distribute funds strategically and effectively. Much of this data came from our work collaborating with partners in a variety of sectors, including government, business, and nonprofit, giving us a cohesive, big-picture look at all the different work being done to aid Maui’s recovery.
“We knew in the beginning we needed to be the tip of the spear because we had the biggest pool of resources immediately available,” says Kehau Meyers, HCF senior program officer of the Maui Recovery Effort. “But once the government, federal, state, and county, and other funders started to come through, we wanted to make sure that we could leverage our funds, step back where we could, and step forward where there remained gaps in coverage.”
To ensure transparency in our Maui Strong Fund grantmaking, HCF committed from day one to publishing all Maui Strong Fund awards, as well as other important fund information, on our website.
As of July 19, 2024, more than $109 million has been awarded and committed to Maui Strong Fund grantees, to help support efforts in economic resiliency; health and social service systems; housing; and the preservation of natural, historical and cultural resources.
Before the fires were out, support for Maui came pouring in. It still hasn’t stopped.
From every corner of Hawai‘i, across the country, and around the globe, you have responded to disaster with compassion and met devastation with aloha. Whether you’ve donated to the Maui Strong Fund or simply shared a kind word, you’ve made a difference. And for that, we can’t thank you enough.
From the lemonade stand to the board room, from benefit concert to cash register round-up campaign, people from all walks of life have contributed to Maui’s recovery. It’s not just about how much was contributed—it’s about the people who care enough to give what they can, when they can. Every single dollar counted. Every well wish mattered. All of it adding up to something much bigger than any of us.
Known for their involvement in the HGTV show Hawai‘i Life, the real estate professionals of Hawaiʻi Life Real Estate Brokers have become a bastion of support for the community through the Hawai‘i Life Charitable Fund (HLCF). Especially in times of disaster like the Kīlauea eruption and the Kaua‘i flooding, HLCF consistently steps up to support local communities through contributions from agents, brokers, clients, and fans of the show, with a donation matching program from the brokerage. It was no different after the Maui fires, when HLCF raised over $1.4 million for the Maui Strong Fund.
Born and raised in Louisiana and a resident of Maine, Gustaf R. Westfeldt McIlhenny, a descendant of the inventor of Tabasco sauce, spent a lifetime setting roots in communities with which he fell in love. In his early years as a bachelor in search of love, McIlhenny felt a calling to visit Maui after a friend described it as a “utopia.” McIlhenny explained, “it turns out that it was Maui that I fell in love with. The spirit of the island, its people, and the culture spoke to me.” He became deeply connected to the island, paddling with the Hawaiian Canoe Club and embracing the culture of aloha.
After the Maui wildfires, McIlhenny immediately donated $40,000 to the Maui Strong Fund. With careful planning, McIlhenny also restructured a portion of his estate to make a $4.5 million dollar stock gift to establish the McIlhenny Family Maui Relief Fund with HCF to benefit, uplift, and enrich the people and places that meant so much to him.
McIlhenny passed away in April of 2024 knowing that his impact would live on in perpetuity for generations.
In the wake of Maui’s fires, students at Seabury Hall in Makawao, Maui, rallied to support their community. The National Honor Society hosted a musubi fundraiser, while the Arts with Heart club doubled their annual performance for charity, staging two nights of music, dance, and visual arts, all run by students.
“All of us being residents of Maui have seen the impacts of the Maui Fires on Lahaina, Upcountry, and all the people of Maui. We even knew people at our school who had been impacted greatly by the fires and we wanted to help,” said Art with Heart student leaders Avery Ardoin, Freya Carlsen, and Bobby Goldyn. “We want people to know that Maui is a unique place, unlike any other, the community so strong and bright will always come together to support one another.”
The Seabury Hall students’ efforts culminated in a significant contribution to the Maui Strong Fund, showcasing their compassion and commitment to helping their neighbors affected by the disaster.
The Rediscovering Hawai‘i’s Soul initiative brings leaders from diverse backgrounds together, working to create a stronger future for Hawai‘i.
How do you make aloha visible? That was the goal Ruth Fletcher, Ph.D., president and head of school for St. Andrew’s Schools, shared with her team of teachers and administrators. The result was “The Queen’s Dream: Aloha, Mālama and Kuleana,” a plan for the school’s students focusing on action and network building. For example, the school applied for a grant and became a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Ocean Guardian School. Now, fifth and sixth graders work together to care for the watershed around the school’s campus in downtown Honolulu, demonstrating their aloha for ‘āina.
The program was developed after Fletcher attended the inaugural Rediscovering Hawai‘i’s Soul (RHS) Network Gathering in 2023. RHS is an initiative of the Hawai‘i Executive Collaborative (HEC); its goal is to bring together leaders from government, labor, education, unions, and nonprofit sectors in conversation—to address systemic issues through a shared understanding of the depth of meaning, history, and value of Hawai‘i.
To rediscover Hawai‘i’s soul is to understand that the health of culture, community, and individuals are inseparable from the health of ‘āina, and to act accordingly, so that people and place thrive together as one.
“You can’t fix the problems without getting to the roots,” explains Lynelle Marble, HEC executive director.
The seeds of RHS began in 2022, when HEC commissioned the creation of four Possible Futures of Hawai‘i’s Soul scenarios. “These aren’t predications or plans about what we want to happen,” explains Marble. “But instead, plausible stories about what could happen, to help us think about and shape the actions we’re taking now, to create the future we want.”
Learning about scenario planning sparked Fletcher’s actions; the Queen’s Dream plan integrated the RHS tools with school founder Queen Emma’s legacy and lessons.
The scenarios are “not a prescription,” says Marble. We’re not trying to tell you to do something specific. Dr. Fletcher had an ali‘i leader, Queen Emma, to work off of. It’s, how can the teachings of Hawai‘i’s soul help to shape and amplify your organization’s work to create a more resilient Hawai‘i?”
“You can’t fix the problems without getting to the roots.”
- Lynelle Marble, HEC executive director
Next, RHS began sharing out the four scenarios with the public, growing a network of more than 100 organizations. In 2023, the first RHS Network Gathering assembled, bringing together a broad and diverse coalition represented by more than 250 people, including Hawaiian elders and practitioners. The Hawai‘i Community Foundation was an initial funder of RHS, and HCF’s President and CEO Micah Kāne, and Michelle Ka‘uhane, HCF’s senior vice president and chief impact officer, are both part of the RHS Core Committee.
At the Gathering, participants broke into groups focused on 13 community issues they identified that can be addressed through the RHS collective, such as climate, equity, education, military, tourism, ceded lands, power, ‘āina, economy, and outmigration.
They’ve since continued the work in various ways, including forming peer-to-peer relationships to advance each other’s work, and creating cross-sector collaborations.
Duane Kurisu, aio founder and chairman and Hawai‘i Executive Collaborative Board chairman, notes that the RHS initiative is about “finding bridges within the community to address heavy lift issues as it moves forward,” including relations with the U.S. military; re-establishing a healthy ahupua‘a system; and educating about the issue of ceded lands.
Kurisu says, “We started with working with our base culture—Native Hawaiian—and in the process what we’ve learned is that when we build an environment of trust, there is almost nothing that will stop us from working together.”
HCF’s Ka Papa o Kākuhihewa Fund shows the power of community leadership to enact change.
When the O‘ahu chapter of the Surfrider Foundation expanded its Blue Water Task Force (BWTF) testing program, which monitors water quality at recreational beaches to protect public health, they knew they had to pay special attention to Pōka‘ī Bay in Wai‘anae.
These popular waters had long suffered from pollution issues: From October 2022 to December 2023, every sample collected at the mouth of Kaupuni Stream, which drains into Pōka‘ī Bay, failed to meet state Department of Health standards. Testing the water for hazardous pathogens in Wai‘anae, as well as other sensitive areas throughout West O‘ahu, was essential.
“I know that our shoreline waters have changed,” says Cynthia Rezentes, who was raised in Wai‘anae. “There’s been a lot of discussion about staph infections and part of [the Blue Water Task Force] is to present more information on that.” Rezentes is one of the kūpuna who serves on the board of Ka Papa o Kākuhihewa Fund, a special endowment established with HCF to support projects rooted in environmental conservation and keiki education throughout Waiʻanae and Kapolei.
Last year, when an opportunity arose to establish a BWTF lab at Wai‘anae High School’s Marine Science Learning Center, the Surfrider Foundation O‘ahu Chapter turned to Ka Papa o Kākuhihewa Fund and received a grant to create the lab. Now, not only is BWTF able to process samples more quickly and closer to home, they can also help teach students at Wai‘anae High about water quality, the hazardous pathogens that can make people sick, and the importance of preventing pollution from reaching Hawai‘i’s waterways.
“Ka Papa is a good example of how an HCF fund can make a big difference without necessarily a lot of money,” says HCF senior program officer Kehau Meyer. “The board is so rooted in West O‘ahu and knows what’s needed to make the biggest impact. For the [Blue Water Task Force] lab, kūpuna on the board called the principal of the school to make sure the project had been approved. That’s how deeply they know their community.”
For Rezentes, who has served on the board of Ka Papa o Kākuhihewa Fund since it was created in 2005, the fund represents an opportunity to empower future generations on the West Side. “When I grew up, there were maybe 10,000 people in Wai‘anae,” she says. “Many older families were there because they wanted that kind of country lifestyle. In my grandmother’s house, we raised chickens and geese, grew vegetables in our backyard, and I went diving and fly fishing with my father,” Rezentes says. “Not all kids have that grounding. Part of this fund is to help offer keiki a different perspective other than the only thing in life is video games.”
“Ka Papa is a good example of how an HCF fund can make a big difference without necessarily a lot of money. The board is so rooted in West O‘ahu and knows what’s needed to make the biggest impact. For the [Blue Water Task Force] lab, kūpuna on the board called the principal of the school to make sure the project had been approved. That’s how deeply they know their community.”
- Kehau Meyer, HCF senior program officer
Last year, Ka Papa o Kākuhihewa Fund also granted money to the Hawai‘i Agricultural Foundation (HAF) to support a video production education program for youth in Wai‘anae. Students film interviews with farmers and chefs, then edit the footage together to create videos (posted on HAF’s YouTube channel) that show the life cycle of sustainable agriculture. By celebrating “Localicious Heroes” and HAF’s “Eat, Think, Drink” campaign, students highlight the accomplishments of Hawai‘i’s local producers while gaining a deeper appreciation for local agriculture and farming practices.
“Ka Papa funds programs that may seem small. But, for a small community, there is a huge ripple effect. These opportunities for keiki provide fundamental skills and take into consideration the current state of their community in West O‘ahu,” says Meyer.
A 2023 grant through HCF’s Promising Minds Initiative is helping a Hawaiʻi Island health center upgrade its keiki screening practices.
The first few years of a child’s life are particularly critical when it comes to physical, intellectual, and emotional development. “If a child has a developmental delay, whether with speech and language or fine motor skills, they can make a lot of progress if it’s caught before the age of five,” says Cecilia Sakata, director of school-based health at Hawai‘i Island Community Health Center (HICHC), which serves 40,000 patients and around 70 percent of the Medicaid-enrolled population of Hawai‘i Island.
To make the most of this critical window of opportunity, HICHC offers Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) health care services to its young patients, providing screening tests to detect and address any potential intellectual or physical problems as soon as possible.
One traditional test is the Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS), which asks parents questions including “Do you have concerns about your child’s development?” or “Do you notice your child walks, talks, or does things differently than other peers their age?”
However, this approach has its limitations: A parent who is not familiar with developmental milestones—for example, that children should be crawling by 12 months of age or saying their first words by 15 months—may not accurately identify signs of physical, intellectual, or socioemotional delays in development.
Fortunately, Sakata says, in 2023, HICHC was able to revise and improve their screening processes, thanks in part to an Early Childhood Clinical Partnership Grant through Hawai‘i Community Foundation’s Promising Minds Initiative. For example, the Center’s pediatricians switched from the older PEDS test to the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ), a comprehensive screening tool that asks parents more tangible questions about their child’s development, such as “Can your child count to 10?” or “Can your child hop from their left foot to their right foot?”
“HCF’s Promising Minds Initiative is about the healthy development of our youngest keiki, which includes improving early childhood mental health.”
- Justina Acevedo-Cross, HCF Promising Minds program director
Additionally, the grant support helped HICHC train pediatric staff across 14 of the center’s clinical sites. Primary care providers learned the Pediatric ACEs and Related Life-events Screener (PEARLS) to assess a child’s exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as bullying or housing insecurity, which can result in toxic stress and negative health outcomes. Staff also incorporated screening notes into patients’ electronic medical records for regular follow-up, and aggregated data to better understand trends in childhood development.
This upgraded screening and ongoing support capacity made a big difference last year for the Hong family (not their real name), who had some concerns about their three-year-old daughter. Although she had already been screened as part of Medicaid’s EPSDT services at an early age, HICHC used their new ASQ screening tool, which revealed a significant delay in understanding speech and language. “This family was immediately referred to a patient navigator who helped facilitate early intervention,” Sakata says. “Being able to relay information quickly allowed the child to receive support with improving their speech and language during this critical time.”
“HCF’s Promising Minds Initiative is about the healthy development of our youngest keiki, which includes improving early childhood mental health,” says HCF Promising Minds program director Justina Acevedo-Cross. “By partnering with a trusted resource like Hawai‘i Island Community Health Center, we can help ensure that parents understand how important their role is for their child’s healthy development.”
“An issue might not have been identified until grade school, but the concern likely existed previously and represents lost months or years of intervention for the child,” she says. “This grant helps [HICHC] create a workflow for healthcare providers to be more systemic about the screening process, which leads to greater accuracy, earlier identification, and more successful outcomes for keiki.” HICHC has seen a significant increase in early detection in children under the age of 3. Before the integration of ASQ during well child visits, there were only two opportunities to screen for developmental concerns before the age of 5. Now there are 14 opportunities.
HCF’s new Hawaiian Islands Environmental Finance Center is set up to assist Hawaiʻi water boards, agencies, and community groups in landing much-needed federal funding.
Yoshi L’Hote has big plans. His nonprofit farm, ‘Āina Ho‘okupu o Kīlauea, has transformed 75 acres of junked cars and weeds into a local food hub in the heart of Kīlauea on Kaua‘i. To continue growing, the farm needs water from the nearby Kalihiwai Reservoir. But the privately owned reservoir is dangerously dilapidated, and the landowners voted to condemn it rather than shoulder the financial and legal liability.
In 2022, L’Hote launched a campaign to save Kalihiwai Reservoir, not just for his farm but for the entire community. “It’s a legacy asset,” he says. “When Hurricane Iwa hit in ’82, this is where the town got its water.” Restoring the reservoir will cost $10 million—a staggering sum for a small neighborhood farm to raise.
Fortunately, the Hawai‘i Community Foundation’s (HCF) new Hawaiian Islands Environmental Finance Center (HIEFC) is designed to handle cases exactly like this. The Center, created in 2023 and officially launched in January 2024, is the result of a special designation by the national Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Recognizing that the federal grant process can be overwhelming for small organizations, the EPA designated several finance centers across the country to assist nonprofits, community groups, and state and county agencies with grant applications.
HIEFC’s designation came with federal operating funds: $3.2 million over five years. But HIEFC doesn’t directly finance projects; rather it helps local applicants like L’Hote identify funding sources and write competitive proposals for federal funding for large-scale projects that would otherwise be out of reach.
“Sometimes our partners need more than what philanthropy can provide, even more than what county or state budgets can provide,” says Dana Okano, director of the new Center. “They need federal dollars to help them get to that place of sustainability.”
HCF applied for the EPA designation under the umbrella of its Fresh Water Initiative. Over the past decade, the Initiative has supported efforts to conserve water, reuse or recycle water, and recharge aquifers. Now, with the expanded capacity of the HIEFC, the Initiative’s goal of creating an additional 100 million gallons per day of potable water in Hawai‘i is getting closer.
The restoration of the Kalihiwai Reservoir will preserve 40 million gallons per day of freshwater. When L’Hote contacted the HIEFC for help fundraising, he says, “They partnered us with one of the best grant writers in the state. She helped us put together a proposal that we’re hoping will stand up to all the other proposals” on the continent.
“Sometimes our partners need more than what philanthropy can provide, even more than what county or state budgets can provide,” says Dana Okano, director of the new Center. “They need federal dollars to help them get to that place of sustainability.”
Thanks to the HIEFC team, Hawai‘i could soon see an upswell of water infrastructure improvements. One of the first applicants, the Mauna Kea Watershed Alliance, has successfully been granted federal funding for forest restoration on the upper elevations of Mauna Kea. Other grant proposals in the pipeline include upgrades to wastewater treatment plants and the replacement of 88,000 cesspools across the state.
The new finance center is a big win for the state—and for HCF. “In the past the EPA had authorized only 10 such centers nationwide. All of them were associated with universities and professors with special expertise,” says Okano. “As far as I know, we’re the only philanthropic organization to receive this designation. So this trust in our organization is really special.”
When professional advisor Melvin Y. Agena was confronted with the realities of unhoused families on the west side of Oʻahu, he says he couldn’t turn a blind eye.
You don’t have to work for a nonprofit organization to come up with novel solutions to address Hawai‘i’s systemic challenges. That’s something Honolulu attorney Melvin Agena learned unexpectedly as he passed by a beach on O‘ahu’s west side.
“I think most people, like myself, wait for charitable institutions to say, ‘Would you like to donate?’” says Agena. “But then one day in 2015, Graham LippSmith, a class-action attorney teammate, and I saw many houseless families with young children living on the beach across from Makua Cave.”
Agena says the image of one of the children, a toddler wandering aimlessly in diapers, shocked him and sticks with him to this day. And it compelled him to take action.
At the time, Agena was working with a team of attorneys to litigate several class-action structural home defect cases. After the first case was settled, there were residual class action settlement funds left over. With the support and encouragement of LippSmith and the rest of the team, Agena reached out to HCF to explore options for using these funds to address the issue of unhoused in West O‘ahu.
“I think most people, like myself, wait for charitable institutions to say, ‘Would you like to donate?’” says Agena. “But then one day in 2015, Graham LippSmith, a class-action attorney teammate, and I saw many houseless families with young children living on the beach across from Makua Cave.”
The leftover funds, legally known as cy pres awards—meaning “as near as possible”—are settlement funds that are unclaimed by individual class members or are funds that are impractical to distribute due to the small amounts involved and the large number of class members. To address this issue, the courts grant cy pres awards to beneficiaries, often nonprofit charitable organizations like HCF, that address related issues as near as possible to those underlying the class action lawsuit.
“It’s an ingenious, outside-of-the-box idea to use cy pres funds to address houselessness,” says Kawena Beaupre, HCF’s general counsel, whose team provides the Court with HCF’s plan for the funds, and an annual financial and progress update. “We need innovative solutions like Mel’s to tackle Hawai‘i’s systemic problems.”
Agena’s idea has transformed the lives of more than 395 households in West O‘ahu thanks to nearly $6 million in cy pres awards, including $3.7 million awarded in 2023, distributed to the West O‘ahu Homeless Funds, which are field of interest funds at HCF supporting nonprofits that provide shelter, outreach, and permanent housing services for unhoused families on the west side of O‘ahu, including military veterans. The cy pres funding continues, with more money in the pipeline to help address houselessness.
Agena, who received a 2023 Outstanding Professional Advisor in Philanthropy Award from HCF for inspiring the local community of lawyers, accountants, and other professional advisors to incorporate philanthropy into their practice, says the experience changed his perception of charitable institutions’ capacity. Now he encourages others to think outside the box just like he did.
"If you're interested in doing something, even if you think it’s a crazy idea, talk to different charitable foundations. See what they can do to help turn your idea into reality."
HCF is seeing success with a new program that supports staff, encouraging them to thrive—not just survive—in their work and life.
In early 2023, HCF reorganized and refreshed our human resources department, which is now called People Operations and Growth Department, or POG for short. We also unveiled Thrive and Grow, which is “both a program and a philosophy,” says Jamee Kunichika, who was vice president of people operations and organizational planning at HCF in 2023.
“During COVID, our crisis response for the community was immediate and needed, but we recognized that staff were in survival mode,” says Kunichika. “Coming out of that, we wanted to figure out how we can meet employees where they are and support them in their individual journeys.”
“It’s about how engaged staff are with their work, each other, and with HCF,” she says. “In addition to employee retention, this has an effect on health, productivity, absenteeism, stakeholder satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and organizational culture.”
For example, Thrive and Grow does not use traditional annual performance goals for employees, instead POG asks employees to identify their top work priorities, ways they can “lean in” to strengthen relationships across the organization, and specific support tactics that HCF could provide to aid in their success. This approach allows for recognizing progress instead of arbitrary markers, and encourages individuals and teams to think toward long-range, big-picture thinking. What is your overall strategy, and how are you going to accomplish it?
The program was rolled out via a series of meetings first with supervisors, then with all other staff. While the program was developed in response to COVID and its aftermath, it also has helped the HCF team deal with another challenge: weathering the intense stress of the ongoing response to the Maui wildfires of August 2023.
“It’s about how engaged staff are with their work, each other, and with HCF,” she says. “In addition to employee retention, this has an effect on health, productivity, absenteeism, stakeholder satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and organizational culture.”
POG led with a ‘3Cs’ approach to help staff members, Kunichika says. The first C is Care for oneself (including contracting external employee assistance programs and 1-on-1 check-ins). The second C is Connect with each other (including weekly in-person lunches in the office for staff who wanted to take a break and connect with others). The third C stands for Communicate across the organization (including regular updates from Micah Kāne on HCF developments impacting all staff.).
Thrive and Grow is intended to be an ongoing, evolving conversation with HCF’s team members, and Jamie Mitte, people partner in the POG department, says they intend to keep collecting feedback to further improve their approach.
“Of course, we’re looking for increased employee engagement, which you can measure.” Mitte says. “But, at the end of the day, we spend half of our lives here at work, so let’s make this enjoyable, fun, and worthwhile. We want to make an impact in the community, but for me, it’s also about nurturing people’s souls and recognizing ones’ sense of worth and contribution.”
Hawai‘i deserves a diverse and growing economy that allows people to earn incomes and build assets while also affording opportunities for a good quality of life.
Charlene Schulenburg is a Kīhei girl who moved back home over a decade ago with her husband, Gary Passon, after successful careers in Los Angeles’ entertainment and high-tech sectors, respectively, to contribute their time, talent, and treasure to the Maui community in multiple capacities, including service on several local nonprofit boards. Carrying on the legacy of her late father’s goodwill and good work in the community, Schulenburg operates from the heart as connector, consultant, campaign manager, and grant writer for an array of community-based efforts, as well as treasurer of a U.S. Department of the Interior-certified Native Hawaiian Organization based on Maui and president of the Kīhei Community Association. Passon, a leading AI scholar, past board chair of Hawai‘i Habitat for Humanity Association and past vice chair of its Maui affiliate, and nominee for the Maui Planning Commission, operates from the head, advising numerous organizations on finance, tech, and his passion around the inter-related challenges of housing affordability and workforce development on Maui. Their Schulenburg Passon Community Fund at HCF financially supports organizations fulfilling their vision of restoring and renewing Maui’s community and economy, and they also make other contributions to support Maui, for example quickly making a significant donation to the Maui Strong Fund in the wake of the August 2023 wildfires.
Hawai‘i deserves access to care that improves our quality of life and keeps our ‘ohana safe and thriving.
The commitment of Johnson & Johnson Foundation to help communities and their health systems recover, rebuild, and be resilient after a disaster was further demonstrated when they learned about HCF following the devastating Maui wildfires. The Foundation engaged in a thoughtful evaluation of HCF’s vision, mission, and priorities, and recognizing the alignment to nurture human health across all life stages, they made a generous $100,000 donation to HCF’s Health & Wellness Fund, to leverage the critical need for the recovery, health, and wellbeing of the people of Maui.
Continue cultivating Hawai‘i’s rich culture and arts scene can enrich the social, economic, and physical elements of a community.
Having gone far from his rural Kaua‘i upbringing, London-based attorney Wayne James Rapozo, Esquire, believes that cultural traditions hold the fabric of civic life together, bolstering Hawai‘i’s sense of dignity and self-worth while integrating newcomers into a vibrant and meaningful community. Finding that a small but dynamic group can make a huge difference, the Rapozo Kama‘āina Fund he founded at HCF is committed to preserving the rich cultural tapestry of Hawai‘i’s heritage, particularly on his native Kaua‘i, by supporting grassroots organizations like the Waipā Foundation, a leader in nurturing and sharing Hawaiian culture, the Honpa Hongwanji Mission, whose bon dances are important unifying social events for the entire community, and Hālau Ka Lei Mokihana O Leina‘ala, a Merrie Monarch standout devoted to the history, language, and authenticity of hula.
Combine efforts to protect and preserve our natural resources are vital to keeping Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi.
The Friends of Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, a nonprofit devoted to conserving the unique flora, fauna, and wildlife on Hawaiʻi Island, is a group of more than 400 hardworking, hands-on, committed members who share a passion for supporting the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, consisting of 48,278 acres on the slopes of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, including the only location in the state where native forest bird populations are stable or increasing. In 2023, the Friends celebrated the Year of the ‘I‘iwi, an iconic red honeycreeper—one of the refuge’s more than 30 critically endangered species found nowhere outside of Hawai‘i—by adding almost $300,000 to the Hakalau Forest Refuge Management Endowment Fund managed by HCF, through the generous contributions of Friends’ membership and other interested donors who want to save endangered birds and provide quality habitat for refuge wildlife. Since the endowment fund’s creation in 2015, $1.2 million has been raised in support of preserving Hakalau Forest.
Working together, we can position Hawaiʻi as a model for local and global civic responsibility and collaborative policy development.
Established by Richard Palmer Kaleioku Smart in 1992, the Parker Ranch Foundation Trust provides annual distributions to the Richard Smart Fund (RSF) at HCF to support healthcare, education, and charitable purposes and programs in the Kamuela area on Hawai‘i Island. In 2023, HCF contracted Mahina Paishon-Duarte of Waiwai Collective to conduct Waimea Futures, a series of community engagement conversations with a diverse cross-section of Waimea’s residents to update the fund’s grant program to
address current interests, challenges, and opportunities. The Waimea Community Weaving Hui, a community advisory group that supports the work of Waimea Futures, collaborated with HCF to discuss how to best use the RSF and other resources to build trust, collaborate, increase capacity, and support community-driven solutions. Members of the Weaving Hui have committed time and shared their knowledge and experiences, recognizing their kuleana (responsibility) to take on this work for Waimea’s future.
Only with a serious focus on educating the next generation properly can Hawai‘i hope to find solutions to our most invasive challenges.
Dr. David M. K. Mattson Jr. is a radiation oncologist whose pursuit of an MD was motivated by HCF scholarships he received as a student. Wanting to pay his experience forward, Mattson and his extended ‘ohana endowed the Daniel K. and Millie Akaka ‘Ohana Scholarship Fund at HCF in honor of his grandparents. Benefitting Hawai‘i-connected students, the scholarship is an extension of Mattson’s work as president of the Daniel Kahikina Akaka Family Foundation, which focuses on education and service, mixed in with the late Senator Akaka’s legacy of aloha, through programs like a youth leadership camp, teachers workshop, donations of more than 250,000 books to children, and a platform for the sharing of indigenous knowledge. Visit HCF’s News and Stories section on our website to read more about Dr. Mattson.
Welcome to the Hawai‘i Community Foundation’s 2023 Annual Report. It was an eventful, challenging year, and we’re proud to share the work and progress we’ve made in 2023. In addition to reporting on HCF’s financial performance, we also have updates on the meaningful work being done by our partners and grantees, inspiring stories of generosity from donors across the state and abroad, and a look at what’s coming up on the HCF horizon.
Welcome Letter +
One of the ways HCF pursues our mission of building equity and investing in Hawai‘i’s communities is through the work of our three key initiatives, focused on affordable housing on Maui, early childhood behavioral health, and the supply of fresh water in our islands. Here are a few of the highlights of the work HCF accomplished in 2023.
View All +In addition to its key initiatives, HCF partners with organizations and government entities in a variety of programs, and oversees several funds dedicated to doing important work throughout Hawai‘i to fulfill our mission of building equity, forging connections, and investing in community, for the benefit of our Islands’ people and places. Here are some of the highlights of our program and fund work in 2023.
View All +
A year ago, hearts across Hawai‘i and the world were broken as fires swept through Lahaina and Upcountry Maui, claiming 102 precious lives. HCF activated the Maui Strong Fund within hours, to support the immediate response, interim stability, and long-term recovery needs for the people and places of Maui affected by the fires.
Read More +
An important new initiative, Rediscovering Hawai‘i’s Soul, is focused on solving some of the Islands’ most pressing challenges, including climate change, housing, and education, by convening a diverse set of leaders in conversation.
Read More +
HCF’s Ka Papa o Kākuhihewa Fund shows the power of community leadership to enact change, making the most of a relatively small endowment by relying on the knowledge of advisory committee members rooted in the West Side neighborhoods it serves.
Read More +
When it comes to a child’s healthy development, the first few years are the most crucial—the earlier doctors can identify a problem with physical, intellectual or emotional development, the better equipped they are to successfully treat the child. A 2023 grant through HCF’s Promising Minds Initiative is helping Hawaiʻi Island health clinics upgrade their screening practices.
Read More +
In 2023, HCF established the Hawaiian Islands Environmental Finance Center, to help nonprofits, community groups, and government agencies across the state access federal funding for infrastructure projects that will help in achieving the Fresh Water Initiative goals of improving long-term water security through conservation, reuse, and recharge.
Read More +
When professional advisor Melvin Y. Agena was confronted with the realities of unhoused families on the west side of Oʻahu, he says he couldn’t turn a blind eye. He found a way to direct class-action lawsuit settlement funds to support local nonprofits providing shelter, outreach, and permanent housing services.
Read More +
A new strategy out of HCF’s People Operations and Growth Department, called Thrive and Grow, debuted in early 2023. Its goal is to lift up HCF employees, not just to support their professional growth, but develop their whole selves, for a healthy work/life balance that’s both productive and sustainable.
Read More +
One of HCF’s greatest strengths is the enduring support of our donors. We are thankful for the profound impact they continue to have on our community. Their unwavering generosity and commitment to making Hawai‘i a better place enable transformative change across pivotal sectors of our society.
Here, we share examples of donors contributing their resources and passion to champion the range of sectors targeted for systems change in the CHANGE Framework, demonstrating the breadth and depth of change possible through philanthropy.
We have been working to evolve the CHANGE Framework-and to center the community in developing a long-term vision and theory of change for each of its six sectors. To do this, we’ve convened a diverse group of partners across Hawaiʻi to gather input, and are currently synthesizing and building out an updated and expanded version of the Framework. This collaborative work ensures that the Framework is both grounded in data and community-informed to address Hawaiʻi's most pressing needs, and uplifts the work that is already being done by hundreds of community and nonprofit partners across the state. We’ll be rolling out the first updated sectors in late 2024.
As a community foundation with more than 107 years of experience in supporting the people and places of Hawai‘i, we know the value of long-term planning and strategy—while also remaining flexible to evolve with community needs. To make sure that HCF is well prepared for the years ahead, we’re working on a new strategic plan that will shape the foundation’s direction over the next decade.
In the plan, we’re doubling down on our commitment to changing long-held systems that are no longer working for Hawaiʻi’s people, with a focus on the initiatives we run—from housing cost burden to freshwater abundance—which will help to ensure our collective outcomes are inclusive with equity for all.
Interested in working with us? Whether you'd like to learn more about opening up a fund, are a Hawai‘i nonprofit looking for additional support, or just want to understand more about the many different initiatives and funds that HCF supports—we'd love to have a conversation with you!
hawaiicommunityfoundation.org
O‘ahu
827 Fort Street Mall
Honolulu, HI 96813
(808) 537-6333
Maui
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Kahului, HI 96732
(808) 242-6184
Kaua‘i
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Līhu‘e, HI 96766
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