Each month, about 100 people volunteer to wade knee-deep into muddy water to pull weeds and use traditional farming methods to maintain a series of Kaneohe taro patches. The nonprofit Papahana Kuaola hosts these Waipao Hana Days on the fourth…
When Denise Albano and Patti Chang founded Feed the Hunger Foundation in 2008, they had one goal: end poverty and hunger by providing low-income people with loans and other support. Though the foundation started with microloans to the poor and…
Spend any time with Hawaii executives and chances are the discussion will turn to leadership and community. The business leaders I know take a broad view of their responsibilities regarding public welfare, and are always looking for new initiatives to…
Working out of donated space on a shoestring budget with just one part-time employee and a volunteer board filled with some of the state’s most influential businesswomen, the nonprofit Women’s Fund of Hawaii supports unique programs for women and children.…
Though it was an ocean away, the devastating earthquake, tsunami and ensuing nuclear crisis that ravaged northeastern Japan in March 2011 struck Hawaii in the heart. People all over the world grieved over the magnitude of the tragedy, but it…
Jasmine “Tita” Kuhaulua never thought college was an option while she was in high school. After graduation, she had three children in quick succession and the possibility of college receded further. But, the Waialeale Project has changed everything for the 25-year-old, part-time…
Hanahauoli School The first rule of not-for-profits,” writes nonprofit consultant Peter Brinckerhoff, “is mission, mission, and more mission.” Mission, he points out, is a nonprofit organization’s legal reason for existence. It’s why the staff works long hours, often for a…
As a former top executive at Aloha Airlines, Aloha Island Air, Roberts Hawaii and theHawaii Superferry, Neil Takekawa has had more than his share of high-flying corporate jobs, with their big salaries and big headaches. Now, as COO at the nonprofit Japanese Cultural…
During 100 years of service at Palama Settlement, the faces have changed. In the early years, the nonprofit helped Japanese, Chinese and Hawaiians. Later, a helping hand went to Filipinos, Samoans, Tongans and Laotians. More recently, Micronesians have been coming.…
