Uplifting what makes Hawai'i amazing

Aloha friends & family.

While fundraising is something that feels uncomfortable for me, this is a cause I'm passionate about. Cultural Restoration!!! Environmental Restoration!!! Community Restoration!!! All in one and so much more. Even $5 truly adds up quickly and warms the heart of many.

My Personal Why: Many of you know, and the rest of you can likely imagine, the grand impact Hawai’i has had on my quality of life. Perhaps it's had a grand impact on your quality of life as well. Through the fresh food, the land, the air, the clear ocean, the supportive relaxed community, the rich culture, and the spirit of Aloha my quality of life has been deeply enriched. As the gifts I’ve received living here have far outweighed what I’ve managed to reciprocate, it’s been easy to understand not only the global draw to Hawai'i but also the heavy and depleting impact Hawai’i experiences by ‘being paradise’ without reciprocal tending to what makes it so. As I’ve come to understand, this is not how Aloha works. Hawai'i People's Fund (HPF) directly funds and empowers many service-based non-profits that do this exact work of tending to what makes Hawai'i the treasure it is.

As those close to me know, after living on Hawai'i Island for 7 years, I seized an opportunity to buy land and instead moved off the island one main reason because my reciprocity was lacking and I felt the increasingly painful impacts of lack of integrity. With the knowledge of the impact Hawai'i experiences due to westernization (colonization) and tourism, living without applying it would have been chosen ignorance. I had to realign my values. One of the multiple ways in which I’m shifting to feel more integrity and reciprocity is by working with Hawai’i People's Fund: The Giving Project.

Who is HPF? They are a grassroots community empowering of local-run service projects and nonprofits that protect and restore land, communities, and health for an equitable Hawai'i. They teach, they fund-shifting, and they build relationships. I’m enrolled in a 6-month program to build connections, learn and practice giving back through education, time, energy, and the valuable resource of money.

They are currently working with 31 small businesses (link for list & description) which will receive the funds. Of these 31, 30 are Person of Color lead, 23 are wahine (woman) lead, and 22 are kanaka (pacific islander) lead. The grand finale of my 6-month experience with the giving project in a fundraiser opportunity that will be divided equally amongst all 31 small service projects, to help them continue doing their important restoration work.

What you can do & why: Donate even $5, it adds up quickly! Share with those you know who have been impacted by Hawai'i or someone who lives there. Consider donating if you; have ever been to Hawai'i, benefitted from knowing someone from or who's lived in Hawai'i, care about me and trust my values, care about environmental restoration, community restoration, care about decolonization, like the idea of paradises being taken care of...

What else am I doing? While I am donating my own generous amount of money which is significant for me based on my the time I've lived here and have access too, I am also interested in meeting all of my donors.

For every $20 donated, I will volunteer an hour of my time contributing to a service project. This commitment helps me honor the donors by meeting money with action, and to maintain my own accountability of contributing to reciprocity, putting my time where my values lay, and continue building relationships. I will update those interested in hearing about what I learn through working with these service projects.

For every donation of $100 or more, I will send you a small gift purchase from one of these non-profits

If you are unable to give financially, please know that conversation and relationship building is so valuable within themselves and I’d be happy to connect about anything above which strikes your values.

Much Much Appreciation! Mahalo Nui Loa!

HPF's Giving Project in their own words: The Giving Project: interweaves a cross-class, cross-race, gender-diverse, intergenerational collective that shares a vision for a just and equitable Hawaiʻi to apply our time, talent, and resources to supporting movements for social change by uplifting, advocating for, and raising funds to support HPFʻs community partners who are combatting systems of oppression every day. Our hui is working together virtually and in person to learn about and connect with grassroots organizations here at home, deepening our understanding of Hawaiʻi’s unique history and contemporary social justice principles, and engaging in collective liberation learning and practices to amplify and illuminate social change efforts throughout our pae ʻāina.