Be part of the movement for a more just, equitable, and sustainable Hawai'i

📣 6/4/23 update — I'm thrilled to report that 96 people joined me in solidarity to move money to grassroots progressive movement building in Hawai'i!!! And as a collective, Giving Project 2023 raised $144,900 for HPF's community partners!!! 🙌

👉 To continue supporting social justice work in Hawai'i, please give via this link. ✨

❤️ MAHALO for being part of this collective effort! ❤️

If you've ever been to Hawai'i, you know it's a special place. Maybe it's home for you. Maybe, like me, you have roots there. Maybe, like my family, you have a second home there (or maybe you've stayed in ours!). My own relationship to Hawai'i is complicated: for me, it is at once an ancestral homeland and, if I am being honest, an idyllic retreat in paradise.

Lately it's been hard for me to shake the feeling that, like so many visitors to the islands, I've unconsciously participated in a tourist industry that is extractive and exploitative. That I've taken much more from Hawai'i than I've given back.

Have you ever felt this way?

For me, that feeling stops now. By joining the Giving Project of Hawai'i People's Fund (HPF), I am committing my time and my money to doing better for my people and for all those who call Hawai'i home. I am stepping into community with 18 others in my hui (alliance, union) to uplift and raise funds for HPFʻs community partners. As a collective, we are moving significant money to 31 underfunded, Hawai'i-based social justice organizations, each of which is combatting systems of oppression every day.

I invite you, too, to give back to this special place. Together, we can support the community groups working for a more just, equitable, and sustainable Hawai'i.

I hope at least 48 of you will answer this kāhea (call) for solidarity. I chose this number to honor my father, who was Kanaka Maoli (Indigenous Hawaiian) and who passed away at age 48. At the time of his death he was doing his life’s work: helping others heal from addiction, using culturally-competent practices before we had the words to describe community healing in this way. By participating in Giving Project, I hope to extend his legacy and to put into practice our shared kuleana (privilege and responsibility) to home.

We surpassed my original participation goal! 🙌 Let's keep it going!

Inspiration from the movement ✨

HPF's community partners fight systems of oppression in all kinds of ways, including working to demilitarize Hawai'i, restore the land, revitalize our language and cultural practices, keep Hawaiian families in their homes, organize workers, end period poverty, protect sacred spaces, rematriate our ancestors' bones from museums around the world, and train youth organizers to keep the pressure on the U.S. Navy to shut down the leaking Red Hill fuel tanks that endanger 93,000 O'ahu residents' fresh water supply.

Of HPF's 31 grantees, 26 of them are Kanaka Maoli-led, 18 are led by women, and 16 received their first ever grant from HPF. One of the many things I love about HPF is that they take risks on orgs that are often shut out of early-stage grantmaking, thereby laying a foundation for future grantseeking from more traditional funders.

Please watch this video of our worldwide Hawaiian community, coming together to protect sacred Indigenous spaces.

Hawaiʻi Peopleʻs Fund is a 501c3 nonprofit organization registered in the State of Hawaiʻi (Tax ID/EIN 23-7250803). Our mission is to fund, support, and amplify the work of Hawai’i-based grassroots organizations challenging systems of oppression.

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