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GRASSROOTS
SOCIAL CHANGE
SINCE 1972

Mission

Giving Project

In January 2024, Hawai’i People’s Fund embarked on its 4th sail of our Giving Project journey to radically transform the way we move money to movements for real change from the roots up. This innovative, inclusive, intentional vessel provides safe and brave spaces for collaborations between diverse groups of people, bringing together shared values, passions, and abilities that center around intergenerational progress and socio-cultural wellbeing.

Our Giving Project journey promises to take our collective efforts to the next level.

Join HPFʻs Giving Project ʻ24 in moving money to movements!

Help them reach their goal

For more information on how to connect directly with HPF, contact Micky Huihui, Executive Director at peoples@lava.net

The Giving Project

Giving Projects are created for individuals and families that want to strengthen their relationships, skills, understanding, leadership, and purpose to support meaningful community building that is genuinely in service to our stories, places, and people. Hearkening back to our roots as a part of the Funding Exchange network, HPF joins our FEX ‘ohana to uplift this social change model that has sustained Hawai’i’s grassroots movement for over 50 years.

Hawaiʻi People’s Fund serves as a nexus of community, culture and justice and has been a critical partner in investing in equitable solutions to Hawai‘i’s social and environmental problems. May we all support those building a thriving future for our islands.

– Chloe Hartwell – GP21

Hawaiʻi Peopleʻs Fund is a safe space to stand in solidarity with and fight for the survivance of Hawaiʻi!

– Kat Burke GP21

I am forever grateful for HPF for activating my consciousness around how I can serve our community in effective and meaningful ways.

– Angel Permito Kaheaku GP21

As one of the many in our Hawai’i diaspora, supporting HPF feels like is an important way to connect back to home and support community-driven social change!

– Jamie Stroble – GP21

I love the far reaching support the Hawaiʻi People’s Fund offers to so many passionate grassroots organizations who are working through all the social injustices and challenges our Hawai`i is experiencing.

– Kalei Nuʻuhiwa – GP21

Because real change requires more than just charity.

– Chase Livingston – GP22

HPF supports and empowers organizations that matter and that fight to put Hawai’i first.

– Carol Linde – GP22

I love that HPF’s community-based philanthropy model connects community giving to Kanaka-led grassroots groups and movements. It allows people across class and race to move in unison towards a vision for justice in Hawai’i, with community leaders at the forefront.

– Mary Tam – GP22

When HPF exclaims “Fund the Power” and “Change Not Charity” they mean it and do it! Being a member of the Giving Project cohort has been such an incredible experience in my life.

– Greg Kahn – GP22

Hawaiʻi People’s Fund helps bring light on organizations across Hawaiʻi who are at the grassroots dedicating their time, energy, and love to their communities. I feel grateful to be connected to HPF and for all the learning it has provided me!

– Kayla Carlisle – GP22

The Giving Project interweaves a cross-class, cross-race, gender-diverse, intergenerational collective that shares a vision for a just and equitable Hawai’i to apply their time, talent, and resources to supporting movements for social change. The hui will work together virtually and in-person to learn about and connect with grassroots organizations here at home, deepen their understanding of Hawai’i’s unique history and contemporary social justice principles, and engage in collective liberation learning and practices to amplify and illuminate social change efforts throughout our pae ‘āina.

HPF and its grantees constantly and fearlessly go after the root causes of so many of the biggest issues facing the ʻāina, the lāhui, and all kamaʻāina, and theyʻre such a huge reason the front lines are being pushed forward!

– Tyler Sonnemaker – GP22

Fund shifting is an important part of making sure our whole community thrives!

– Kumella Aiu – GP22

HPF is an inspiration throughout the archipelago! Thank you for your continued community support and all of the badassery you help mobilize in Hawai’i Nei. Social change begins with HPF and we are all beneficiaries of their crucial role in mobilizing networks of care and radical upheaval.

– Becka Garrison – GP23

I support HPF because I believe in a just and equitable Hawai’i that dignifies the land, cultural practices, and life.

– Maxx Ramos – GP22

HPF is stand-alone magic in terms of the broad reach, rooted approach, and longstanding relationships of its grant- and change-making power.

– Malia Smith – GP21

HPF is the answer, people in meaningful, productive, compassionate caring relationships

– Maile Meyer – GP21

It’s a tremendous organization, rallying support for a diverse range of local social justice, aloha aina and culturally empowering efforts.

– Tenaya Jackman – GP21

Grassroots organizing = Power to the people

– Sean Aronson – GP22

This is exactly the kind of organization I’m happy to give my time and energy to. I totally vibe with everything HPF stands for and the orgs its helping to amplify. Change not charity, FTW!

– Rebecca DiLiberto – GP22

FAQs

How do Giving Projects work?

The Giving Project is an experiential collaborative journey. It requires a commitment of your time and energy over a period of six months.

  • The Giving Project is a cross-class, multiracial hui of 15-20 people that commit to gathering in sessions over the course of 6 months (2 sessions per month)
  • Through these collaborative sessions, the hui co-develops a shared understanding of how injustice, racism, classism, and power plays out in Hawaiʻi
  • Each hui member commits to moving money to grassroots organizations through community-sourced grants and relationship building.  The HPF Giving Project facilitators will provide meaningful tools, experiences, and resources, supporting you along the way.
  • Hui members will learn and experience HPF’s consensus-based grantmaking process. You will have the opportunity to build relationships with grantees, read about the important work they are doing in community, participate in site visits to meet the change makers, make collective decisions, and provide community-raised resources to inspiring social change and environmental movement builders in Hawaiʻi.

Giving Projects are collaborative community processes that will explore:

  • Community building, including personal storytelling, group activities, and discussions while setting personal & collective goals
  • Meaningful learning about classism and racism, and its history in Hawaiʻi
  • Social justice philanthropy, underscoring HPF’s grantmaking criteria and decision-making processes
  • Community-led giving focused on grassroots fundraising
  • Ongoing relationship building through HPF’s network and other Giving Project hui members
  • Site visits and virtual talk story sessions with grassroot organizations to learn more about their initiatives
  • Collaborative decision making and grantmaking
  • Celebrate community successes, evaluate the process, and uplift the collective relationships built through the Giving Project
What kinds of organizations are funded through the Giving Project?

The Giving Project hui will collaborate with HPF’s annual grantmaking process, resourcing grassroots community organizing led by the people most impacted by injustice and working towards transformative systemic change.  More specifically, we will move resources to organizations that:

  • …are led by the people most directly affected by the issues they are addressing  
  • …continually build leadership from within their own communities, membership, and support base
  • …actively address the root causes of inequity impacting Hawaiʻi, not just the symptoms
  • …bring people together to build power collectively
  • …use that power to create transformative systemic change, which includes shape shifting unjust power relations
  • …see themselves as part of a larger collective movement for social change
Who can participate in a Giving Project?
  • People who are committed to equity, social, and environmental justice (even if you’re still figuring out what that looks like in practice)
  • People of any class identity, with or without access to wealth
  • People ready to fully commit to the Giving Project experiential process
  • You do not have to be an HPF member prior to joining a Giving Project
  • You do not have to know anything about grassroots organizations, non-profits, philanthropy, community resourcing or the giving focus of the project
  • You do not have to donate any particular amount of resources; there is no minimum or maximum amount

DO join the Giving Project if you…

  • …want to build community with a group of people committed to genuine conversations, collaborative experiences, and growing together
  • …want to work as a collective to move money to powerful grassroots organizing throughout Hawaiʻi
  • …want to learn how to engage in community giving practices
  • …have the space to take on a powerful and transformative experience for the next 6 months
I’m interested, but uncomfortable with grantmaking and community giving. What should I do?

A lot of people are not comfortable with community-led giving — a lot of us feel uncomfortable and avoid doing it even in support of really important work. There are many reasons for this, and we all explore these reasons together. Weʻll learn how to ask for resources effectively, and support each other through the process. Weʻll get real clear about why we are doing it, and become organizers capable of engaging with others to move resources to movement work. We ask every Giving Project hui member to rise to the occasion, which will mean different things to different people. And you’ll have lots of kōkua along the way!

I’m not in Hawaiʻi at the moment. Can I still participate in a Giving Project?

We can make accommodations for people who want to participate outside of Hawaiʻi. Please contact us to discuss how we can help you participate in a Giving Project. 

Hawaiʻi People’s Fund is proud to collaborate with other community foundations and justice funders in the national development of the Giving Project model. The following funds offer Giving Projects in their cities as well:

I’m interested, but can’t participate this time. How else can I support the Giving Project?