ABOUT you A PUBLIC SERVICE MESSAGE
P HI L A N THROP Y: IT ’ S AL L
The Ka Papa Fund supported projects that helped Nanakuli High & Intermediate students restore Ka‘ena Point. PHOTO: PAULINE SATO
New Opportunity, New Possibility
The Power of a Single Gift and the Leadership to Make it Last ➻
WHEN HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES
decided to make a multi-year commitment to the betterment of leeward coast communities — where their power plant marked the landscape and their customer base continued to grow — they turned to the residents, the people who’d call the coast home for decades, the ones who knew best what they needed. “Resiliency knows no bounds,” said Cynthia Rezentes, community leader and resident. “Leeward coast people are resilient. If we believe in it, we get it done.” When HEI asked Rezentes and other leaders
from the coast to steward their donation - $1 million over a period of ten years – they knew they were in good hands. For Rezentes and her team, it was a big undertaking. The needs were many while the funding was finite. “We wanted to have money left over after the ten years, she said, “to keep the momentum going.” They turned to HCF to create an endowment and guide them through the grantmaking and investment process, planning for the long-term, not just for the decade. It worked. The Ka Papa O Kakuhihewa Fund at HCF has provided over $500,000 in funding to more than 20 organizations along the coast since its inception nine years ago, and they are looking ahead to continue their presence through the established endowment after HEI’s final contribution. “I’ve not seen one project that we’ve supported that hasn’t created something positive for our kids and our community,” Rezentes said. From its inception, the fund’s work focused on empowering youth, opening new career paths, options, and possibilities. The advisory committee to the fund along with HCF recognized how little the youth understood about the community, from landfills to the military range to the value of the ‘aina. One
of the projects funded was “Restoring Ka‘ena Point,” which connected Wai‘anae Coast’s youth and kupuna in the environmental and cultural preservation of a treasured place. Conservation professionals and cultural specialists, coordinated by Malama Hawai‘i and Malama Learning Center, brought students from Wai‘anae Coast high schools to Ka‘ena to learn about native species and their heritage. Students were asked to interpret what they saw. “They wrote plays and music and created art,” said Rezentes. “They got it.” Other funding went to marine biology and science projects, teaching students to understand the interdependence of man and nature. “One young girl went away and did her own currents and tides project because of that real-time demonstration. Now it’s her passion, her career path,” Rezentes said. Change doesn’t happen overnight. Perhaps HEI knew that. “What we see today is the community, as a collective, more aware of what’s around them, what it means, and what they can do to make a difference,” Rezentes reflected. “All these things would’ve never happened except for this fund, exposing our kids to things they’d have never known.”
Did You Know … Funds, like Ka Papa, that are focused on a specific geographic area allow the community to direct grants where most needed.
» To learn how it's about you, visit HawaiiCommunityFoundation.org/you JULY 2016 · HAWAII BUSINESS 113
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