100 Years of Giving
Hawai‘i Community Foundation celebrates a century of helping Hawai‘i Island
| By Denise Laitinen
The Hawai‘i Community Foundation West Hawai‘i Fund was established in 1990 by the West Hawai‘i Donors’ Group consisting of, Left to Righ: Roberta Transue, Virginia Isbell, Gloria Blum and Bill Wong. Not pictured: Alan Wilcox.
HCF works with donors of all sizes—some are individuals who want to connect with reputable charities or a family that wants to give back to the community while honoring the family name. Others are collaborative funding partnerships, like the East Hawai‘i and West Hawai‘i Funds. HCF handles all the administrative, financial, and grants services, making it easier for people to contribute to a charity of their choice. For decades, HCF quietly went about supporting various nonprofit groups on O‘ahu and the neighbor islands. For instance, in 1963 Mary Wilson Crawford left a legacy gift to establish a fund supporting Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy and two arts program on O‘ahu: the Honolulu Symphony and Honolulu Academy of Arts. Three years later, Alice Soper made a sizable donation to the Foundation that enabled HCF to provide grants for many years to organizations on Hawai‘i Island that help children with special needs and the elderly. Her donation enabled HCF to provide grant funding to organizations like the Bay Clinic and Hawai‘i Island Adult Day Care. The Foundation underwent major changes in 1987 when it was given its current name, Hawai‘i Community Foundation, and restructured with the creation of a Board of Governors and multiple trustees. Hawai‘i Island residents have been involved in HCF’s Board of Governors from its inception with Robert Fujimoto of Hilo appointed to the board in 1987. Foundation leaders at the time saw that a large public foundation could amplify its philanthropic efforts greater than many smaller funds. Shortly thereafter, they created donor
N
onprofit organizations can impact our lives in so many ways that we aren’t always aware of how much we benefit from their services. For 100 years, Hawai‘i Community Foundation (HCF) has been helping nonprofit organizations statewide, including dozens on Hawai‘i Island. Yet, most people are unaware of the breadth and depth of the community work done by HCF. In the past five years, Hawai‘i Community Foundation has distributed more than $18 million in grants and scholarships to nonprofit groups across Hawai‘i Island. Funds from HCF have touched nearly every aspect of life on our island from helping support community hospitals, to providing financial literacy training to the homeless, to offering more than 200 different scholarships to island students. Hawai‘i Community Foundation got its start back in 1916 on O‘ahu when the Hawaiian Trust Company formed the Hawaiian Foundation, in order to distribute funds that weren’t tied to someone’s will or trust to those in need. Business and community leaders who want to give back to the community, bequeath money in their estate or make donations to the foundation that go into a fund, which in turn are donated to local nonprofit organizations and scholarship programs.
Kealakehe High School STEM Team works with PISCES Moon RIDER to design a NASA project.
advised funds, creating grant programs that connected the interest of a donor with specific needs in a community. For example, in 1996, Oscar and Ernestine Armstrong established a donor advised fund that supported organizations such as Family Support Services of West Hawai‘i, The Salvation Army, the Boy Scouts, and the Food Basket. Philanthropic efforts on Hawai‘i Island increased even more in 1990, when a group of West Hawai‘i community leaders consisting of Gloria Blum, Virginia Isbell, Roberta Transue, Alan Wilcox, and Bill Wong created the West Hawai‘i Fund and “Monty” Richards of Kahua Ranch was appointed to the HCF Board of Governors. Hawai‘i Community Foundation’s impact on Hawai‘i Island really kicked into high gear when the organization opened its first office on island in 2000.