ABOUT US

COVID-19 and the related shocks to the non-profit sector reaffirmed the need for a community-driven Donor Advised Fund (DAF) offering in Hawaiʻi. Ho‘iwai’s core team spent 2020 exploring the possibility and feasibility of expanding the offerings for DAF holders and their beneficiaries in Hawaiʻi. Our interviews with the philanthropic sector helped us to identify best practices in trust-based, equity driven philanthropy. Our community interviews inflected these practices with local and native Hawaiian values. Our interviews with equity driven philanthropic service providers helped us to understand how we could link these service providers together to serve Hawaiʻi’s donors. 


The Ho‘iwai Fund (HF) is a collaborative effort to co-create a new mechanism to distribute philanthropic capital across the Hawaiian islands. Using a human-centered design approach to developing its structure and operations, this social justice grant making and impact fund is being built from an understanding of the needs and interests of its beneficiaries: the hardworking change agents in the state of Hawai‘i, who, if better resourced, would be the solution to the problems they face.

About our Logo

Mapping: Disrupt, Reclaim & Synthesize

Reference name: Legion

Attributes: Direction of flow downstream, shape suggest a shift in water. Rounded edges on type reference the smoothing of rocks as constant water flowing over them over time. Color derives from the ‘O‘opu Alamo‘o and Hihiwai. ‘O‘opu travel Makai to Mauka over their lifespan. This span indicated a healthy return to resource abundance.

Makawalu: Multiple water sources, numbering in 8 representing Ko Hawai‘i Pae‘aina. Hierarchy = source / return / life

Hoʻiwai Fund extends its 501c3 status to fiscally sponsor select projects aligned with the organization’s mission.

Hawaiʻi’s first association of funders and philanthropy-serving organization (PSO) serving Hawaiʻi’s philanthropic community.

A women’s learning circle committed to increasing the dedicated financial and intellectual capital invested in women-leadership in Hawaiʻi.