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Hawaii Council for Humanities at a glanceMostly funded, not a grantmaker: see who funds it →

· Public charity

Hawaii Council for Humanities

To promote awareness of the humanities to the general public.

$193k
Granted FY2024still arriving
20
Grants FY2024still arriving
1
States reached
$10k
Largest
01What it fundsRead
02The needRead
03Its granteesRead
04Its fieldRead
05Through PlinthRead
01What it funds
01100% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.

Arts & Culture$1.5MEnvironment$123kHuman Services$99kEducation$70kCommunity Improvement$44kInternational$38kCrime & Legal$24kYouth Development$20kOther$0
02FY2024 · 20 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2024

  • Under $10k3 grants · $28k
  • $10k–50k17 grants · $170k
$10,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$1.2M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
EAST-WEST CENTER$10,000
HAWAIIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY$10,000
MAUI ACADEMY OF PERFORMING ARTS$10,000
ENLIVENED COOPERATIVE$10,000
HONOLULU BIENNIAL FOUNDATION DBA HAWAII CONTEMPORARY$10,000
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII SYSTEM$10,000
NORTH KOHALA COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTER$10,000
HONOLULU PRINTMAKERS$10,000
DONKEY MILL ART CENTER$10,000
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII SYSTEM$10,000
THE OUTDOOR CIRCLE$10,000
FILIPINO ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN$10,000
OBAMA HAWAIIAN AFRICANA MUSEUM$10,000
GEORGE AND MARGUERITE SIMSON BIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH CENTER$10,000
MAUI ARTS AND CULTURAL CENTER$10,000
02The need
03

Does the money reach high-need areas?

Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.

show:

Its human-services grants (FY17–23, $37k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 9%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 9%HAWAII PEOPLE'S FUND: $7k → 9%KUALOA-HEEIA ECUMENICAL YOUTH PROJECT: $20k → 9%KUALOA-HEEIA ECUMENICAL YOUTH PROJECT: $10k → 9%0%20%40%50%more need →
grant to an above-average-need area below average· circle size = grant amount
How this is measured
Matched: human-services grants are those whose grantee’s IRS cause code is Human Services. Placed by people below the poverty line in the grantee’s ZIP, averaged from the tracts in that ZIP.
How this is measured
US grants placed by each grantee’s ZIP, which can differ from where services are delivered. Need from public data (U.S. Census/ACS, CDC PLACES, Eviction Lab, USDA), shown as context about the area, never attributed to the funder’s giving.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.

63%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$1.2M · 34 repeat orgs$731k to everyone else

34 repeat relationships: 8 still active in FY2024, 26 since wound down; 11 grantees were first funded in FY2024 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

34
50

Total granted

$1.2M
$622k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+49%
+78%

Still filing today

94%
78%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2024, 45% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $110k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
RenewedFirst-time

Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24
Arts & CultureEnvironmentEducationCommunity ImprovementHuman ServicesCrime & LegalOther
How this is measured
First-time means a grantee’s first year in the filing window; renewed means funded in an earlier year too. The renewed share climbs naturally as a portfolio matures, so the signal is a year that bucks it (a wave of new grantees). The earliest year is left-censored: relationships that predate the data read as new. Theme is the grantee’s IRS cause.

Backed again, and grew

  • BM
    BISHOP MUSEUM
    5× · 2018–2023 · $62k · revenue +131%
  • KH
    KONA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
    3× · 2020–2022 · $60k · revenue +102%
  • KK
    KOKUA KALIHI VALLEY COMPREHENSIVE FAMILY SERVICES
    3× · 2020–2022 · $55k · revenue +56%

Funded once

  • KM
    KAUAI MUSEUM ASSOCIATION LTDgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $30k · revenue +42%
  • JC
    JAPANESE CULTURAL CENTER OF HAWAIIgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $30k · revenue +137%
  • HU
    HAWAII UNITED OKINAWA ASSOCIATIONgraduated
    one grant, 2022 · $20k · revenue +129%
How this is measured

Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.

04Its field

Closest unfunded matches

The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.

1
E Kupaku Ka Aina - the Hawaii Land Restoration Institute
Environment
2
Hiikua a Hiialo Cultural Foundation
Arts & Culture
3
Na Mamo o Kawa

to rehabilitate, curate, and steward the natural and cultural resources of Kawa to honor the past, benefit the present, and preserve for the future generations of Ka'u, the Island of Hawaii and all humankind.

Environment
4
Lanikuhonua Cultural Institute
—
5
Ka Ha O Ka Aina
Environment
6
The Haiku Aina Permaculture Initiative
—
7
Na Hoa Aloha O Ka Pu Uhonua O Honaunau

For the benefit and inspiration of ALL, Na Hoa Aloha o ka Pu'uhonua o Honaunau participates with NPS and other partners to protect and preserve cultural and natural resources, guided by the aacestral knowledge of South Kona.

—
8
Hanalei River Heritage Foundation
Philanthropy
9
Malama Kua Aina
Environment
10
Hawaii Maritime Center
—
11
Kahea the Hawaiian Environmental Alliance

Kahea is a community-based organization working to improve the quality of life for hawai`i's people and future generations through the revitalization and protection of hawai`i's unique natural and cultural resources. kahea advocates for…

Environment
12
Hawaii Education Institute
—
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Makauila Inc; the most unlike its peers is Hawaii Book and Music Festival. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
04the grantee network

83 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.

Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.

How this is measured

Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 83 of the 95 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.

Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.

3
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
37
Early backer (in before they grew)
81/83
Grantees still filing
64/83
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

BISHOP MUSEUM: $62,000 · Arts & CultureBISHOP MUSEUMKONA HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $60,300 · Arts & CultureKONA HISTORICAL SOCIETYHAWAIIAN MISSION CHILDREN'S SOCIETY: $58,050 · Arts & CultureHAWAIIAN MISSION CHILDREN'S SOCIETYMAUI ARTS & CULTURAL CENTER: $55,000 · Arts & CultureBAMBOO RIDGE PRESS: $47,254 · Arts & CultureMANOA HERITAGE CENTER FKA MANOA VALLEY CULTURAL HERITAGE FOUND: $45,000 · Arts & CultureHISTORIC HAWAI'I FOUNDATION: $42,500 · Arts & CultureHONOLULU MUSEUM OF ART: $42,000 · Arts & Culture+36 more: $652,520 · Arts & Culture+36 moreUNIVERSITY OF HAWAII SYSTEM: $119,825 · OtherUNIVERSITY OF HAWAII SYSTEMTHE FRIENDS OF IOLANI PALACE: $52,000 · OtherTHE FRIENDS OF IOLANI PALACEHUI NO'EAU: $29,050 · OtherKALIHI-PALAMA CULTURE & ARTS SOCIETY INC: $25,000 · OtherDancers Unlimited: $25,000 · OtherBIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH CENTER: $20,000 · OtherPAPAHANA KUAOLA: $18,276 · OtherPALAMA SETTLEMENT: $20,000 · OtherKA'OHANA O KALAUPAPA: $20,000 · Other+21 more: $216,180 · Other+21 moreMERWIN CONSERVANCY INC: $29,680 · EnvironmentKUA AINA ULU AUAMO: $20,000 · EnvironmentFRIENDS OF WAIPAHU CULTURAL GARDEN PARK: $20,000 · EnvironmentMAUNALUA FISHPOND HERITAGE CENTER: $20,000 · EnvironmentPAPAHANA KUAOLA: $10,000 · EnvironmentTHE OUTDOOR CIRCLE: $10,000 · EnvironmentAINA MOMONA: $10,000 · EnvironmentKRAUSE FAMILY FOUNDATION ALANA KE ALOHA: $20,000 · EducationINSTITUTE FOR NATIVE PACIFIC EDUCATION AND CULTURE: $15,000 · EducationSTORY FOR ALL: $10,000 · EducationMALAMA LEARNING CENTER: $10,000 · EducationENLIVENED COOPERATIVE: $10,000 · EducationAFRICAN AMERICAN DIVERSITY CULTURAL CENTER HAWAII: $10,000 · EducationKAULUAKALANA: $29,321 · Community ImprovementHUI MALAMA I KE ALA ULILI: $15,000 · Community ImprovementNORTH KOHALA COMMUNITY RESOURCE CENTER: $10,000 · Community ImprovementKUMU KAHUA THEATRE INC: $10,000 · Community ImprovementKUALOA-HEEIA ECUMENICAL YOUTH PROJECT: $30,000 · Human ServicesCEEDS OF PEACE: $18,407 · Human ServicesTHE PEOPLE'S FUND: $7,000 · Human ServicesKOKUA KALIHI VALLEY COMPREHENSIVE FAMILY SERVICES: $55,000 · Health
Arts & Culture$1,064,624Other$545,331Environment$119,680Education$75,000Community Improvement$64,321Human Services$55,407Health$55,000

Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing

25%50%75%100%$100k$1.0M$10Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetBISHOP MUSEUM: $62,000 over 5y, 0.1% of budgetKONA HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $60,300 over 3y, 6.6% of budgetHAWAIIAN MISSION CHILDREN'S SOCIETY: $58,050 over 5y, 2.0% of budgetMAUI ARTS & CULTURAL CENTER: $55,000 over 4y, 0.3% of budgetKOKUA KALIHI VALLEY COMPREHENSIVE FAMILY SERVICES: $55,000 over 3y, 0.1% of budgetTHE FRIENDS OF IOLANI PALACE: $52,000 over 3y, 0.8% of budgetBAMBOO RIDGE PRESS: $47,254 over 6y, 6.9% of budgetMANOA HERITAGE CENTER FKA MANOA VALLEY CULTURAL HERITAGE FOUND: $45,000 over 3y, 2.6% of budgetHISTORIC HAWAI'I FOUNDATION: $42,500 over 3y, 1.5% of budgetHONOLULU MUSEUM OF ART: $42,000 over 3y, 0.2% of budgetREAD TO ME INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION: $35,000 over 3y, 3.3% of budgetHOLUALOA FOUNDATION FOR ARTS & CULTURE: $35,000 over 3y, 2.2% of budgetDAUGHTERS OF HAWAII: $35,000 over 2y, 4.9% of budgetTHE LAHAINA RESTORATION FOUNDATION: $34,991 over 2y, 1.9% of budgetHAWAII INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: $31,000 over 2y, 2.0% of budgetKAUAI MUSEUM ASSOCIATION LTD: $30,000 over 1y, 8.0% of budgetKUALOA-HEEIA ECUMENICAL YOUTH PROJECT: $30,000 over 2y, 1.5% of budgetEAST HAWAII CULTURAL COUNCIL: $30,000 over 2y, 9.8% of budgetJAPANESE CULTURAL CENTER OF HAWAII: $30,000 over 1y, 10.0% of budgetMERWIN CONSERVANCY INC: $29,680 over 2y, 3.9% of budgetKAULUAKALANA: $29,321 over 2y, 3.6% of budgetHUI NO'EAU: $29,050 over 2y, 1.3% of budgetLANA'I CULTURE & HERITAGE CENTER: $28,000 over 2y, 7.6% of budgetHAWAIIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY: $27,000 over 3y, 7.4% of budgetHANA ARTS INC: $25,000 over 2y, 3.4% of budgetKALIHI-PALAMA CULTURE & ARTS SOCIETY INC: $25,000 over 2y, 5.6% of budgetDancers Unlimited: $25,000 over 2y, 9.0% of budgetKRAUSE FAMILY FOUNDATION ALANA KE ALOHA: $20,000 over 2y, 12% of budgetHAWAII UNITED OKINAWA ASSOCIATION: $20,000 over 1y, 1.8% of budgetPU'A FOUNDATION: $20,000 over 2y, 5.9% of budgetTHE CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY INC: $20,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetKUA AINA ULU AUAMO: $20,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetPALAMA SETTLEMENT: $20,000 over 2y, 0.4% of budgetKA'OHANA O KALAUPAPA: $20,000 over 2y, 9.9% of budgetALOHA KUAMO'O' AINA: $20,000 over 2y, 67% of budgetFRIENDS OF WAIPAHU CULTURAL GARDEN PARK: $20,000 over 2y, 8.8% of budgetMOANALUA GARDENS FOUNDATION INC: $20,000 over 1y, 3.1% of budgetMAUNALUA FISHPOND HERITAGE CENTER: $20,000 over 1y, 11% of budgetCEEDS OF PEACE: $18,407 over 1y, 3.8% of budgetLYMAN HOUSE MEMORIAL MUSEUM: $15,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetPEARL HARBOR AVIATION MUSEUM: $15,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetHUI MALAMA I KE ALA ULILI: $15,000 over 1y, 1.5% of budgetPACIFIC HISTORIC PARKS: $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetMAKAUILA INC: $15,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetINSTITUTE FOR NATIVE PACIFIC EDUCATION AND CULTURE: $15,000 over 1y, 0.3% of budgetCIVIC EDUCATION COUNCIL: $14,970 over 1y, 100% of budgetMALAMA LOKO EA FOUNDATION: $14,798 over 1y, 1.3% of budgetHUI O LAKA: $12,500 over 1y, 2.4% of budget
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding

A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.

Co-funders

Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.

Atherton Family Found…Trustees of the Estat…Council for Native Ha…Cooke Foundation Limi…Kosasa FoundationBank of Hawaii Charit…Aloha United Way IncHawaii Visitors and C…J Watumull FundCentral Pacific Bank …Historic Hawai'I Foun…The Strong Foundation
Atherton Family FoundationHI81.1× affinity39 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Atherton Family Foundation · Trustees of the Estate of Bernice Pauahi Bishop Dba Kamehameha Schools · Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement · Cooke Foundation Limited · Kosasa Foundation · Bank of Hawaii Charitable Fdn · Aloha United Way Inc · Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau · J Watumull Fund · Central Pacific Bank Foundation · Historic Hawai'I Foundation · The Strong Foundation

How this is measured
Affinity is a Gamma-Poisson posterior co-funding rate, re-centered on the typical rate, so thin evidence shrinks toward no signal. Overlap is association, not proof of shared intent.

How much its grantees rely on government

Each dot is one organization Hawaii Council for Humanities funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Hawaii Council for Humanities. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 10%6%25%56%100%funder's share of their income ↑0%25%50%75%100%share of the org’s income from government →median 6%
  • The Center for Independent Documentary Inc: 6% of income from government
no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
1get no government money at all
28report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
0rely on government for over half their income
typical government reliance, FY20–25
How this is measured
Government income is each org’s traced federal awards (USASpending grants and contracts) plus state payments (open checkbooks) as a share of its total revenue (IRS Form 990); the self-reported government-grant line (990 line 1e) is carried for cross-check: a grantee that reports government grants we could not trace to a source is left off the chart rather than shown as receiving none. An association, not a claim that a grant caused the public funding. Coverage is precision-first, a floor rather than a census; state records exist for 9 states, so a grantee outside them shows no state figure (dimmed) rather than a false zero. Federal award amounts are obligations, which can span years, so a single-year share is indicative. 990 filings lag 12 to 24 months.
05Through Plinth

Warm introductions · Powered by PlinthPlus

How do I get to Hawaii Council for Humanities?

Find your warmest path to Hawaii Council for Humanities through trustees and officers whose names appear on both boards. Search for your organization and Plinth traces the shortest route it can evidence.

Each link is a name appearing on two organizations’ public IRS 990 filings, matched on that name and, where the filings support it, on location. A same-state match has geographic support, which is a second matching feature rather than confirmation that the two are one person; a cross-state one is the likeliest to be two people who share a name. Every hop shows its tier, low-confidence and distant paths are held back rather than guessed, and it is worth confirming the person before you use the introduction.

On method. Every financial figure here is read from IRS e-file XML, the funder’s own 990/990-PF, and from the multi-year returns of the 95 grantees we resolved, each linked to its source. Grantee outcomes are each organization’s own program-service reporting (Form 990, Part III), read as association with funding, never as caused by it. Low-confidence name matches are suppressed rather than guessed. How we build these →

How this is measured
Each figure carries one of six labels. Filed is what the funder reported on its return. Official is another government record about an organization, such as a federal award or a charity register, joined by name where no shared identifier exists. Resolved is an identity we worked out where the filing named a recipient without an EIN, kept only above a measured confidence threshold. Computed is arithmetic over those, like themes, portfolio clusters and co-funder strength. Context is a statistic about a place rather than about an organization, which is what the need overlay is: it describes the area a grantee’s address sits in, not where its work lands. Inferred is drawn by a model from text, like the partnerships read out of public news and organization websites. Each is labeled where it appears.

Generated from the IRS Form 990 e-file return for fiscal year 2024, released 2024. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

Possibly out of date. A more recent filing (FY2025) is on record and reports no grant expense, so the figures above are from FY2024, the most recent year this funder made grants.

Source object · view filing

Play a game based on Hawaii Council for Humanities’ filings →

More from the funding graph

The unnamed billions
grants reported with no recipient in the public record
The regranting layer
51% of grant dollars land in the regranting layer
The DAF merry-go-round
$9.7B circulates between donor-advised funds
The endowment market
who holds foundation money, and what just moved
The camps
funders cluster by geography, not ideology
By state
where grant money is based, and what stays home