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Hawaii National Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Hawaii National Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it funds preselected organizations and did not take unsolicited requests; check the foundation's own site before ruling it out.

$71k
Granted FY2025still arriving
11
Grants FY2025still arriving
1
States reached
$13k
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 2025.

Community Improvement$45kPublic Safety & Disaster$40kArts & Culture$20kHousing & Shelter$13kHealth$10kEducation$8kInternational$6kFood & Nutrition$5kOther$0
02FY2025 · 11 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

  • Under $10k7 grants · $29k
  • $10k–50k4 grants · $43k
$5,000
Median grant
1
States reached
$1.6M
Total assets
Largest grants
RecipientAmount
HAWAII HOMEOWNERSHIP CENTER$12,500
CHINATOWN 808 EVENTS$10,000
HAWAII INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL$10,000
LANAKILA PACIFIC$10,000
MAUI FOOD BANK INC$5,000
PACIFIC & ASIAN AFFAIRS COUNCIL (PAAC)$5,000
A BETTER CHINATOWN ASSOCIATION$5,000
FRIENDS OF FIRST RESPONDERS$5,000
HAWAII LITERACY$5,000
HAWAII RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION$3,000
BIG ISLAND LIONS FOUNDATION$500
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 (FY17–25, $45k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 7%. 100% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Most of its grants land in higher-need ZIPs.

area typical 7%LANAKILA PACIFIC: $10k → 9%AMERICAN RED CROSS HAWAII STATE CHAPTER: $5k → 9%AMERICAN RED CROSS HAWAII STATE CHAPTER: $5k → 9%AMERICAN RED CROSS HAWAII STATE CHAPTER: $5k → 9%AMERICAN RED CROSS HAWAII STATE CHAPTER: $5k → 9%AMERICAN RED CROSS HAWAII STATE CHAPTER: $5k → 9%AMERICAN RED CROSS HAWAII STATE CHAPTER: $5k → 9%AMERICAN RED CROSS HAWAII STATE CHAPTER: $5k → 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.
04

Where the work is directed

The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.

About 16% of Hawaii National Foundation’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 100% of the giving stays in HI; by stated purpose, 85%.

Hawaii National Foundationlessmore of its giving
Placed by recipient address
How this is measured
Recipient view: each grant at its grantee’s ZIP, mapped to a county. Directed view: each grant at the county its stated purpose names, falling back to the recipient’s county when the purpose names no place; US grants only. A county shows only if it carries the top 95% of that view’s dollars. Purposes are read from the funder’s own 990 grant descriptions.
03Its grantees
repeat funding

Who it funds again

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

30%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.
$46k · 3 repeat orgs$106k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +46% since the first grant, against +17% for those funded once.

3 repeat relationships: 1 still active in FY2025, 2 since wound down; 10 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

3
1

Total granted

$46k
$40k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+46%
+17%

Still filing today

67%
100%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 7% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $66k went to new ones.

50%100%’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
RenewedFirst-time

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

’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25
Community ImprovementHuman ServicesArts & CultureHousing & ShelterPublic Safety & DisasterFood & NutritionOther
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

  • AN
    American National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches
    7× · 2017–2023 · $35k · revenue +46%
  • PA
    PACIFIC & ASIAN AFFAIRS COUNCIL
    2× · 2024–2025 · $10k
  • PA
    Pacific & Asian Affairs Council
    4× · 2017–2020 · $2k · revenue -25%

Funded once

  • HC
    HAWAII COMMUNITY LENDING
    one grant, 2024 · $40k · revenue +17%
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
Hawaii Book and Music Festival
Arts & Culture
2
Hawaii - American Nurses Association Foundation
Environment
3
Hawaii Education Institute
—
4
Hawaii Maritime Center
—
5
Hawaii Culinary Education Foundatio

The hawaii culinary education foundation's mission is to provide hawaiis culinary students and professional access to the best knowledge and exposure to cutting-edge techniques through a variety of programs and educational opportunities…

Education
6
Hawaii Food Technology Center

To encourage, educate and create opportunites for entrepreneurs seeking to earn a living through value-added producets, agriculture, cultural practices, environmental sustainability, technology and economic diversification.

Food & Nutrition
7
Hawaii Realtors Charitable Foundation
Philanthropy
8
E Kupaku Ka Aina - the Hawaii Land Restoration Institute
Environment
9
Hokah Area Food Shelf
Food & Nutrition
10
Hawaii Restaurant Association

The hawaii restaurant association is the organization unifying, representing and supporting the hawaii restaurant and food service industry.

—
11
Hawaii Exemplary State Foundation
Community Improvement
12
Hiikua a Hiialo Cultural Foundation
Arts & Culture
How this is measured
The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Hawaii Homeownership Center; the most unlike its peers is Chinatown 808 Events. Resemblance is measured on each organization’s own IRS 990 mission text; it reflects how work is described, not its quality or impact.
05the grantee network

12 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. 12 of the 14 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.

0
Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)
0
Early backer (in before they grew)
12/12
Grantees still filing
5/12
Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

HAWAII COMMUNITY LENDING: $40,000 · Community ImprovementHAWAII COMMUNITY LENDINGA BETTER CHINATOWN ASSOCIATION: $5,000 · Community ImprovementA BETTER CHINATOWN ASSOCIATIONAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches: $35,000 · Human ServicesAmerican National Red Cross & Its…LANAKILA PACIFIC: $10,000 · Human ServicesLANAKILA PACIFICHAWAII INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: $10,000 · Arts & CultureHAWAII INTERNA…CHINATOWN 808 EVENTS: $10,000 · Arts & CultureCHINATOWN 808 …PACIFIC & ASIAN AFFAIRS COUNCIL (PAAC): $9,500 · OtherPACIFIC & AS…HAWAII LITERACY INC: $5,000 · OtherHAWAII LITER…Pacific & Asian Affairs Council: $1,700 · OtherPacific & As…+1 more: $500 · OtherHAWAII HOMEOWNERSHIP CENTER: $12,500 · Housing & ShelterHAWAII HO…FRIENDS OF FIRST RESPONDERS: $5,000 · Public Safety & DisasterMAUI FOOD BANK INC: $5,000 · Food & NutritionHAWAII RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $3,000 · Education
Community Improvement$45,000Human Services$45,000Arts & Culture$20,000Other$16,700Housing & Shelter$12,500Public Safety & Disaster$5,000Food & Nutrition$5,000Education$3,000

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

25%50%75%100%$1.0M$10M$100Mgrantee revenue →↑ funder's share of their budgetHAWAII COMMUNITY LENDING: $40,000 over 1y, 0.2% of budgetAmerican National Red Cross & Its Constituent Chapters and Branches: $35,000 over 7y, 0.0% of budgetLANAKILA PACIFIC: $10,000 over 1y, 0.1% of budgetCHINATOWN 808 EVENTS: $10,000 over 1y, 16% of budgetFRIENDS OF FIRST RESPONDERS: $5,000 over 1y, 2.5% of budgetA BETTER CHINATOWN ASSOCIATION: $5,000 over 1y, 1.1% of budgetMAUI FOOD BANK INC: $5,000 over 1y, 0.0% of budgetHAWAII RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION: $3,000 over 1y, 2.3% of budgetPacific & Asian Affairs Council: $1,700 over 4y, 0.1% 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.

Central Pacific Bank …Tradewind Group Found…First Hawaiian Bank F…First Insurance Compa…Amazonsmile Foundation
Central Pacific Bank FoundationHI17.8× affinity6 shared granteesties to 4 of 4Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Central Pacific Bank Foundation · Tradewind Group Foundation · First Hawaiian Bank Foundation · First Insurance Company of Hawaii Charitable Foundation · Amazonsmile 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 National Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Hawaii National Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024
’20’21’22’23’24’25
no gov · 00%1%5%11%20%funder's share of their income ↑0%10%20%30%40%share of the org’s income from government →
    no gov moneyreceives it· size = income
    0get no government money at all
    5report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)
    0rely on government for over half their income
    ⤢ axis zoomed · 0–40%
    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 National Foundation?

    Find your warmest path to Hawaii National Foundation 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 14 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-PF e-file return for fiscal year 2025, released 2025. Filings run roughly 12 to 24 months behind; figures are dated accordingly.

    Source object · view filing

    Play a game based on Hawaii National’s 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