How much does Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching Foundation give?

Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching Foundation reported 42 grants totaling $253,500 in its FY2025 IRS filing. It funded between 34 and 47 organizations a year over FY2020 to FY2024.

What does Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching Foundation fund?

By grant dollars over FY2020 to FY2025, its largest causes are Education (70%), Human Services (8%), Health (5%).

Who are Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching Foundation's largest grantees?

By total granted over FY2020 to FY2025: 'Iolani School ($375k), Punahou School ($375k), Maryknoll Schools ($110k).

Does Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching Foundation fund new organizations?

In FY2024, 30% of the organizations it funded were first-time grantees.

Does Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching Foundation accept unsolicited applications?

Its most recent filing reports that it accepts unsolicited grant applications.

Which funders back the same organizations as Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching Foundation?

Its strongest co-funders, measured against what their size predicts, include Tradewind Group Foundation, J Watumull Fund, Aloha United Way Inc.

Where is Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching Foundation based?

Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching Foundation is based in HI.

Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching Foundation

Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching Foundation at a glance

· Private foundation

Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching Foundation

Its FY2025 filing reports that it accepted unsolicited grant applications.

$254k

Granted FY2025still arriving

Grants FY2025still arriving

States reached

$53k

Largest

01What it funds

0187% classified

What it funded, over time

Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2020 to 2025.

Education$1.1MHuman Services$132kHealth$83kArts & Culture$57kFood & Nutrition$42kYouth Development$25kCrime & Legal$22kRecreation & Sports$21kOther$0

02FY2025 · 42 grants

Where the money goes

Grants by size, and the largest recipients.

By grant size · FY2025

Under $10k37 grants · $96k
$10k–50k4 grants · $105k
$50k–250k1 grant · $53k

$3,500

Median grant

States reached

$3.7M

Total assets

Largest grants
Recipient	Amount
UH FOUNDATION	$52,500
PUNAHOU SCHOOL	$40,000
IOLANI SCHOOL	$40,000
MARYKNOLL SCHOOL	$15,000
MCKINLEY HIGH SCHOOL	$10,000
SALVATION ARMY	$3,500
HAWAII SPECIAL OLYMPICS	$3,500
HAWAII FOODBANK	$3,500
HONOLULU MUSEUM OF ART	$3,500
AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION	$3,500
HELPING HANDS HAWAII	$3,500
Individual grant recipient	$3,500
YWCA OF OAHU	$3,500
INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN SERVICES	$3,500
HUGS	$3,500

02The need

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 (FY20–25, $94k) land where the poverty rate runs at 9%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 0% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants skew toward lower-need ZIPs.

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.

91%of every dollar goes to organizations it has funded before.

$1.4M · 35 repeat orgs$145k to everyone else

Grantees it renews have grown median revenue +28% since the first grant, against -8% for those funded once.

35 repeat relationships: 29 still active in FY2025, 6 since wound down; 12 grantees were first funded in FY2025 (too recent to call).

How the two cohorts compare

Re-uppedFunded once

Organizations

Total granted

$1.4M

$77k

Median revenue growth · since first grant

+28%

-8%

Still filing today

71%

New vs renewed · share of each year

In FY2025, 73% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $68k went to new ones.

RenewedFirst-time

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

EducationHuman ServicesHealthArts & CultureFood & NutritionHousing & ShelterOther

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

'S
'IOLANI SCHOOL
6× · 2020–2025 · $375k · revenue +46%
PS
PUNAHOU SCHOOL
6× · 2020–2025 · $375k · revenue +40%
PO
PRESIDENT-BOARD OF TRUSTEES SANTA CLARA COLLEGE
5× · 2020–2024 · $45k · revenue +32%

Funded once

IG
Individual grant recipient
one grant, 2023 · $4k
CW
CALIFORNIA WESTERN SCHOOL OF LAW
one grant, 2022 · $4k · revenue -8%
IG
Individual grant recipient
one grant, 2023 · $3k

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.

Hawaii Pacific University

Hawaii pacific university is an international learning community set in the rich cultural context of hawaii. students from around the world join us for an american education built on a liberal arts foundation. our innovative undergraduate…

Education

Kapi'olani Medical Specialists

Kapi'olani medical specialists (dba hawai'i pacific health medical group) is a multispecialty provider group dedicated to providing world-class care for adults and children across hawai'i and the pacific region working in partnership with…

Health

Hawaii Medical Association

Hawaii medical association is dedicated to serving physicians, their patients and community through representation, advocacy, and public service. core activities: advocacy, education

—

Kaua'i Medical Clinic

Kaua'i medical clinic, an affliate of hawai'i pacific health, is a multi-specialty clinic dedicated to providing world-class care for adults and children across hawai'i and the pacific region in partnership with kapi'olani medical center…

Health

Hawaii Preparatory Academy

To provide exceptional learning opportunities in a diverse community honoring the traditions of hawaii. see schedule o.

Education

President and Fellows of Harvard College

Undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and research across a broad array of academic domains.

Education

Hui Pohala

Palliative care is a win-win-win-win. expanding access to palliative care benefits all parts of the healthcare system. people living with serious illness are better able to manage physical and emotional symptoms and have peace of mind that…

Health

Hawaii State Teachers Association

Served hsta members as their exclusive collective bargaining agent,administered members' contract negotiations with the state of hawaiiconcerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, fringe benefits, hoursand other employment conditions.

—

Mohala Pua School Dba Honolulu Waldorf School

See schedule o.at honolulu waldorf school, we educate each child to find meaning, passion, and purpose in life and to contribute to the creation of a better world for all. through a curriculum based on the developmental stages of the human…

Education

Pacific Health Research & Education Institute

See schedule ophrei conducts health research and education that improves the health and well-being of veterans and all people in hawaii, central california, the pacific region, and throughout the u.s. driven by the values of excellence and…

—

Chaminade University of Honolulu

Chaminade university offers its students an education in a collaborative learning environment that prepares them for life, work and service. guided by its catholic, marianist and liberal arts educational traditions, chaminade encourages…

Education

Straub Foundation

The mission of straub foundation is to create a healthier hawai'i.

Health

How this is measured

The grantee most central to the portfolio’s shape is Hospice Hawaii Inc; the most unlike its peers is American Heart Association Inc. 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

28 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. 28 of the 107 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.

Load-bearing (≥25% of a budget)

Early backer (in before they grew)

28/28

Grantees still filing

20/28

Grew since first funded

Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee

Education$930,240Other$406,650Human Services$93,750Health$69,500Arts & Culture$45,000Food & Nutrition$42,000Housing & Shelter$21,000Crime & Legal$17,500

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

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.

Tradewind Group FoundationHI32.6× affinity13 shared granteesties to 11 of 11Hover any node to trace its alignments.Compare side by side →

Open a dossier: Tradewind Group Foundation · J Watumull Fund · Aloha United Way Inc · First Insurance Company of Hawaii Charitable Foundation · The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation Inc · Castiglione A Casauria Foundation · First Hawaiian Bank Foundation · Bank of Hawaii Charitable Fdn · Hemic Foundation · Locations Foundation · Atherton Family Foundation · Chung Kun Ai 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 Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching Foundation funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching Foundation. Bigger dots raise more.

2024

’20’21’22’23’24’25

no gov moneyreceives it· size = income

0get no government money at all

6report government grants on their 990 we could not trace to a source (not plotted)

0rely on government for over half their income

⤢ axis zoomed · 0–90%

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 Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching Foundation?

Find your warmest path to Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching 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.

Play a game based on Hung Wo and Elizabeth Lau Ching’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