Hawaii · Nonprofit
AHA PUNANA LEO
AHA PUNANA LEO (Hawaii) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,302,609 to it, the largest being TRUSTEES OF THE ESTATE OF BERNICE PAUAHI BISHOP DBA KAMEHAMEHA SCHOOLS ($17,303,602). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $11M
- Funders on record
- 28
- Grants received
- $21M
- Net assets
- $31M
What Aha Punana Leo does
Mission
To drive and inspire change to ensure a living hawaiian language in hawaii and beyond.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
School operations: in 2023, 'Aha Punana Leo administered 13 preschool programs and 2 infant toddler programs servicing approximately 327 preschoolers state-wide. Also, co-administered hawaiian medium education programming with the department of education and university system serving approximately 700 kindergarteners through 12th-grade students in addition to families.
$4,655,724 spentof which $367,579 as grants$2,827,962 earned by the program88% of program spendingCommunity programming: administered various programs in the broader community to raise awareness for, and foster learning of, traditional hawaiian knowledge and language fluency, including on-line hawaiian language classes.
$622,784 spent$79,378 earned by the program12% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,278,508.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $28M to $32M (+13%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 18% · 2018 16% · 2019 15% · 2020 37% · 2021 25% · 2022 33% · 2023 35% · 2024 41%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
60% of AHA PUNANA LEO’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (58% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Ka'Iulani Laeha
CEO
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2018 and FY2019 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 15 funders, grant income fell $3.4M → $1.5M.
6 of 28 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 5% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of AHA PUNANA LEO’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 27 of 28 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
AHA PUNANA LEO leans on a few funders — its largest provides 81% of grant income and the top three 90%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
90% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund AHA PUNANA LEO.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 78% · 2018 79% · 2019 89% · 2020 95% · 2021 80% · 2022 84% · 2023 58% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
67% of AHA PUNANA LEO's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 50% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
87% of AHA PUNANA LEO's grant income comes from Hawaii funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $1.0M arriving through sponsors registered in 5 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
AHA PUNANA LEO holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 772 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 772 arts & culture nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding AHA PUNANA LEO receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $15.3M on record.
- Department of Education$13.7M
- Department of Health and Human Services$1.5M
- National Endowment for the Humanities$100k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like AHA PUNANA LEO
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Hawaii
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
81% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AHA PUNANA LEO: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds AHA PUNANA LEO?
- AHA PUNANA LEO (Hawaii) receives grants from 28 organizations whose IRS filings report $21,302,609 to it, the largest being TRUSTEES OF THE ESTATE OF BERNICE PAUAHI BISHOP DBA KAMEHAMEHA SCHOOLS ($17,303,602). 14 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does AHA PUNANA LEO have?
- IRS filings report 28 organizations giving $21,302,609 in grants to AHA PUNANA LEO, 14 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AHA PUNANA LEO?
- TRUSTEES OF THE ESTATE OF BERNICE PAUAHI BISHOP DBA KAMEHAMEHA SCHOOLS is the largest funder on record, with $17,303,602 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AHA PUNANA LEO find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Hawaii. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 28 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing