Hawaii · Nonprofit
AKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS
AKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS (Hawaii) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $996,117 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($535,500). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $958k
- Funders on record
- 14
- Grants received
- $996k
- Net assets
- $194k
What Akaka Foundation for Tropical Forests does
Mission
To enhance and promote a forest stewardship ethic that embraces restoration and conservation strategies through integration of traditional and western knowledge, and through strategic cooperation among private and public organizations. We support three initiatives that promote thriving ecosystems, cultural practice, and sustainable livelihoods.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Kaiaulu puuwaawaa community-based subsistence forest area: this community-based collaboration led by lineal descendants of puuwaawaa aims to reforest 84-acres at puuwaawaa, once a vibrant dryland forest, now dominated by invasive grasses. This initiative is among hawaii's first community-led efforts on public lands, offering a model for similar endeavors. Goals include forest restoration, enhancing access to culturally significant plants, augmenting carbon sequestration, and fostering ridge- to-reef resilience through biocultural education and stewardship.
$306,538 spent40% of program spendingOhia disease resistance program (odrp): a coalition led by aftf and the usda forest service, odrp stands at the forefront of combating rapid ohia death (rod), a fungal pathogen imperiling the ohia tree (metrosideros polymorpha) - a species foundational to native hawaiian cultural practices and lifeways, and an ecological keystone that covers nearly one million acres of hawaii's landscape; making it the backbone of hawaii's native forests and watersheds. Rod has already caused 180,000 acres in ohia mortality. The mission of the odrp emphasizes restoring the forests afflicted by rod with potential rod-resistant strains of ohia, representing a beacon of hope for hawaii's native forests. Recent milestones include: (1) execution of two intensive disease-resistance screening trials, involving 686 ohia trees from areas with pronounced rod mortality. (2) identification of 371 ohia trees showcasing resilience against the fungal pathogen that causes rod. (3) developing strategies to use disease-resistant ohia to restore areas affected by rod, ensuring the tree's continued presence in hawaii's landscapes.
$260,556 spent34% of program spendingPilina aina: a dynamic collaboration between aftf, the us forest service, and the university of hawaii at manoa, pilina aina celebrates and reinforces the profound connections between the hawaiian community and their ancestral lands. The term "pilina" encapsulates relationships, while "aina" represents the land, the very crux of the initiative. Pilina aina provides immersive and empowering aina-based learning opportunities and education resources that encourage, facilitate, and enhance student, teacher, and community relationships with aina. These experiences, anchored in place and hawaiian lifeways and practices, cultivate a deeper and personally transformative understanding of hawaii's native ecosystems and provide enhanced secondary education and career-preparedness for youth. We offer programming to hawaii's grade 4-12 students and their teachers through day trip field courses, overnight field courses, intensive teacher training programs, community-based events, and year-long professional development programs in stem. We serve 1,000+ students annually.
$199,250 spent$27,082 earned by the program26% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $766,344.
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 2020 to 2021, from $105k to $192k (+83%).
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: 2019 44% · 2020 66% · 2021 86% · 2022 83% · 2023 84% · 2024 77%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of AKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (88% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 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
Rebekah Ohara
CEO
Board chair
Hannah Kihalani Springer
Chair of the
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 3 funders to 6 funders, grant income rose $42k → $102k.
4 of 14 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 62% 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 AKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS’s funders (the co-funder graph). 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
AKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS leans on a few funders — its largest provides 54% of grant income and the top three 76%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
67% 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 AKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 48% · 2018 100% · 2019 53% · 2020 56% · 2021 83% · 2022 83% · 2023 49% — broadly stable.
“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
57% of AKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 57% 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
62% of AKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $383k that is directly attributable, 84% of it comes from funders outside Hawaii, across 7 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $613k arriving through sponsors registered in 4 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
AKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS has grown faster than three-quarters of the 4,264 environment nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,264 environment nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding AKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $3.7M on record.
- Department of Agriculture$3.4M
- Department of Commerce$266k
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 AKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS
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
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for AKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS: 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 AKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS?
- AKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS (Hawaii) receives grants from 14 organizations whose IRS filings report $996,117 to it, the largest being DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC ($535,500). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 62% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does AKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS have?
- IRS filings report 14 organizations giving $996,117 in grants to AKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of AKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS?
- DONOR ADVISED CHARITABLE GIVING INC is the largest funder on record, with $535,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like AKAKA FOUNDATION FOR TROPICAL FORESTS 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.
Play a game about who funds Akaka Foundation for Tropical Forests →
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 14 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