Hawaii · Nonprofit
CLIMBHI
CLIMBHI (Hawaii) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,178,983 to it, the largest being STUPSKI FOUNDATION ($500,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.4M
- Funders on record
- 17
- Grants received
- $1.2M
- Net assets
- $573k
What Climbhi does
Mission
ClimbHI seeks to inspire students to finish high school and proceed to post-secondary education or employment by educating them about future career paths and the process necessary to achieve those goals. Established in 2008, ClimbHI, provides people education through the exploration of life's opportunities. We foster learning by partnering and working with businesses, educational institutions, and other governmental, private, profit, and non-profit organizations, entities and individuals that promote and further the purposes of the corporation. The goal is to take ClimbHI's sustainable model nationwide, but the initial focus is on Hawaii with programs including participants from all islands, including Ni'ihau. The programs are conducted by volunteers from the industry, local college/university students, and ClimbHI. Also, leadership for the program comes from the speakers, industry participants, other businesses, volunteers, and the returning high school and college students.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
LEI program is a workforce development project to inspire Hawai'i's youth to select careers in the Hawai'i visitor industry by providing them with the necessary means to achieve success. From the student's perspective, LEI program represents an opportunity for Leadership, Exploration and Inspiration, and from the hospitality industry's perspective, LEI provides an opportunity to Lead, Expose, and Inspire Hawaii's youth.LEI programs were hosted on four islands, with special considerations for the unique logistics on each island.The 12th annual LEI program took place in April 2024 on four differrent islands (Maui, O'ahu, Kaua'i and Big Island). Participants included 1,000 high school and college students from across the state and over 100 businesses.
$209,935 spent26% of program spendingThe organization started the development of an online platform in 2019 called the ClimbHI Bridge. It connects educators and businesses through streamlined communication that leads to successful outcomes. Once in the portal, there are multiple opportunity types for educators to explore and then send requests to businesses that are available in each category, including: (1) guest speaking /guest teaching, (2) hiring blitz and exposure fair participation, (3) job readiness activities, (4)exposureships - where students learn firsthand about businesses and careers, (5)job shadowing, (6)site visits and other events, (7)internships, (8) credentials, and (9) judging and coaching.ClimbHI Bridge is the largest public-private partnership of its kind in the state, linking educators, students, businesses and organizations to provide workforce development opportunities. There are 240 schools and 440 businesses participating on ClimbHI Bridge. These awardees and hundreds of opportunities providers have helped reach nearly 170,000 students and 5,300 educators statewide.
$343,364 spent43% of program spendingThe ClimbHI Service Excellence Certificate, developed for the Hawaii Department of Education (DOE) Career and Technical Education (CTE) program, has reached 2,998 students statewide since it was launched in early 2020.The Service Excellence Certificate helps graduates be more workforce ready. The curriculum was exclusively developed in partnership with the School of Hotel Administration at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, one of the leading hospitality administration programs in the world. Upon completion of the 9 module, on-demand training, students receive a Service Excellence Certificate of Achievement from Cornell University and ClimbHI. Courses cover skills development, managing customer interactions, and Aloha Spirit Law as outlined in the Hawaii Revised Statutes.Over the 2023-2024 academic year, 760 participating students in grades 9-12 at 17 high schools statewide were sponsored through generous donations from 22 partners totaling nearly $60,040. Approximately $237,040 has been raised for program participants in the past 3 years.
$49,420 spent6% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$192,274 spent24% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $794,993.
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.
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 $11k to $587k (+5155%).
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 47% · 2020 75% · 2021 32% · 2022 25% · 2023 24% · 2024 24%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
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.
Board chair
Douglas Goto
Chairman/Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base broadened from 1 funder to 8 funders, grant income rose $4k → $96k.
3 of 17 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 13% 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 CLIMBHI’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
CLIMBHI leans on a few funders — its largest provides 42% of grant income and the top three 69%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
47% 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 CLIMBHI.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2020 46% · 2021 76% · 2022 59% · 2023 52% — 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
71% of CLIMBHI's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 47% 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
CLIMBHI draws 62% of its grant income from funders outside Hawaii, across 6 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $155k arriving through sponsors registered in 3 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.
Organizations like CLIMBHI
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
93% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
100%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for CLIMBHI: 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 CLIMBHI?
- CLIMBHI (Hawaii) receives grants from 17 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,178,983 to it, the largest being STUPSKI FOUNDATION ($500,000). 8 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does CLIMBHI have?
- IRS filings report 17 organizations giving $1,178,983 in grants to CLIMBHI, 8 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of CLIMBHI?
- STUPSKI FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $500,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like CLIMBHI 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 Climbhi →
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 17 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