Hawaii · Nonprofit
HAWAII LITERACY INC
HAWAII LITERACY INC (Hawaii) receives grants from 40 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,840,949 to it, the largest being ROSE PERENIN FOUNDATION ($640,000). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.0M
- Funders on record
- 40
- Grants received
- $1.8M
- Net assets
- $83k
What Hawaii Literacy Inc does
Mission
Hawaii Literacy's mission is to empower Hawaii's children and adults with essential reading, writing, and lifelong learning skills to strengthen themselves, families and communities.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Continued to promote literacy and provide free literacy services to disadvantaged populations in Hawaii with low literacy skills, to better prepare them for greater educational and employment opportunities and improve life and parenting skills. To provide one-to-one literacy tutoring for adults with low literacy using trained volunteer tutors, to provide high quality youth and family literacy programs and lending libraries in public housing and other high need an at-risk areas, to provide free ESL and like skills classes to non-English speaking adults, and to operate a bookmobile to increase access and educational activities for lower income families in rural areas of O'ahu. Continue to expand Adult Literacy programs and other distance learning and online resources to continue providing support and tutoring services in-person and remotely. Continued to expand our digital learning platforms to reach and engage with more children and adults by continuing our weekly virtual classes to serve program participants. Continued to distribute literacy kits filled with new books, literacy activities, school supplies, and healthy snacks to keiki and their families. Created a PSA to promote…
$701,000 spentof which $710,844 as grants$234,313 earned by the program100% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 2 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $701,000.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2018, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2018, 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 2021 to 2022, from $642k to $230k (−64%).
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: 2018 15% · 2019 26% · 2020 23% · 2021 53% · 2022 39% · 2023 54% · 2024 71%. 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 7 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
Jill Takasaki Canfield
Executive Director
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2019 and FY2020 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 6 funders to 17 funders, grant income rose $227k → $271k.
4 of 40 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 3% 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 HAWAII LITERACY INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 40 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
HAWAII LITERACY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 35% of grant income and the top three 62%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
29% 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 HAWAII LITERACY INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 49% · 2018 44% · 2019 45% · 2020 34% · 2021 34% · 2022 58% · 2023 30% — 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
37% of HAWAII LITERACY INC'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
52% of HAWAII LITERACY INC's grant income comes from Hawaii funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $52k 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.
Organizations like HAWAII LITERACY INC
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
79% 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 HAWAII LITERACY INC: 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 HAWAII LITERACY INC?
- HAWAII LITERACY INC (Hawaii) receives grants from 40 organizations whose IRS filings report $1,840,949 to it, the largest being ROSE PERENIN FOUNDATION ($640,000). 20 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does HAWAII LITERACY INC have?
- IRS filings report 40 organizations giving $1,840,949 in grants to HAWAII LITERACY INC, 20 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of HAWAII LITERACY INC?
- ROSE PERENIN FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $640,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like HAWAII LITERACY INC 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 Hawaii Literacy →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2018–2024), and the filings of 40 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing