Hawaii · Nonprofit
Living Pono Project
Living Pono Project (Hawaii) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $633,580 to it, the largest being SENTRY INSURANCE FOUNDATION INC ($150,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $1.7M
- Funders on record
- 19
- Grants received
- $634k
- Net assets
- $1.2M
What Living Pono Project does
Mission
To revitalize our Hawaiian culture through education, outreach and environmental restoration.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Kupaaina Explorations Program: This progam allows sudents to participate in cultural activities outside of the school setting. We assist students in developing cultural values and awareness of Hawaiian culture. Cultural activities include traditional Hawaiian chants, crafts, native plant uses, wayfinding and navigation, paddling, legends, kui kalo and many more activities. This program explores the importance of the Ahupuaa system; sustainability, kuleana, and how this system can be modeled today.
$64,589 spent$119,264 earned by the program4% of program spendingLiving Pono Plantation: The purpose for establishing the Living Pono Plantation is three fold: First, we seek to employ adults with disabilities within the Green Industry at a fair wage while providing them a unique opportunity to learn and gain life skills through a positive and fun alternative work experience. Secondly, by integratiing several sustainable agricultural practices, we will be providing Hawaii consumers with several alternatives to conventionally grown crops from teh mainland as well as healing our aina. Lastly, this system can be an invaluble teaching tool for students to learn about sustainability, a modern working ahupuaa, and to develop a curriculum that is relevant to real world applications.
$241,607 spent$747,302 earned by the program14% of program spendingPuu Kukui Watershed Preserve: Provides employment to vulnerable populations and education opportunities based in cultural stewardship and watershed protection. These programs demonstrate the connectivity between the natural world and the Hawaiian perspective of alohaaina (ove and stewardship for land). Puu Kukui Watershed Preserve is an excellent resource for environmental education and provides a multitude of hands on learning spaces where humana (learners) can see, touch, and be emersed in ecosystem processes first hand. This intac ahupuaa and larger moku complex showcases the dynamic interactions of different ecosystems within ahupuaa, as well as potential impacts that global warming may have on a community.
$1,472,892 spent$1,467,544 earned by the program83% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2023 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,779,088.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2019, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2019, 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 2019 to 2020, from $448k to $1.2M (+174%).
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 12% · 2020 20% · 2021 17% · 2022 49% · 2023 32% · 2024 33%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
100% of Living Pono Project’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (81% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 6 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.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2023 and FY2024 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2020 → 2023: the base broadened from 4 funders to 9 funders, grant income rose $27k → $100k.
6 of 19 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 24% 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 Living Pono Project’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
Living Pono Project has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 24% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
46% 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 Living Pono Project.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2020 53% · 2021 68% · 2022 72% · 2023 50% — 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
75% of Living Pono Project's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 37% 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
Living Pono Project draws 59% of its grant income from funders outside Hawaii, across 8 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $152k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 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
Living Pono Project has grown faster than three-quarters of the 11,263 human services nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 11,263 human services nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2024
Organizations like Living Pono Project
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
100% 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 Living Pono Project: 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 Living Pono Project?
- Living Pono Project (Hawaii) receives grants from 19 organizations whose IRS filings report $633,580 to it, the largest being SENTRY INSURANCE FOUNDATION INC ($150,000). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Living Pono Project have?
- IRS filings report 19 organizations giving $633,580 in grants to Living Pono Project, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Living Pono Project?
- SENTRY INSURANCE FOUNDATION INC is the largest funder on record, with $150,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Living Pono Project 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 Living Pono Project →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2019–2024), and the filings of 19 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