Hawaii · Nonprofit
OHANA WAA
OHANA WAA (Hawaii) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $495,000 to it, the largest being RSF SOCIAL FINANCE INC ($450,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 91% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $335k
- Funders on record
- 3
- Grants received
- $495k
- Net assets
- $314k
What Ohana Waa does
Mission
The educational and charitable purposes of Ohana Waa are embedded in our mission to work together to elevate the collective health and life of our Voyaging traditions, and in our vision to ensure our voyaging legacies live on.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2024 return the organization reported starting a significant new program.
After the completion of Ohana Waa's Strategic Plan, in 2024 the organization continued its path of capacity building, in part by applying for their first federal grant, which will be based entirely on programming, and for a general operations grant from an international indigenous trust funder. We also attracted funding from a Hawaii-based foundation that seeks to support Native Hawaiian initiatives. While we continued to deliver donated funds directing to members of the voyaging community in Lahaina that had experienced major losses in the 2023 Lahaina wildfires, Ohana Waa further expanded our outreach and commitment to the voyaging community across Hawaii and the Pacific by participating in, supporting and documenting international opportunities to collaborate with our voyaging family.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 2).
Capacity Building: During 2024, Ohana Waa continued to hold regular (at least monthly) Zoom meetings among directors, officers and interested parties who live across Hawaii. These regular meetings kept the Hawaii-wide voyaging community connected and inspired. We continued our capacity building focus from 2022, based on the Strategic Plan that we developed in 2023. Our contracted grant coordinator, a logistics coordinator, and a website development and maintenance team kept us on task. We also participated in the annual Ikuwa Festival in Hilo, Hawaii, celebrating voyaging across Hawaii, including filling Hilo Bay with little sailing canoes that are perfect for training all ages of sailors and future voyagers.
$13,728 spentof which $13,728 as grants11% of program spendingLahaina: After the devastating August 2023 wildfires, which destroyed the heart of the Maui's voyaging community in Lahaina, Ohana Waa took in grants and donations specifically to support that voyaging community. As one ohana (family) across all our islands, we have always come together to support the individual canoe communities that make up Ohana Waa when there is need. The support and generosity for our Maui ohana was heart lifting for that community to experience and for all of us to witness. Donations and messages from across the world reminded us that we are not isolated in the middle of the Pacific; the ocean continues to connect us. The funding platform was temporary (only through 2023), with funds used for short-term relief efforts toward the health of the broader Lahaina voyaging community, as that community decided its own direction and where resources should flow. The grants and donations exceeded our hopes, and while must of the funds were expended in 2024, some will continue to be used for Lahaina resident recovery and community building into early 2025. None of these funds went toward administrative costs; they have been and will be all directed to voyaging…
$93,110 spentof which $93,110 as grants75% of program spendingUnity among voyaging leadership around the Pacific: In 2024, Ohana Waa continued our cultural exchanges and leadership support for Pacific voyagers. We continued engagement with voyaging leadership by attending and supporting the attendance of significant voyaging events, so that we can continue learn from each other and stay connected, realize synergies, and create opportunities, all of which is best done in person from an indigenous perspective. We also developed makana (cultural gifts) and outreach materials for cultural exchanges, such as banners, table covers, tents, coolers and jugs for traditional provisioning. Specific support was provided for inter-island cross-generational training of crew members and leadership in voyaging and canoe preparation. We began the year by sailing our canoes into Lahaina and joining a Lahaina Unity March with members of the Lahaina, Maui and Hawaii communities. Then, in June, we again sailed in our voyaging canoes from around the islands and flew in voyaging leadership to participate in the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture held in Hawaii. This festival is the world's largest celebration of indigenous Pacific Islanders, and it was the…
$17,777 spentof which $17,777 as grants14% of program spendingOther program services, not described on the e-filed return.
$0 spent0% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $124,615.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2020, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2020, 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 $145k to $314k (+116%).
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.
100% of OHANA WAA’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (64% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 5 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Who funds it, year by year
2019 → 2023: the base held at 1 funder, grant income rose $5k → $40k.
1 of 3 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 91% 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 OHANA WAA’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
OHANA WAA leans on a few funders — its largest provides 91% of grant income and the top three 100%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
100% 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 OHANA WAA.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2019 100% · 2021 100% · 2023 100% — 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.
Where its funders are
91% of OHANA WAA'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 $45k that is directly attributable, 89% of it comes from Hawaii funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $450k arriving through sponsors registered in 1 state 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
OHANA WAA runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 17,936 arts & culture nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2024
Government funding OHANA WAA receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.2M on record.
- Department of the Interior$1.2M
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 OHANA WAA
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 OHANA WAA: 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 OHANA WAA?
- OHANA WAA (Hawaii) receives grants from 3 organizations whose IRS filings report $495,000 to it, the largest being RSF SOCIAL FINANCE INC ($450,000). 1 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 91% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does OHANA WAA have?
- IRS filings report 3 organizations giving $495,000 in grants to OHANA WAA, 1 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of OHANA WAA?
- RSF SOCIAL FINANCE INC is the largest funder on record, with $450,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like OHANA WAA 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 Ohana Waa →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2020–2024), and the filings of 3 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