Hawaii · Nonprofit
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION (Hawaii) receives grants from 442 organizations whose IRS filings report $215,427,882 to it, the largest being CHAN ZUCKERBERG INITIATIVE FOUNDATION ($44,304,001). 262 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $178M
- Funders on record
- 442
- Grants received
- $215M
- Net assets
- $982M
What University of Hawaii Foundation does
Mission
To unite donors' passions with the university of hawai'I's (uh) aspirations by raising philanthropic support and managing investments to benefit uh, the people of hawai'I and our future generations.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
Special programs - donor designated accounts support a range of academic and non-academic initiatives/programs. These include visiting distinguished lecturers and professorships, computer lab support, facilities funds, intramural sports, outreach programs that support lifelong learning and community education, health fairs, workshops, band and mentorship programs. Through fundraising and account management, uhf is a partner in capital improvement projects to bring state-of-the-art facilities, technology and equipment to campuses statewide. Quality facilities and resources nurture healthy learning and productive collaboration. From business education to advanced culinary training, donors are helping uh deliver world-class opportunities and facilities to hawai'I students. Donor funds make it possible for our public university to bring distinguished visiting lecturers and researchers to our campuses. Examples include bringing highly regarded cancer researchers from around the world, to work collaboratively in our research laboratories with uh scientists. While they are here, these researchers, including nobel laureates, deliver a major lecture at the university of hawai'I cancer…
$21,489,410 spentof which $4,166,947 as grants30% of program spendingStudent aid and services - uhf raises and distributes money for student aid, scholarships, fellowships, grants and awards to help students fulfill their academic potential and ensure our state has the skilled professionals it needs to flourish.these include merit-based scholarships, need-based scholarships, study abroad opportunities and programs that help build international bridges and cultural versatility. Fellowships help uh attract and retain outstanding students whose research and contributions to our world are key to a vibrant future.
$18,187,623 spentof which $15,214,953 as grants25% of program spendingResearch - the university of hawai'I foundation (uhf) helps advance world-class research and innovation through strategic philanthropic investments. Private support plays a critical role in enabling uh researchers to tackle our world's challenges and improve our quality of life. With its unique geographic location in the middle of the pacific ocean, the rich ethnic diversity and environmental attributes, uh has become a globally recognized leader for its pioneering research in fields such as oceanography, volcanology, astronomy, pacific islands and asian area studies, tropical agriculture, cancer and genetics. Uh's highly ranked active research programs serve as a magnet for leading researchers, building uh centers of excellence in areas including microbiomes, endangered and rare plant conservation and climate change.
$9,244,922 spentof which $36,195 as grants13% of program spendingOther program services
$23,043,748 spentof which $790,327 as grants32% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $71,965,703.
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 $548M to $719M (+31%).
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 0% · 2019 0% · 2022 1%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
79% of UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (14% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 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
C Scott Wo
Chairman
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 73 funders to 189 funders, grant income rose $10M → $40M.
42 of 442 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 12% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $9.7M from 9 payers (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Hawai'i Pacific Health Group Return). These are real filings, and they are not money UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION raised.
From the IRS filings of UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 442 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
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 8 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 8 funders to its left
35% 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 UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 30% · 2018 20% · 2019 15% · 2020 9% · 2021 27% · 2022 39% · 2023 25% — 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
44% of UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 59% 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
53% of UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION's grant income comes from Hawaii funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $27M arriving through sponsors registered in 21 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
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 684 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 684 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Organizations like UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION
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
68%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Uhf Atherton Student Housing LLC · disregarded
- Uhf Rise Student Housing LLC · disregarded
- Charitable Remainder Trust (43) · corp_trust
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION: 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 UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION?
- UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION (Hawaii) receives grants from 442 organizations whose IRS filings report $215,427,882 to it, the largest being CHAN ZUCKERBERG INITIATIVE FOUNDATION ($44,304,001). 262 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION have?
- IRS filings report 442 organizations giving $215,427,882 in grants to UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION, 262 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION?
- CHAN ZUCKERBERG INITIATIVE FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $44,304,001 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII FOUNDATION 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.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 442 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