Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 33, Number 9, 1 Kepakemapa 2016 — Aloha mai kākou, [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Aloha mai kākou,

Elections seem to bring out the best and worst in people. This year, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the campaign both nationally and locally. And the Office of Hawaiian Affairs is not immune from the controversy. Everyone needs to prove they are different from the other candidates and, as usual, we are caught in the crossfire. But when you look at our fundamentals, one thing is clear: we have been doing a better job. In the past five years, we gave out $60.6 million in grants. That's money that went to non-profits in the community to serve Native Hawaiians by giving them job training, to pay for educational plans, to help people reach the dream of homeownership and to fight obesity. Last year alone, $7.6 million served 8,700 Native Hawaiians through 33 different projects. Those effects ripple through the community, because as Hawaiians reach for higher incomes or are able to get a higher education or buy a home, the entire community benefits. Over the past five years, we also gave out $25.4 million in loans to Native Hawaiian-owned businesses and Native Hawaiians. Our research found that businesses that used our Mālama Loans to expand their businesses saw their ineome jump an average of 34 percent. Those who used the loans for education saw an average annual ineome increase of $4,454. Our management practices are strong, but there's always roomfor improvement. We're recovering millions of dollars in fees from money managers hired to manage our investment portfolios. We hired an investment consultant to develop better strategies to increase our returns while decreasing our risk. Starting in September, we will begin conducting workshops to improve

our fiscal sustainability. We want to have a hnaneial plan that looks at where we will be in five years, in 10 years or even longer. We need to better manage our budget so we ean better implement major initiatives and our strategic plans. And that doesn't even take into account all the outreach we do to brinu neonle to2ether for cultural Durnoses. or simnlv to talk storv.

We reached 2,495 people last year directly through our I Mana Ka Lāhui program.

Our advocacy efforts have made a difference bringing more awareness of Hawaiian issues to government while working to preserve our traditional and customary practices. So what does OHA do? We advocate for the perpetu- . ation and preservation of Native Hawaiian rights and k improve the conditions of Native Hawaiians by giving M millions to non-profits for the benefit of our people, ^ families and community. In other words, we are truly empowering Hawaiians and strengthening Hawai'i.

'O au iho no me ke aloha a me ka 'oia'i'o, Kamana'opono M. Crabbe, Ph.D. Ka Pouhana/Chief Executive 0fficer

STRENGTHEN I NG OUR CO M M U N I TY

1 'ŌLELO A KA LUNA HO'OKELE * 1 MESSAGE FR0M THE CE0 '