Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 34, Number 10, 1 October 2017 — Empowering Homegrown Organizations [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Empowering Homegrown Organizations

loha mai kakou!

Earlier this year, OHA kfinalized its

hiennium grant cycle for fiscal years 2018 and 2019. This process happens every two years and is highly competitive. The process is limited to 501 -c3 non-profit organizations. And there are 6 categories that we focus on based on our strategic plan, those categories are healīh, eulture, housing, education, ineome and land. This process is just one way that some of OHA's resources

reach our community. While there were many worthwhile and amazing projects that were awarded, the reality is that the large majority of organizations that apply do not receive an award. This makes for controversy almost every time this grant cycle happens. This year was no different. However, I believe that through discussion we were able to identify some necessary adjustments in our grants process that ean ensure that more monies reach places and efforts that are in desperate need of resources. The biggest gap I have seen for a number of years is that the smaller organizations who are often doing some of the most difficult and hands-on work do not have the resources to compete with larger non-profits in the competitive granting process. This is problematic, for the islands I represent especially, Kaua'i and Ni'ihau, this has resulted in very little, (and sometimes, no grant funds) reaching my constituents. After trying my best to encourage as many applicants to apply for the most recent grant cycle, I was happy to see that two Kaua'i organizations did receive awards. This is better than the previous cycle whieh had zero Kaua'i organizations receive funds. There were still a number of smaller organizations across all the islands that were not awarded this cycle, but who

I know are doing excellent work.

Therefore, I still think we ean do better. While numerous questions were raised about our grants criteria during this last award cycle, I believe we have started to identify ways to close some of the gaps. My biggest eoneem is leveling the playing field. Knowing that smaller organizations do not have the resources to compete with the larger and more established organizations, we should be identifying ways to build their capacity, and create opportunities for them.

In an effort to develop additional pathways for smaller non-profits, the board of trustees created and appointed an ad hoe committee on grants to review current procedures and develop new ones to address many of the concerns raised. In addition to leveling the playing field in terms of resources, I also believe we should be giving preferenee to those organizations whose mission is focused on serving Native Hawaiian communities and/or eulture. To me, that is empowerment. We have to identify organizations who are born and bred in our eommunities in order to achieve systemic change in our communities. They know their communities best, they know what the needs are, and if given the proper tools, they are probably the best equipped to fulfill those needs. We at OHA have to identify those organizations, engage them, and help empower them. These are going to be our strongest allies in tackling the many issues our greater Hawaiian community faces. I look forward to seeing how our grants process will evolve and am hopeful that we ean increase the capacity of many of the smaller Native Hawaiian-serving organizations that are doing mueh needed and amazing work in our communities. ■

Dan Ahuna VicE Chair, TrustEE, Kaua'i ard Ni'ihau