Menu Text	Image
Investing
Strengthening
Learning
Grants & Scholarships

A family smiling; The letter C appears on the banner.

HEALTH AND WELLNESS

To achieve a Hawai‘i in which health and wellness are accessible to all, we need to shift from an approach focused on “fixing the individual” to supporting changes identified and led by communities across Hawaiʻi. These shifts will impact the overall ecosystem of health in places where people live, connect, work, and play. Additionally, shifting agency, resources, and decision making to community members closest to the solutions creates a more resilient, equitable, and secure Hawaiʻi.

Today, foundational challenges stand in the way of making this vision a reality. Hawaiʻi does not have enough health and wellness practitioners to meet the needs of residents. In addition, our health system is tipped toward individual intervention and treatment, rather than a preventative, holistic, or culturally relevant view of healthcare. As a result, we consistently see health disparities existing in certain populations, particularly COFA migrants and Native Hawaiians.

Why tackle these obstacles? We believe that every person in our Island communities deserves a fair opportunity to achieve their full potential and thrive. Together, we can make a difference.

EXPLORE THE DATA

How We Can Make Change Together

By actively addressing health outcomes through community-informed decision making, Hawaiʻi can achieve health equity and increase the quality of life for all people.

It’s important to create intentional spaces where mission-aligned organizations can come together to collaborate, inspire, and challenge one another to grow and support our community.
– Health and Wellness Grantee Partner

Seven Strategies to Pursue

Given the insights and analyses driven by community feedback, experts, and data, here are the leverage points HCF has identified that can help push the sector forward.

Engage and support networks of people and organizations working on holistic health. We can create common data sets and a shared vision for health and wellness driven by inclusivity, leading to greater transparency, better understanding, and improved outcomes.
Standardize data and facilitate sharing across organizations. This will reduce data collection fatigue and help identify trends in smaller groups, ultimately leading to better resource allocation for specific community needs.
Create more educational pipelines into health and wellness professions. By increasing access to these kinds of careers, we will begin to generate more local professionals and, over time, expand availability of health and wellness services.
Fund collaborative projects to address mental health across the life span. By doing this, we will support more accessible and welcoming mental health services, eventually resulting in Hawaiʻi actualizing its declaration as a trauma-informed state with proactive health and wellness services.
Validate and spread the understanding that physical and mental health are essential factors in overall well-being. By reducing the stigma surrounding mental healthcare, we can encourage greater acceptance of these services and foster a healthier community. Ultimately, this involves changing beliefs about care standards to include mental health.
Provide holistic and culturally based approaches to healthcare services. Particularly in a multicultural place like Hawaiʻi, these approaches will equip us to better care for the health of all individuals and improve quality of life for the entire community.
Secure commitments from systems decision makers (policy makers, insurance companies, government, philanthropy, etc.) to involve constituents in their decision-making processes. Soliciting broad and meaningful buy-in from constituents will lead to a greater focus on health and wellness, more access to community-based solutions, and regular conversations about community needs.

A man holds a young baby near a sailboat.

Folks sit in folding chairs at an event, chatting.

How HCF is Supporting Health and Wellness

HCF currently provides grant funding in alignment with several of these sector strategies. We are also working to convene partners across the health and wellness sector on intersectional challenges and opportunities facing the sector.

Health and Wellness Grant Program – HCF funds community-led collaborative efforts and connects and supports a cohort of organizations operating with community-led mindsets in rural and other geographies, helping them develop as organizations.

COFA Health Outreach Grant Program – The goals of this program are to increase the enrollment of eligible COFA migrants in either Medicaid or other health insurance coverage; to build and strengthen the capacity of the COFA community to facilitate greater access to effective, culturally-aligned health and well-being programs; and to strengthen the organizational sustainability of COFA-led and COFA-serving nonprofit organizations.

Kūpuna Aging in Place Program – This multi-year grant program supports organizations that provide a range of supportive services including community-based support, adult day care and adult day health, and caregiver support for low- to moderate-income kūpuna (seniors) age 65 and older and their caregivers, all with the goal that kūpuna in Hawaiʻi can age in place.

Donate to the Health and Wellness Sector

Click here to donate to the CHANGE Health and Wellness Fund, or reach out to our Donor Services team at donorservices@hcf-hawaii.org or (808) 566-5560.

Grant Funding Opportunities

There are currently no open funding opportunities available for the Health and Wellness sector.

Check our Open Applications page to see which grants are accepting applications.

For more information or questions, please email CHANGE@hcf-hawaii.org

Stories of Impact

Healing by Land and Sea

Ka‘ehu is a Maui-based nonprofit with the goal of restoring the land and perpetuating traditional Hawaiian culture using a community-based, inclusive, family-oriented approach.

Bringing Early Education to More of Hawai‘i’s Keiki

A $38 million Preschool Open Doors expansion supports ALICE families and keiki, allowing more parents to start their workday knowing that their three- and four-year old children are learning, growing, and thriving in a safe, enriching environment setting them up for future success.

Kūpuna Care, One Volunteer at a Time

Maui nonprofit Nā Hoaloha helps keep seniors healthy and independent, making it easier to age in place well. Services include friendly home visits to offer companionship and assistance, transportation, and respite for round-the-clock caregivers.

Resources

Health and Wellness Sector Summary of Findings 2022

Hawai‘i Health Data Warehouse

BACK TO MAIN PAGE

COMMUNITY CENTERED ECONOMY

At its best, Hawaiʻi can be a place where individuals and families have control over their lives, where residents enjoy generational prosperity, and where kamaʻāina can afford to stay or return if they’ve migrated elsewhere. Above all, it should be a place where everyone is able to thrive and reach their full potential.

However, there are many challenges that stand between us and paradise. Hawaiʻi’s cost of living is one of the highest in the world, increasing steadily, and our employment opportunities and wage levels have not kept pace. Because of this, the number of financially insecure households statewide remains substantial—in 2024, 40 percent of all households in Hawaiʻi fell below the ALICE Threshold (Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, but Employed), the minimum income level necessary for a household to sustainably meet basic needs.

As a result, many Hawaiʻi residents have been forced to make the difficult choice to leave the state for places with lower living costs, more housing, and better opportunities.

To create positive change, we’ll focus on supporting the innovation and creativity our communities already possess, addressing their unique economic needs to make living more affordable, create good jobs, and foster sustainable growth.

We envision a future in which everyone in Hawaiʻi has a fair opportunity to thrive, and economic hardships are not a barrier to making optimal cultural, social, and financial decisions. Together, we can make a difference.

EXPLORE THE DATA

How We Can Make Change Together

We will improve the well-being of Hawaiʻi’s people and places by making our economic ecosystem more diversified, balanced, and sustainable. We’ll support advocacy, encourage cross-sector collaboration, build housing and resilience, and increase workforce resources, all while prioritizing quality of life.

A sustainable economy is one where opportunity is not left to chance. By integrating efforts around workforce equity, housing, and community resilience, we create a future where all of Hawaiʻi’s residents can build a life—not just make a living.
– Matt Stevens, executive director of the Hawaiʻi Workforce Funders Collaborative

Six Strategies to Pursue

Given the insights and analyses driven by community feedback, experts, and data, here are the leverage points we’ve identified that can help push the sector forward.

Advocate for laws and policies that will have a positive impact on Hawaiʻi’s people and economy, through community-centered policy change, community empowerment, and government engagement.
Support workforce and skill development by strengthening systems, creating a sustainable workforce, fostering employer-employee collaboration to develop job training and development opportunities, and preparing Hawaiʻi’s workforce for future needs.
Increase affordable housing and reduce barriers to providing sufficient housing opportunities.
Engage diverse voices to enhance decision making and cross-sector collaboration, to better create living wage jobs for current and future needs.
Establish consensus on culturally centered metrics to measure economic success, using relevant and understandable data for Hawaiʻi residents and organizations.
Improve economic and workforce projects and resources available to stakeholders. This could include authoring economic development reports, spearheading workforce and higher education programs and resources, and fostering collaboration by creating networks and hui.

How HCF is Supporting a Community Centered Economy

HCF currently provides grant funding in alignment with several of these sector strategies.

House Maui Initiative – HCF launched House Maui to unite diverse voices from all sectors to create a sustainable housing market for Maui’s families. The initiative aims to bring together all levels of government, elected leaders, nonprofits, home-builders, businesses, philanthropists, and the community to develop affordable housing solutions on Maui so that local families can continue to call Maui home.

Social Impact Investment Fund – In Hawaiʻi, there is an undersupply of expansion capital for Hawaiʻi-based nonprofits and social ventures. HCF administers a $7.5 million Social Impact Investment Fund to provide revolving, catalytic capital to Hawaiʻi-based nonprofits, for-profits, and qualified intermediaries addressing critical social issues aligned with HCF’s CHANGE Framework.

ALICE Initiative Cohort – Aloha United Way and HCF have partnered to administer the 2025-2027 ALICE Initiative Cohort. The ALICE Initiative empowers nonprofit partners to initiate substantial change by utilizing a collective impact model that drives innovation, advocacy, and strategic interventions, helping ALICE households achieve upward economic mobility. The Fund offers support over three years to O‘ahu-based nonprofit organizations engaged in the ALICE impact areas of financial stability, housing, workforce opportunity, and advocacy.

Donate to the Community Centered Economy Sector

Click here to donate to the CHANGE Community Centered Economy Sector, or reach out to our Donor Services team at donorservices@hcf-hawaii.org or (808) 566-5560.