Aloha to Diane Chadwick
Diane Chadwick has helped to usher in significant positive change in Hawaiʻi for more than 30 years, working with the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation since 1990. In her role as director of donor relations on Hawaiʻi Island, Diane has been a powerful force for good, doing everything from helping establish Vibrant Hawaiʻi, which supports collaborative networks across the island, to redesigning the Richard Smart Fund, which works to elevate and empower community voices. In August 2024, she retired, and we took the moment to sit down with Diane to learn more about her passions and the work she’s contributed to over the years.
Q: How did you originally come to HCF?
A: In 1987, I was working in the development office at Bishop Museum and heard that the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation was being re-formed out of the Hawaiian Trust Company. We were applying for HCF funding from Bishop Museum, but then in 1990 I saw an ad in the paper for a neighborhood grants program officer position, so I applied for it. I interviewed with Jane Smith and Janis Reichman, who were the HCF president and vice president. I didn’t have any experience being a program officer at all, but I had a lot of experience taking minutes and being an executive assistant. That very night, they called me back at seven o’clock and asked if I’d like a job as an executive assistant. I said, sure. And then eventually I became a program officer and went from there.
Q: In your career, you’ve had the opportunity to see HCF grow and evolve. What are some changes you’ve seen over the years?
A: The ’90s were a time of huge growth for HCF. I think in the beginning, in 1987, there were five employees. By the time I got there, there were maybe 15. When you’re such a small organization, everybody does a bit of everything, and there’s a lot more informal kind of interaction. And then, as you grow in size, things become more specialized and more formalized. The other thing I’ve seen is that, in the ’90s and early 2000s, there was a big emphasis on carrying out what donors wanted without trying to guide or inform their giving, since they are acting generously, and we should follow their lead. Over the years, and especially recently, that focus has shifted to communicating with donors about where their dollars can go further, based on what the community needs are. Now, we have more of a partnership, sharing with donors the big picture of what’s happening in our community.
Q: How did you make the move to Hawaiʻi Island?
A: When [then-HCF-president] Kelvin Taketa decided to open HCF offices on the Neighbor Islands in 2000, I told him I’d really like to move over to the Big Island. To get an understanding of the community, I did so many meetings, including with all of the County Council members, and community leaders, some who ended up becoming our HCF Hawaiʻi Island Leadership Council. We set up the Hawaiʻi Island Fund, which still exists. It was established to start our grantmaking and fundraising. We didn’t have a large number of funds to do grantmaking with back then. It’s really grown since those early days.
Q: The Hawaiʻi Island Volcano Recovery Fund, which was established in 2018 as a response to the volcanic eruption that year, was a forerunner to some of the other disaster-relief funds that HCF has set up, including the Maui Strong Fund for the Maui wildfires, and the Hawaiʻi Resilience Fund, for COVID-19. How did that fund come together?
A: On a Friday, there was a big earthquake. By Sunday, people were already starting to come together to see what could be done. And by Monday, they had a meeting in Hilo with more than 40 people at the table representing all kinds of social service organizations on the island, figuring out how to help the residents being evacuated. I called several of our existing donors on this island, and they put money up to create the Hawaiʻi Island Volcano Recovery Fund, and, before you know it, we had $1 million in donations from all over the world. I thought that was huge, and it happened all in a few days. And that’s the thing about Hawaiʻi Community Foundation, our ability to mobilize so quickly, and our ability to get that money out into the community, often before other sources of relief aid are able to be activated.
Q: You helped set up the Puna Strong Fund, which was one of the first times that HCF began using the practices of trust-based philanthropy. How did that get started?
A: HCF was already having early conversations about doing trust-based philanthropy. [A relatively new approach that aims to address the inherent power imbalances between foundations and nonprofits, with practices including multi-year unrestricted funding, streamlined applications and reporting, and a commitment to building relationships based on transparency, dialog, and mutual learning.] When we were setting up the fund for the Puna community, I knew we wanted to support real grassroots-type groups. I wanted to find community leaders who didn’t necessarily know how to access resources, who didn’t already have those connections to HCF. So we put out the word that we had funding, and I told people to just call me. And they did. We did a lot of interviews, and learned so much about what was out there in the community. We barely even had a grant application to fill out, just something simple to get organizations into our system. And that was the start of it. Extending trust that you’re going to do what you say with the funding, and not weighing nonprofits down with a lot of paperwork. The results have been so fantastic—the trust really is rewarded.
Q: What’s been your experience working in philanthropy on Hawaiʻi Island specifically?
A: I am so interested in community, and Hawaiʻi Island is such a great place for that. When I was doing my master’s in social work, I did a practicum in Waiʻanae with Queen Liliʻuokalani Children’s Center, and my job was to go out and map the community, get to know all the organizations and resources that are in the community. That was right before I moved to Hawaiʻi Island. So, when I moved here, I had that same mentality, just go out and get to know everything about every community. I put together a binder full of newsletters, sectioned by districts so that I could see what was happening in Kona and Ka'u and North Kohala, to get a feeling for it all. And now I am so proud of what everyone is doing in their own communities. There is so much happening on this island. It’s very exciting.
Q: What are your plans for retirement?
A: At first I imagined going into full retirement, but I just kept thinking to myself, I can’t see how that’s going to pan out. I don’t want to fill my time up completely, because there are so many things I want to do—travel, study Hawaiian language. I’m sure I’ll keep busy.
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