Hawaii nonprofits affected by federal funding cuts should get ready to apply for grants from a special $50 million state fund created by a bill signed into law Wednesday.
Gov. Josh Green authorized the new fund by signing Senate Bill 933, which he said will help prevent fraying of the social safety net that nonprofits help provide largely in areas of health care, food security, housing support, child care and emergency relief.
“These organizations are the heartbeat of our community,” Green said. “They’re quiet and consistently standing in when we have crises … and if they don’t have enough resources, the safety net dissolves.”
To be eligible for grants, nonprofits must provide documentation that they have lost federal funding, or that the work they do primarily serves a population that has been negatively affected by federal funding cuts.
Under the new law, Act 310, four state lawmakers — two picked by House Speaker Nadine Nakamura and two picked by Senate President Ron Kouchi — will decide as a committee how much to give out and to which applicants.
Processing and distributing grants will be handled by Aloha United Way with support from the Office of Community Services within the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.
AUW may receive up to $500,000 for its work, while the Office of Community Services is to receive $130,000 to hire the equivalent of two full-time personnel plus $10,000 for office equipment and furniture.
It is uncertain when program operators might be ready to begin accepting applications, followed by approvals and fund distribution.
Green said he expects Nakamura (D, Hanalei-Princeville-Kapaa) and Kouchi (D, Kauai-Niihau) will appoint committee members later this month, and that the grant consideration and distribution process will begin as soon as possible.
State lawmakers realized shortly after the 2025 legislative session began Jan. 15 that their normal procedure for providing annual grants in aid to nonprofits would not align well with needs after the session ended on May 2, given evolving efforts by the Trump administration to slash federal funding in many areas including support for social service providers.
Sen. Troy Hashimoto, who helped shape the final somewhat controversial version of the bill, said a lot of his colleagues were nervous about how they could best help nonprofits this year, and wanted to give out more than $30 million through grants in aid decided before May 2.
“But when we started to see what was happening at the federal level, we kind of knew that it was going to throw everyone off because a lot of the nonprofits would not know what their budget outlook would look like,” Hashimoto (D, Wailuku-Kahului-Waihee) said at Wednesday’s bill signing ceremony in Green’s office at the state Capitol. “I think this will go a long way for our community.”
It is expected that some nonprofits not approved for grants in aid earlier this year, and some that sought more than they were granted, will obtain grants from the special fund.
About 400 applications were filed by nonprofits seeking $192 million in aid this year, and $30 million was approved for 121 applicants.
Kayla Keehu-Alexander, vice president of community impact at AUW, called the new fund critical to counteract pullback in federal funding for nonprofits.
“This has been a turbulent year for Hawaii’s nonprofits who have been navigating through precarious waters for the last six months,” she said during the ceremony. “This is a powerful acknowledgement that our nonprofits deserve the same kind of stability that they offer our community every single day.”
Rep. Daniel Holt, chair of the Legislature’s Subcommittee on Grants-in-Aid, said nonprofits facing reduced federal funding or effects of such reductions deserve relief, which was a simple goal that took what he described as creativity and difficulty to craft the final version of the bill.
“This is what happens when we work together and when government listens and leads with intention,” he said.
There was some reluctance in the 76-member Legislature with having four lawmakers determine grant awards with no public meeting requirements for a special legislative committee of sorts.
Three Democrats in the House voted to approve the bill with reservations, including Rep. Dela Au Belatti, who called it “constitutionally deficient.” Voting against the bill were five of eight Republicans in the House: Reps. David Alcos, Diamond Garcia, Lauren Matsumoto, Christopher Muraoka and Elijah Pierick.
In the Senate, the bill passed 23-2, with two of three Republican members voting no: Sens. Brenton Awa and Samantha DeCorte.
Green said he doubts that anyone will challenge the legality of the new law because it would harm nonprofits serving residents in need.
“I think if we do see lawsuits against this bill, it would be pretty cynical,” he said moments before signing the measure. “Because these $50 million are going to ultimately go to people who are hungry, people who are suffering from domestic violence, people who are losing their health care coverage, people who don’t have a health center available to them.”