Priority Funding Targets
With a fundraising goal of $3 million per year for the next 10 years, the Holomua Marine Initiative will provide grants and contracts to strengthen the collective work of partners. The following are the funding priorities:
- Empowering Community Efforts – To support community groups and networks of cultural practitioners throughout the Hawaiian Islands to revive effective traditional stewardship practices.
- Leveraging Private Investments for Public Funding - To support efforts that create and advance measures to increase public funding for long-term ocean conservation and management.
- Building a Movement – Develop strategic messaging to effectively communicate the importance of marine resources to a full range of stakeholders and decision-makers.
- Ensuring a Strong Foundation in Science - The Holomua Marine Initiative must incorporate leading scientific information to ensure that its MMAs will function as an ecological network, informed by traditional knowledge, and crafted with monitoring and enforcement in mind.
- Setting the Stage for Good Governance – To support coordinated, clearly defined roles and responsibilities, planning milestones, and transparent communication to ensure greater efficiency and accountability among partners.
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For more information email us at environment@hcf-hawaii.org
Funding Opportunities
Limited Eligibility Funding Opportunity
Request for Proposals (RFP)
Holomua Marine Initiative
Official Makai Watch Community Organizations
Expected number of requests: 14
The Purpose of This Funding Opportunity
The Makai Watch Program is a collaboration between communities and the State Department of Lands and Natural Resources (DLNR), which recognizes effective marine management engages the community in helping to manage their resources. The purpose of this RFP is to support the success and sustainability of the Makai Watch Program and the implementation of strategies that achieve program objectives and respond effectively to community and partners’ feedback regarding how Makai Watch can be strengthened and expanded to effectively embody the values and approach on which the Program was founded. The people who use a resource ultimately are responsible for its long-term health.
This funding opportunity is specifically intended to support community organizations in Hawai’i who are collaborating with DLNR’s Makai Watch Program as Official Makai Watch Community Organizations.
The activities that HCF will consider for funding in this proposal include:
- Staff and volunteer recruitment and retention;
- Organizational capacity building which can include training, peer learning exchanges, etc.
(Note: limited travel may be considered)
- Program operations and supplies;
- Supporting strategic planning, business planning, and sustainable finance planning;
- Other priorities that will result in strengthening organizational capacity to effectively achieve the objectives of Makai Watch and Holomua Marine Initiative.
Eligibility: Applicants must already be collaborating with DLNR on the Makai Watch Program as a DLNR Official Makai Watch Community Organization and be a non-profit organization with a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, or a fiscal sponsor for these organizations.
Official Makai Watch Community Organizations are limited to the following:
- Hui Maka'ainana O Makana
- Hanalei Watershed Hui
- Malama Pupukea-Waimea
- West Maui Kumuwai Campaign
- Puako Community Association
- Hui Aloha Kiholo
- Kaupulehu Marine Life Advisory Committee
- Kauhako Ohana Association
- Kalanihale
- Heeia NEER
- Kipahulu Ohana
- Manu Iwa O Malanai
- Hui Ohana o Honaunau
- Kealakekua, Hawaii
Grant Term: Grant requests for projects with a duration of 12-24 months (up to 2 years maximum) will be considered.
Funding: Grant requests for up to $50,000 USD will be considered. Funding decisions will be made in December 2023.
Deadline for Submission: 4:00 p.m. HST, Friday, October 6, 2023
For more information, see the below resources:
Funding Opportunity Guidelines
Grants
Community Capacity Building Cohort Grant Focus
The purpose of this funding opportunity is to provide grant support and a technical assistance training program to a cohort of community partners on Maui and Lānaʻi who are interested in working with DAR in the Holomua Marine Initiative. Grantees participating in this program will have use of and access to consultants, cultural practitioners and other experts to support effective marine management.
Grantees
- Kīpuka Olowalu in partnership with the Coral Reef Alliance - $100,000 over 2 years ($50,000 per year)
- Kaʻehu - $100,000 over 2 years ($50,000 per year)
- Ke Ao Hali'i - $100,000 over 2 years ($50,000 per year)
- Kipahulu 'Ohana, Inc. - $100,000 over 2 years ($50,000 per year)
- Maui Hui Mālama - $50,000 over 2 years ($25,000 per year)
- Nā Mamo O Mū'olea - $100,000 over 2 years ($50,000 per year)
Community Monitoring
A key component of effectively managing Hawai‘i’s nearshore waters is having an established statewide framework that incorporates information and data from a range of sources. Community-based organizations (CBO) that are interested in participating in the Holomua Marine Initiative and in having their place-based monitoring data integrated into the statewide framework will need to have a clearly defined monitoring goal, strategy, and purpose, inclusive of coordination with DLNR’s Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) on integration into the statewide framework.
- Conservation International - $200,000
- Kua'aina Ulu 'Auamo (KUA) - $200,000
- The Nature Conservancy - $200,000
Makai Watch
The purpose of this grant is to assess the Makai Watch Program, a collaboration between communities and the State DLNR, and identify how it can be strengthened and/or expanded to effectively embody the values and approach on which the program was founded, which at its core recognizes that the people who use a resource ultimately are responsible for its long-term health.
- Conservation International - $49,989
Support for Operating the Holomua Marine Initiative
- Arizona State University's Hawai‘i Monitoring and Reporting Collaborative (HIMARC) - $681,908
HIMARC is a collaboration among organizations that are involved in monitoring and management of Hawai‘i’s nearshore waters. Existing data collected by these programs is combined and serves as a backbone for data informed management decisions. HIMARC will serve as the primary resource for data housing, calibration, and analyses.
- Hawaii Green Growth thru Oahu Economic Development Council - $100,000
Funding for Aloha+Challenge policy coordination, public outreach, network facilitation and Aloha+Dashboard metric updates with Hawaiʻi county governments and communities related to the Holomua Marine statewide initiative.
- State of Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Aquatic Resources - $878,892
Funds will be used to implement the Holomua Marine Initiative, including work to advance: (1) community-focused public process, (2) communications, (3) data monitoring and analyses, (4) legal and regulatory work, (5) expansion of the Makai Watch program, and (6) interim evaluation of DAR’s progress on the Initiative.
Contracts
- Contracts for Communications Support for the Holomua Marine Initiative - $124,740
- Contracts to support the evaluation of the Statewide Holomua Marine Initiative - $101,058
- Contracts for facilitation services related to the Holomua Marine Initiative - $304,136
- Contract for community support and training - $75,000
Request for Proposals (RFP): Assessment of Makai Watch Program