Habitat Maui Receives Funds from CHANGE Grants Program

Habitat for Humanity Maui was awarded $40,000 from the Hawai‘i Resilience Fund of the Hawai‘i Community Foundation as part of their CHANGE Grants program to help fund its building programs.

Organization leaders say this means they can help more Maui families struggling with safe, stable, and affordable housing.

Last month, the Hawai‘i Community Foundation announced $7M in awards from its CHANGE Grants program to 194 nonprofits statewide who are working to address some of our state’s most difficult challenges in areas of: Community & Economy, Health & Wellness, Arts & Culture, Natural Environment, Government & Civics, and Education.

Funding for the first-year of grants include $2 million from 664 donors statewide and $5 million from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott. In 2020, Scott gifted a total $10 million to HCF.

“To address Hawai‘i’s inequities we have to uncover the root of the problem by speaking with the people closest to the work,” says Michelle Kauhane, senior vice president of Community Grants and Initiatives at HCF. “Over the past few months, we’ve had insightful, deep conversations with our local nonprofits—and the approach has enabled us to learn and to listen to how they are addressing our state’s challenges and to hear their solutions.” 

Habitat for Humanity Maui was one of 24 nonprofits selected under the Community & Economy sector to help fund their work to build safe and affordable housing for lower-income families.

“Safe, stable, and affordable housing is one of the biggest challenges facing Hawaiʻi today. This grant will help with our building programs and our mission to build decent housing and renovate substandard housing on Maui,” said Yvonne McClean, Community Relations Director for Habitat for Humanity Maui. “HCF’s initiative to dig deeper into these issues and designate funds to help our programs is a step forward to our solutions,” she said.

Habitat for Humanity Maui builds and sells homes to lower-income families earning between 25% to 80% of Maui county’s median income. To date, Habitat for Humanity Maui has built and renovated over 130 homes in Maui County, providing safe and affordable housing for over 500 people in our local community.