The HOIHI Grant Program seeks to increase economic development within the Native Hawaiian Community by expanding opportunities for entrepreneurship among members, increasing innovation potential on the usage and incorporation of traditional knowledge, and ultimately increasing growth of new businesses within the Community.
Donor Name: Interior Business Center
State: Hawaii
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/09/2025
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: 3 Years
Details:
The HOIHI Grant Program is an innovative effort to utilize Native Hawaiian traditional knowledge to bolster economic development in the Native Hawaiian Community, advance economic growth in the State of Hawaii, and to equip Native Hawaiian organizations (NHO) with the needed resources to transform tourism involving historical and sacred sites to be regenerative and collaborative. This, in turn, broadens the ability of Native businesses to flourish and contribute to lowering unemployment and increasing expanding economic growth. HOIHI also furthers the opportunity to promote the incorporation of regenerative tourism models, and in doing so allows for the conservation and preservation of unique natural and cultural resources, and historic sites. The NATIVE Act plays an important role in promoting heritage and cultural tourism opportunities through the self-determining participation of Native American communities, including the Native Hawaiian Community, in the visitor industry.
The Hawaiian value of HOIHI (to treat with reverence or respect), as reflected in the olelo noeau (Hawaiian proverb) “E hoihi aku, e hoihi mai,” meaning “show respect, get respect”, represents the core principle of ONHR’s HOIHI Grant Program. Through showing respect, visitors (tourists) can then be welcomed as guests with a shared kuleana (responsibility) in perpetuating the values and importance of Native Hawaiian traditional knowledge and cultural practices. This olelo noeau serves as a foundational guide for ONHR’s HOIHI Grant Program to aide in actions that:
- Showcase the heritage, places, art, foods, traditions, history and continuing vitality of the Native Hawaiian Community;
- Identify, enhance, revive, or maintain loea (cultural traditions and practices), wahi kupuna (ancestral spaces) and wahi pana (sacred spaces) that are important to sustain the distinctiveness of the Native Hawaiian Community; and
- Provide for authentic and respectful visitor experiences in Hawaii.
Program Priorities for 2025
For fiscal year 2025, ONHR will fulfill the core principles of the HOIHI Program by providing grant funding to successful NHO applicants who meet the criteria for one or more of the following priorities:
- Uplift, perpetuate, and in some cases revive, traditional Native Hawaiian practices (e.g., olelo Hawaii, kapa making, lauhala and kaula weaving, hula, amongst many others including lesser known practices) by creating opportunities for demonstrations, visitor education on history, usage, and protocols, or hands-on visitor participation experiences in the cultural practice;
- Support the maintenance, enhancement, and protection of Hawaii’s natural resources, wahi kupuna, and wahi pana at areas impacted by tourism;
- Enhance the entrepreneurial capacity for the Native Hawaiian Community by helping create business opportunities in the visitor industry, offering business development training, or stimulating economic activity; AND/OR
- Undertake related activities with visitors that convey respect and reaffirm the principle of reciprocation to the place, resources, and traditional knowledge holders and practitioners.
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Program Funding: $1,000,000
- Award Ceiling: $200,000
- Award Floor: $50,000.
Grant Period
36 months.
Eligibility Criteria
- Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
- Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
