Compassion Capital - Hawai‘i Moving Forward
Project Summary

The Compassion Capital - Hawai‘i Moving Forward project is an inter-institutional partnership dedicated to improving the skills and performance of grassroots, community-service, and faith-based organizations as they meet the needs of low-income and under-resourced people in Hawai‘i. The partners are the University of Hawai‘i Center on the Family (COF), Hawai‘i Community Foundation (HCF), and Hawaiian Islands Ministries (HIM). Compassion Capital - Hawai‘i Moving Forward provides training, grants, and a Fellows Program to Hawai‘i-based organizations. The project utilizes a two-tiered approach to achieve its objective.

Capacity-Building Training Workshops

The first tier involves training workshops targeting five critical areas of organizational capacity:

• Leadership development
• Organizational development
• Program and service development
• Revenue development
• Community engagement

The workshops are conducted for all interested grassroots, community-service, and faith-based organizations in the state of Hawai‘i.

Fellows Program

Access to the second tier requires selection into the Compassion Capital Fellows Program, a more intensive and targeted capacity-building program. Organizations selected for this program receive (a) individualized organizational assessments that identify areas in need of strengthening, (b) technical assistance from a cadre of coaches, and (c) the opportunity to apply for grants to support capacity-building initiatives. Two representatives from each organization are also required to attend regular training sessions covering a range of capacity-building subjects.

Organizations participating in the Fellows Program must be providing social services addressing one or more of the following priority areas:

• Homelessness
• Prisoners in need of rehabilitation
• Families of incarcerated individuals
• At-risk youth
• Substance abuse
• Elders in need
• Families and individuals transitioning from welfare to work
• Marriage strengthening

Only those selected to participate in the Fellows Program will have an opportunity to apply for a grant. The grant will not fund direct social services. Rather, the grant will support capacity-building activities that produce measurable impact resulting in a more sustainable organization. Capacity-building initiatives will be guided by the needs identified through the organizational assessment process. Activities to be funded could include, but are not limited to:

• Strategic planning
• Financial management systems development
• Staff development and training
• Board assessment and development
• Project planning and evaluation
• Improvements to information collection and tracking
• Fund development
• Structuring strategic partnerships and collaborations
• Community-needs assessment

No part of the grant may go to fund religious activities. Recruitment for the third Fellows Program cohort will begin in late 2006 and program applications will be collected in early February 2007.