New foundation’s follow-up tries to ensure great results

A new local foundation seeks to bring accountability to nonprofits and assurances to donors.

Hawaii VA Loans President and founder Gabe Amey has established the Hawaii VA Foundation to better manage the new format of his 3-year-old fundraising efforts.

"We are trying to provide a platform through which we are supporting Hawaii’s community and local charities in a responsible manner," Amey said.

His 2014 Hawaii VA Games "Showdown" CrossFit championship at Blaisdell Arena has thus far raised more than $30,000, and he hopes to raise another $10,000 through corollary channels.

Four-member teams of two men and two women pay $500 to compete in the challenge, and the 60 berths are sold out.

Competitors from some of Hawaii’s roughly 40 CrossFit-affiliated gyms have signed up.

"They’re all going to compete September 1st, Labor Day," he said.

Amey is seeking applications from local nonprofits needing funding which have tangible goals that can be achieved in a nine-month period, he said. The application deadline is Aug. 15.

Nonprofits can visit the foundation’s website to submit an application, while those seeking to donate also will find relevant links.

Three nonprofits will be chosen and be announced at the Labor Day event, and each will evenly split 90 percent of the funds raised.

Then, in June, "we’re going to have video production crews visit the nonprofits" to see what they’ve accomplished.

"We’re going to hold the benefactors of the funds accountable for what they do with the funds," Amey said.

The videos will be uploaded to the Internet in July of next year so the public can vote on which nonprofit best used the funds awarded, and "by August 2015 we’ll announce the winner that will receive the remaining 10 percent" of what was raised during the 2014 Showdown event.

Of course, by then the 2015 Showdown already will be planned, and Hawaii VA Foundation already will have sought applications from nonprofits for the 2015 round of donation-giving and achievement videotaping and voting.

The event will be annual, with a sort of rolling calendar of deadlines and milestones.

"This is the first year we’re doing it," he said, and given experience with the new format, "we’re going to keep improving."

"I’d like to think that if this works out, it’s a model for other companies, or other charities that raise money for the sole purpose of giving it to other charities," Amey said.

The Hawaii VA Games will continue to stage the Showdown that he has orchestrated for the past three years, and now he will do it under the banner of his nonprofit Hawaii VA Foundation.

The foundation’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit status is pending, he said.

Amey is the founder and president of Hawaii VA Loans, which is not affiliated with the U.S. Veterans Administration, but is "an independent mortgage company licensed to do VA loans," he explained.

His previous fundraising was a way for his company to give back to the community, specifically the military-connected community.

The more than $45,000 raised by the Hawaii VA Games in its first three years was donated to Operation Homefront Hawaii, which helps military families whose main breadwinners are deployed.

Now with military deployments being scaled back, he wanted to broaden the scope of his fundraising as well as the potential beneficiaries of those efforts, he said.

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ON THE NET:

» hawaiiva.org
» hawaiivagames.com
» hawaiivaloans.com

Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.