5 innovators granted money for good works

Five local nonprofits have been awarded a combined $480,591 in a second round of grants through a fund established to encourage innovation among local nonprofits doing more with less in the unstable economy.

The Island Innovation Fund was created in 2010 as a part of a $50 million pledge by eBay founder and billionaire philanthropist Pierre Omidyar and his wife, Pam. The fund is managed by the Hawaii Community Foundation.

The selection committee picked five nonprofits with projects aimed at eliminating Hawaii’s energy dependency on imported oil, increasing public participation in policymaking, reducing waste, improving health and increasing public awareness and access to historic trails. The projects were culled from 98 proposals.

Hawaii Community Foundation said the fund is encouraging nonprofits that have tightened their belts in recent years to take risks and find creative solutions to social issues. The nonprofits are selected for their innovative work, which may potentially have a broader impact in the community.

"The fundamentals around dwindling resources and growing demands in all areas of the nonprofit sector is forcing change, so we’re looking for innovative ways organizations will be able to meet those demands, recognizing they can’t keep doing things the way they were doing it previously," said Kelvin Taketa, the foundation’s president and CEO. "We’re going to really have to reinvent our work."

A People’s Choice Award — a peer-selected honor voted on by more than 200 nonprofits that applied for grants over the past two years — was given for the first time to The Green House for a project seeking to convert schools into zero-waste sites.

In its first round of grants last year, five nonprofits received a combined $461,119 for projects ranging from conservation of native forests to technology connecting consumers with local farm products.

The following are this year’s five nonprofit grantees:

» Blue Planet Foundation will use $100,000 to create an energy-tracking app that allows consumers to monitor their energy usage in real time and see what their cost savings would be with appliance upgrades and changes in energy habits. The organization, whose goal is to eliminate Hawaii’s dependency on imported oil through the use of local renewable sources, also will use the grant to set up a network of photo-frame-size displays with real-time information on energy consumption in high-traffic areas such as shopping centers or restaurants.

» Hawaii Elections Project Inc. is receiving $81,720 to create the Hawaii Policy Portal website as a tool for groups and residents statewide to actively track specific bills of interest and participate in the state and county legislative process. The site aims to simplify research, mobilization and communication for effective advocacy with a goal to increase public participation in the policymaking process.

» Giving Back has won $100,000 to establish an exercise and fall-prevention program, Move With Balance, for local seniors. The money will help the organization pay distribution costs of instructional DVDs and educational materials for individuals, caregivers and senior centers, as well as an interactive website that connects clients for further training.

» PATH (People’s Advocacy for Trails Hawaii), a bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organization, plans to use a $100,000 grant to install smart-card-controlled gates at access points to trails and pathways currently closed to the public as a result of development, landowner concerns and other barriers on Hawaii island. Residents would gain access to historic areas after receiving a smart card and completing an educational session about the area.

» The Green House, an urban training center for gardening and environmental education, won the People’s Choice Award and will use $98,871 to run a school waste-diversion and green jobs program that will convert schools into zero-waste sites by helping them turn waste into usable resources. The money will go toward hiring environmental educators at each site to provide green jobs training.

For more information, go to www.islandinnovation. org or Hawaii Community Foundation’s website, www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org.