About Us
Waimea Futures
Waimea Futures is a community-driven initiative that focuses on elevating community voice, co-creating solutions to root causes of systemic challenges, and building trust-based relationships that support long-term community well-being.
Since 1988, the Richard Smart Fund at the Hawai‘i Community Foundation (HCF) has invested more than $8.3 million in nonprofit organizations serving Waimea. In 2022, HCF re-imagined the Fund’s grantmaking approach to align with trust-based philanthropy principles and social transformation theory developed by MIT lecturer, Otto Scharmer, launching Waimea Futures as a multi-phase initiative spanning 2023–2027.
See the Waimea Futures Community Report 2023 and Waimea Futures Community Report 2026 for more details.
Waimea Community
Weaving Hui
The Waimea Community Weaving Hui (Weaving Hui) was formed as a volunteer community advisory committee to listen and understand what the residents of Waimea need and want for their future and to work together with HCF to develop strategies for using funding from the Richard Smart Fund at HCF to help achieve that desired future.
The advisory committee is called the Waimea Community Weaving Hui to demonstrate the weaving together of people, insights, experiences, understanding and resources to benefit the Waimea community.
Waiwai Collective
Waiwai Collective, with lead strategist Mahina Paishon, and lead network coordinator Diane Chadwick, has been contracted by HCF to facilitate and support the Weaving Hui in developing and implementing strategies that attend to community voice and take collective action to bring about systems change that will move Waimea towards a thriving more resilient future grounded in cultural stewardship and sustainable solutions
for collective well-being.
These strategies include:
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Deep listening and inclusive community conversations
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Community driven through the Waimea Community Weaving Hui
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Flexible, place-based grantmaking
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Learning and capacity-building
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Cultural recognition and storytelling
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Strengthening connectivity through communication
