Kūkulu Ola: Living Hawaiian Culture Program
The Kūkulu Ola program is part of HTA’s commitment toward Mālama Ku‘u Home (caring for my beloved home) and the interacting pillars of its 2025 Strategic Plan. The Kūkulu Ola program provides funding support to community-based awardees that enhance, strengthen and perpetuate the Hawaiian culture through genuine experiences for residents and visitors alike.
For 2020, HTA awarded $1,535,000 in funding through its Kūkulu Ola Program to 43 nonprofit programs statewide that are perpetuating Hawaiian culture. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and availability of funding the overall value of each project’s award was reduced by 50% in May 2020 and an RFP for this program was not issued for projects and events in 2021.
For 2022, Hawai‘i Community Foundation (HCF) has been contracted by HTA to administer the 2022 Kūkulu Ola Program. On September 15th, HCF issued an RFP seeking proposals from the community and qualified nonprofit organizations to provide funding support for projects that perpetuate the Hawaiian culture and community. The application deadline was October 29th. The evaluation and decision-making process, as lead by HCF, included a review committee of community members and staff from both HTA & HCF. Kūkulu Ola Program awardees were notified and a news release went out on January 11th announcing that $1,475,000 in funding will support 32 community-based programs in CY 2022.
Click here to view the news release and to see the organizations funded in 2022.
For more information about this initiative, contact Maka Casson-Fisher at (808) 973-2266 or via email at [email protected]