Our ChangeMakers
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Olani Lilly
FOUNDER
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Uʻilani Evans
PROGRAMS DIRECTOR
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Christian McAdams
ECONOMIC STRATEGY & DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
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Becky Brett
FUND DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
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Jenny Boyette
MARKETING DIRECTOR
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Ariel Young-Ziegler
'ŌLELO HAWAI'I INSTRUCTOR,
RESEARCH & DATA ANALYST
Our Purpose
ChangeMakers Hawaiʻi is championing economic equity and justice by promoting economic development that engages communities, creates access to financial resources, and supports passion professions.
ChangeMakers Hawaiʻi offers programs designed to meet you where you are at, whether you’re an individual, business, or community group/ organization.
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Fighting poverty through a support program to empower people with the financial acumen to create economic stability and build generational wealth.
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Creating and nurturing business through our workforce development program, as to promote economic development and job creation which values community, people, environment, and ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi.
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Partnering with local, national and international organizations to address community needs with customized financial support, resources, and experienced hands-on fund development and organizational assistance.
All of our programs are structured around three core pillars to match the stage of your journey, whether you’re in the learning, funding or building stage of development.
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Education is key to creating financial equity. Learning Change helps you develop skills and provides tools to create a brighter future for you, your families and communities.
Whether it’s learning something new, or taking on something a bit more challenging, ChangeMakers Hawaiʻi is here to support your journey.
We want you to thrive. Discover our courses; ʻāinapreneurs and philanthropono
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Access to financial resources that meet where you, your business or organization, are to begin creating financial equity.
Looking to champion a new project? Applying for a grant in aid? Or perhaps you’re looking for funding opportunities, but don’t know where to start?
We search for and create funding sources that support you and the future of your business or organization. ChangeMakers’ purpose is to catalyze change by creating economic opportunities for those Hawaiʻi communities where traditional financing options are not available.
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It takes significant resources and capacity to create facilities that meet the needs of your community and businesses. You don’t need to start from scratch.
Building Change offers you the tool belt needed as you put on the hard hat and prepare to build something amazing.
From feasibility studies to financial planning, ChangeMakers is here to provide you with services and resources.
We specialize in working with community groups to solve their facility challenges.
ChangeMakers Hawai‘i is catalyzing change and creating economic opportunities for Hawai‘i communities that traditional finance does not serve. We do this through our five core values.
Our Values
ChangeMakers Hawaiʻi incorporate market data from traditional sources with place-based knowledge. ChangeMakers connects community stories and experiences with quantitative analysis to understand each place through a multi-capital framework that re-imagines value.
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Engaging Community Wisdom:
As a practice, ChangeMakers work with the community to map their unique ecosystem of resources, relationships, cultures, and power dynamics that are unique to them. We identify and harness a multi-capital framework to multiply the community's strengths.
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Creating Ecosystem Impact:
ChangeMakers’ investments focus on supporting strengths and capacities of people, organizations, and natural environments. We invest in small businesses, nonprofits, and service providers in the communities we are developing and the ecosystem impact.
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Working from Strengths:
ChangeMakers utilizes participatory investing. Participatory investing cedes decision-making power about funding— including the strategy and criteria behind those decisions—to the very communities that funders aim to serve. Participatory investing increases participants’ sense of agency, power, and leadership.
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Sharing Power:
At ChangeMakers Hawaiʻi, we know change takes “acting boldly.” We are imagining and creating new ecosystems of community power by challenging antiquated systems and engaging people in daring to act boldly.
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Acting Boldly: