Founder’s Feed: Reflections

Founder’s Feed: Reflections from the Field

       What 2025 Taught Me About Change      

This year, change didn’t knock on the door. It sat at the kitchen table. It showed up in every meeting with community members navigating economic hardship, in every conversation with youth imagining futures not yet built, and in every funding discussion where we had to advocate for more than just metrics. We had to advocate for our people.

2025 was humbling, clarifying, and profoundly transformational. As Founder of Changemakers CEDC, I want to offer a few reflections from the field, grounded in both the data we tracked and the lived experiences that shaped us.

1. CHANGE IS SLOW UNTIL IT IS NOT

This year began with systems that felt immovable. Decades of disinvestment. Bureaucratic inertia. Philanthropic fatigue around equity language without equity outcomes. But momentum builds where trust is strong.

We worked with more than 320 Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander families in 2025. That is more than any year prior. And we didn’t just offer services. We walked with them. Economic development became a pathway to healing, dignity, and cultural affirmation.

2. LIVED EXPERIENCE IS STRATEGY

At Changemakers, we no longer separate strategy from story. The aunties organizing food drives, the youth selling handmade goods to pay for college, the kupuna mentoring first-time business owners. They are the strategy.

We listened deeply this year through focus groups, cultural protocol, and informal pau hana conversations. That listening shaped our programming. We expanded our support for intergenerational businesses. We introduced financial coaching in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi. We restructured how we define success to reflect community values, not just funder checkboxes.

Lesson Confirmed:
The most impactful work often lives in the space between programs, where relationships, not transactions, do the heavy lifting.

3. PHILANTHROPY MUST KEEP EVOLVING

One of the most challenging and energizing aspects of 2025 was continuing to navigate funder relationships. Some partners showed up with humility and flexibility. Others needed to be lovingly reminded that Native Hawaiian-led work cannot be forced into Western timelines or narrow impact frameworks.

We made the choice to walk away from a few funding opportunities that did not honor our values. That was not easy, but it was right. And it opened space for deeper, more reciprocal partnerships.

Opportunity Ahead:
Imagine if funders asked what it would look like to center Indigenous time, rhythm, and place in our grant cycles.

WHAT 2025 TAUGHT ME MOST

This year taught me that change does not always look like a breakthrough. It often looks like staying rooted. Showing up, week after week, for community. Saying no when it matters. Celebrating small wins that carry generations of hope.

In 2026, I am carrying forward this truth.
The future is not something we wait for.
It is something we grow, seed by seed, story by story.