GRANTMAKING
Community Partners
The Mamoru and Aiko Takitani Foundation, Inc. expands its reach into the community by awarding grants to non-profit organizations in support of their educational programs for youth. Grants are made by invitation only.
THE LIST ↓
OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS
The organizations we support
We are honored to support organizations across Hawaiʻi whose work reflects care, creativity, and a deep commitment to community. Their efforts bring the Takitani legacy to life in many different ways, and we are grateful to stand alongside them in service to Hawaiʻi.
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Opening Pathways to Healthcare Careers
The Academy for Healthcare Innovation, founded by Hawaiʻi Pacific Health, expands access to healthcare workforce education and creates career pathways for people who may not have considered traditional post-secondary education. Takitani Foundation support helps students pursue accessible, career-focused training in areas such as medical assisting, nurse aide services, surgical instrument processing, and surgical technology. Students combine classroom learning with clinical experience and receive support with job placement, résumés, and interviewing, while partnerships with healthcare employers and colleges create pathways to employment and continued education. Through this approach, the Academy helps individuals build rewarding careers while developing a locally trained workforce to meet Hawaiʻi’s growing healthcare needs.
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Building Capacity for Elevated Care
The Building Capacity for Elevated Care: Phase One Project is strengthening the hospital’s workforce by supporting professional development, clinical training and staff capacity-building. With support from the Mamoru and Aiko Takitani Foundation, team members are pursuing opportunities such as Magnet Journey Training, nursing conferences and symposiums, TEAM Advance Instructor training and nurse aide development. This quarter, three nurse aides are continuing through the program and are on track to graduate in April 2026, while hospital leadership refines next steps for TEAMS training and the MAGNET designation roadmap. Even during a leadership transition, the program is continuing without disruption, supported by collaborative leadership and a strong cohort culture of encouragement, teamwork and shared learning.
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The Foundation provided funding to support ARC’s flood relief efforts in response to the Kona Low storms. Grant funds helped address urgent community needs and support recovery efforts for individuals and families affected by storm-related flooding and damage.
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AʻALIʻI Mentoring, Empowered by Big Brothers Big Sisters Hawaiʻi
Growing Confidence, Connection & PossibilityAʻALIʻI Mentoring helps young adults from under-resourced and underrepresented communities navigate and persist in higher education through one-to-one and cohort-based mentoring. Takitani Foundation support helps provide scholarships to mentees who complete the program, while surrounding them with guidance in academics, financial literacy, career exploration, leadership, and personal development. Through consistent relationships with mentors, group workshops, service opportunities, and alumni connections, participants build confidence, social capital, and a stronger sense of direction as they move through college and into adulthood. The scholarship support helps ease financial barriers while recognizing the commitment and perseverance mentees demonstrate along the way.
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Guiding Teens Toward Their Next Chapter - What’s Next Initiative at the Boys and Girls Club Hawai‘i
The Mamoru and Aiko Takitani Foundation supports the What’s Next Initiative by helping teens prepare for life after high school through academic guidance, social-emotional learning, and consistent check-ins. Foundation support helps sustain programming for 62 students in grades 8–12, as well as ongoing support for three alumni now attending college.
Through this partnership, teens are building confidence, developing post-graduation plans, and strengthening their belief in the importance of continued education. The Foundation’s support also helps students navigate important milestones, from college and scholarship applications to interviews, decision-making, and the transition into post-secondary life.
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The Center for Tomorrow’s Leaders (CTL) project supports leadership development opportunities that help Hawaiʻi high school students turn their values, ideas, and skills into meaningful community impact. Through CTL’s student-led project model, students design initiatives that address needs in their schools, neighborhoods, and islands, with college scholarships awarded to seniors whose projects demonstrate exceptional leadership and impact. The project also expands access to CTL Fellows, an advanced leadership program that selects top high school students from public and private schools for leadership training, personalized coaching, and conversations with influential Hawaiʻi leaders. Takitani Foundation support enables CTL to recognize outstanding student-led community projects and reduce financial barriers for public school students who might otherwise be unable to participate, helping ensure that emerging leaders across Hawaiʻi have the opportunity to build the character, confidence, and commitment needed to serve their communities and shape the state’s future.
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Strengthening Pathways into Hawaiʻi’s Healthcare and Education Workforce
Chaminade University is helping high-need, high-achieving students prepare for careers in fields that are critical to Hawaiʻi’s future, especially healthcare and teacher education. With support from the Mamoru and Aiko Takitani Foundation, students are gaining access to scholarship support, campus visits, test preparation and clinical exploration experiences that strengthen academic progress and career readiness. This quarter, students are exploring health professions pathways through visits to Samuel Merritt University and Touro University, MCAT preparation and programs such as Compass Healthcare Careers Explorers. By pairing financial support with advising and partnerships, Chaminade is helping students build confidence, clarify their goals and take meaningful steps toward serving Hawaiʻi communities.
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Learning, Leading & Giving Back
The Children’s Discovery Center inspires children to explore, discover, imagine, and dream through hands-on learning and purposeful play. Takitani Foundation support helps expand the Center’s Volunteer Mentorship and School Group Discovery Visit programs, creating opportunities for high school and college students to build workplace, leadership, and mentoring skills while helping younger children learn. Student volunteers and interns gain hands-on experience in education, child development, and museum settings, with scholarships supporting outstanding interns as they continue their education. The Foundation’s support also helps make Discovery Center field trips more accessible to school groups, with a particular emphasis on expanding opportunities for Title I schools.
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Inspiring the Next Generation of Healthcare Leaders
Friends of Waipahu High School supports learning opportunities that expand what is possible for Waipahu High School students. Takitani Foundation support helps students in the Academy of Health & Sciences participate in an immersive Medical Camp designed to deepen their understanding of healthcare careers and post-secondary pathways. Students experience college life, explore healthcare education and career options, learn how health policy connects to patient care, and engage in experiences that help turn a general interest in healthcare into more concrete educational and career goals.
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Growing Hawaiʻi’s Next Generation of Storytellers
The Hawaiʻi International Film Festival entertains and educates through film, with a focus on Hawaiʻi-made, Asian, and Pacific Rim cinema, while nurturing emerging creative talent and fostering cross-cultural exchange. Takitani Foundation support helps HIFF provide accessible film and media education opportunities for K–12 and post-secondary students across Hawaiʻi through filmmaker engagement, mentorship, professional development, and student showcases. These experiences support creative skill-building, career exploration, cultural understanding, and the development of Hawaiʻi’s next generation of storytellers.
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Opening Doors to Hawaiʻi’s Future Careers
Hawaiʻi Workforce Pipeline advances career awareness and readiness for Hawaiʻi public school students by connecting schools and students with industry professionals through structured work-based learning experiences. Takitani Foundation support helps provide career awareness, exploration, preparation, and training opportunities such as industry presentations, career fairs, employer site visits, professionalism workshops, mock interviews, job shadowing, internships, and other hands-on experiences. Through these activities, students build practical skills, expand their understanding of career pathways, and gain confidence engaging with employers and professional settings.
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Supporting Youth Growth through the Kūkulu Youth Program
Through its support of Hui Mālama O Ke Kai Foundation’s Kūkulu Youth Program, Takitani Foundation is helping sustain a safe, consistent, and culturally grounded space where young people in Waimānalo can learn, grow, and lead. Foundation funding supports essential program needs such as supplies, transportation, and year-round programming that strengthens academic success, cultural identity, and overall wellbeing. This partnership reflects Takitani Foundation’s commitment to Expanding Horizons – Emerging Leaders by investing in youth as they build confidence, deepen their connection to community, and step into their potential. Just as importantly, this support helps strengthen the wider circle of families and community members who grow alongside them.
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KA‘I Post Secondary Scholarships Program
Through the ‘Iolani School KA‘I Postsecondary Program, first-generation and under-resourced students receive the guidance, advocacy and financial support they need to pursue higher education with confidence. Takitani Foundation funding helps provide individualized advising, family counseling and tuition-gap scholarships that address barriers to college access and persistence. This support strengthens each step of the journey, from applications and FAFSA completion to enrollment, transfers and ongoing college success. By creating trusted safety nets around students and families, KAʻI helps more young people stay on track toward degree attainment and long-term opportunity.
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Helping Students Build Strong Futures
Kick Start Karate Hawaiʻi provides young people with positive alternatives to juvenile delinquency and gang involvement through academic support, mentorship, and the discipline and character development fostered through martial arts. Takitani Foundation support helps provide scholarships honoring the legacy of Chief Lee D. Donohue, extending educational opportunities to Kick Start students pursuing college and other post-secondary pathways. The scholarship program recognizes students who have grown through Kick Start and supports them as they take the next step in their education, with many former students returning to mentor and encourage younger participants.
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Caring Careers, Close to Home
Kuakini Medical Center provides compassionate, personalized healthcare while advancing education, research, and workforce training that strengthen community health. Takitani Foundation support helps Kuakini prepare local adults for careers as nurse aides through an intensive program combining classroom education, hands-on skills training, and supervised clinical experience. Participants develop the clinical competencies, communication skills, and patient-centered approach needed to provide safe and compassionate care, with a pathway into employment upon successful completion. The program simultaneously creates meaningful career opportunities for participants and helps strengthen Hawaiʻi’s healthcare workforce.
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Building Confidence Through Lawakua’s Educational Assistance Program
Lawakua’s Educational Assistance Program is helping at-risk youth living in and around Oʻahu’s public housing communities access private school opportunities while building life skills through martial arts. With support from the Takitani Foundation, five students are receiving partial tuition assistance to attend schools including Damien Memorial School, Hawaiʻi Baptist Academy, La Pietra Hawaiʻi School for Girls and ʻIolani School. Through martial arts training, tutoring and close coordination with families and schools, Lawakua helps students develop discipline, confidence, respect, teamwork and academic support. The program also serves as a trusted bridge between students, families and schools, helping youth stay supported both in the classroom and in the community.
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Connecting Neighbor Island Student Leaders
The Pacific & Asian Affairs Council prepares Hawaiʻi students and teachers to become informed, engaged global citizens through programs focused on international affairs, leadership, civic engagement, and cross-cultural understanding. Takitani Foundation support helps expand access for neighbor island high school students to statewide leadership and global education experiences, including leadership retreats, global affairs simulations, and student showcases. Through these opportunities, students strengthen leadership, critical thinking, collaboration, civic engagement, and cross-cultural understanding while building relationships with peers from across the state.
Past support includes the Travel Scholarships for Study Tours are helping Hawaiʻi students access meaningful international learning opportunities, including the upcoming Study Tour to Palau under the theme “Honoring Oceans, Inspiring Change.” With support from the Mamoru & Aiko Takitani Foundation, scholarships are making the program more accessible for students and families who may not otherwise be able to afford international travel. This year’s Palau cohort includes 10 students from eight schools across three islands, selected from a strong applicant pool of 24 students representing 15 schools. Through the tour, students will explore how Indigenous wisdom and modern sustainability efforts work together to protect Palau’s ocean environment, culture and future.
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Limu Ola: Growing Knowledge, Culture & Opportunity
Pacific American Foundation is a Native Hawaiian-led nonprofit advancing sustainable aquaculture, place-based learning, and workforce development through Waikalua Loko Iʻa and related educational programs. Takitani Foundation support helps advance Limu Ola, an initiative that combines climate-adaptive native limu cultivation, applied research, traditional knowledge, and youth workforce development. Students gain hands-on aquaculture training, industry certifications, and opportunities to explore entrepreneurship while helping test and document cultivation practices that respond to changing environmental conditions. The project is intended to strengthen Hawaiʻi’s local food systems, preserve and apply ʻike kūpuna, and create pathways for young people into aquaculture and related careers.
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Planting Seeds of Peace for the Next Generation
Pacific Buddhist Academy offers a small, inclusive high school environment where students receive a college-preparatory education grounded in peace, ethical reflection, leadership, gratitude, and an understanding of their interconnectedness with others and the world. In tribute to Mamoru and Aiko Takitani and the values they carried through their lives, the Foundation’s support helps extend access to this peace-centered education for students whose families demonstrate financial need. The grant honors the Takitanis’ Buddhist faith, generosity, and belief in education by helping ensure that young people from a range of backgrounds can learn, grow, and carry forward a spirit of compassion, responsibility, and service.
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Growing Hawaiʻi’s Next Generation of Global Leaders
Pacific Forum is a Honolulu-based, nonpartisan foreign policy research institute that advances dialogue and understanding around political, security, economic, and business issues across the Indo-Pacific. Takitani Foundation support helps sustain its Asia-Pacific Affairs Leadership Program, which gives Hawaiʻi-connected university students and young professionals opportunities to learn directly from senior experts, build mentoring relationships, explore careers in international affairs, and contribute their own perspectives on regional issues. Participants take part in discussions, research, professional events, and an international study experience designed to deepen their understanding of the Indo-Pacific and Hawaiʻi’s role within it. The program helps young people see meaningful pathways into public policy and international affairs while building a lasting network of emerging leaders connected to Hawaiʻi.
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Helping Hawaiʻi Youth Take Flight
Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum preserves and shares the history of America’s first aviation battlefield of World War II while educating and inspiring future generations through aviation-focused learning experiences. Takitani Foundation support helps advance the Museum’s Aviation Pathways initiative, specifically its high school Airframe & Powerplant Mechanic program, which prepares students for careers in aviation maintenance through FAA-aligned academic, technical, and hands-on training. Students build skills in aircraft inspection, troubleshooting, repair, and maintenance while earning high school credit and progressing toward eligibility for FAA certification exams. The program is delivered in partnership with education and industry partners and is designed to create a direct pathway from high school into high-demand aviation careers in Hawaiʻi.
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Supporting PUEO Scholars on the Path to College Success
At Punahou School, PUEO scholars are being supported as they take the next step from high school into higher education. With scholarship funding from the Mamoru and Aiko Takitani Foundation, up to 23 graduating seniors will receive financial assistance to attend two- and four-year colleges. The program pairs this support with college advising, FAFSA workshops, campus visits and direct admissions opportunities that help students and families navigate the transition with greater confidence. Through its long-standing network of educators, colleges and community partners, PUEO helps first-generation and under-resourced students build the preparation, belonging and persistence needed to thrive in college and beyond.
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Supporting Global Learning Through Ke Kilohana Travel Experiences
The Takitani Travel Assistance Fund at Punahou School’s Wo International Center is helping make credit-bearing Ke Kilohana travel experiences more accessible for Academy seniors with financial need. Ke Kilohana is a senior social studies capstone course that connects classroom learning with service, cultural exchange and real-world projects that address community needs. Foundation support is focused on need-based financial aid for students participating in the Bhutan and Thailand travel courses, where students will explore topics such as service learning, culture, religion, environmental protection and healthcare for Myanmar immigrant communities. Through these experiences, students deepen their sense of place, broaden their global perspective and consider how they can contribute meaningfully to Hawaiʻi and the wider world.
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Building Hawaiʻi’s Rehabilitation Workforce Through Clinical Training
The REHAB Preceptorship Program is expanding hands-on clinical learning opportunities for nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy and iCARE students. With support from the Mamoru and Aiko Takitani Foundation, students gain supervised experience in patient care, adaptive therapies and interprofessional collaboration while helping strengthen Hawaiʻi’s pipeline of rehabilitation professionals. This quarter, the program provided more than 4,700 student learning hours across disciplines, including significant participation from nursing, PT and OT students. As Hawaiʻi’s only inpatient rehabilitation facility, REHAB is helping students build skills, confidence and mentorship connections that prepare them to serve patients across the islands.
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The Foundation provided funding to support Salvation Army’s flood relief efforts in response to the Kona Low storms. Grant funds helped address urgent community needs and support recovery efforts for individuals and families affected by storm-related flooding and damage.
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Deepening Youth Taiko and Cultural Learning in Hawaiʻi
The Takitani Foundation is proud to support Taiko Arts Center’s efforts to deepen young people’s study of taiko while expanding access to this art form in local schools. Foundation funding helped provide scholarships for five young taiko practitioners to participate in Kenny Endo’s 50th anniversary celebration, including concerts and intensive workshops with local and visiting professional artists. Support also helped advance five Art of Taiko lecture-demonstration programs for Hawaiʻi schools, introducing students to taiko as both a musical and cultural practice. Through this work, Taiko Arts Center helps youth build confidence, creativity, discipline and a strong sense of belonging through the shared power of ensemble drumming.
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Advancing Hawaiʻi-Grown Agricultural Innovation
The Mamoru and Aiko Takitani Foundation Agriculture Innovation Fund is supporting University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa CTAHR researchers as they develop practical, locally rooted solutions for agriculture, health and sustainability. Current projects include a wearable health patch to help ranchers detect early signs of illness or stress in cattle, research into healing compounds found in plants such as noni, māmaki and moringa, and vertical growing towers designed to increase food production in land-limited Hawaiʻi. This quarter, researchers are focusing on data collection, prototype refinement, equipment procurement and relationship-building with partners, practitioners and agricultural sites. Together, these efforts reflect the promise of Hawaiʻi-based science to strengthen food systems, support local health products and create more resilient pathways for the islands’ agricultural future.
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Honoring the Takitani Legacy Through Culinary Innovation
The Takitani Culinary Institute Capital Fund is supporting the Culinary Innovation Center at Kapiʻolani Community College’s Culinary Institute of the Pacific, creating a hands-on learning space where students, faculty and industry partners can explore real-world food and culinary challenges. Through the Takitani Foundation Innovation Center, CIP is honoring Mamoru and Aiko Takitani’s legacy of entrepreneurship, generosity and constant innovation, carrying forward the same spirit that helped grow Hawaiian Host from a small Kaimukī candy shop into a Hawaiʻi-based agricultural and manufacturing success story. The center supports applied learning in areas such as value-added product development, menu innovation, sensory evaluation and sustainable food practices rooted in Hawaiʻi’s agricultural landscape. As the space continues to expand with specialized equipment and future offerings such as the A.C.E. Coffee Program, it will inspire the next generation of culinary innovators to strengthen Hawaiʻi’s food systems while carrying forward the Takitani Foundation’s commitment to education and community opportunity.
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Fueling Student Entrepreneurship Through RISE Scholarships
The Takitani Foundation RISE Scholarships are helping University of Hawaiʻi students participate fully in the PACE Leaders program at the Shidler College of Business. By reducing financial barriers, foundation support makes it possible for a diverse group of students to engage in residential learning, leadership development and entrepreneurship programming at the RISE Center. This quarter, seven Takitani Scholars are actively participating in mixers, speaker events, workshops, classroom presentations and pitch competitions while helping manage shared innovation spaces such as the maker spaces and recording studio. Through this support, students are building confidence, strengthening peer connections and contributing to a collaborative culture of entrepreneurship across the UH System.
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Growing a Spirit of Service
VolunteerAlly connects volunteers, nonprofits, schools, and other community organizations through a platform designed to make volunteer engagement easier and encourage service as an ongoing part of everyday life. Takitani Foundation support helps expand its Education Service Group Program, which gives high school and university students structured ways to participate in community service while protecting the privacy and personal information of minors. Through school- and advisor-led groups, students can connect with service opportunities, track participation, and build leadership, career, and civic engagement skills. The program is designed to strengthen relationships between young people and community organizations while helping schools integrate meaningful service into the student experience.
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Opening Doors Through YMCA College Camp
The YMCA of Honolulu is building momentum for its 2026 College Camp, a program that helps Hawaiʻi youth build confidence, explore career pathways and prepare for higher education. With support from the Takitani Foundation, scholarship assistance is helping reduce financial barriers so more students, including those from underserved and houseless communities, can participate. YMCA staff are finalizing outreach and recruitment efforts, streamlining the scholarship process and offering career workshops that introduce middle and high school students to college majors and future opportunities. Through trusted relationships with schools, community partners and YMCA networks, College Camp is helping students see higher education as attainable and connecting them with mentors who can support their next steps.
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