LIHU’E — Where representatives of nonprofit organizations seeking donations are concerned, there is a huge untapped source on Kaua’i and across the state . Part-time residents. “There is a tremendous opportunity in terms of tapping part-time residents” for gifts to
LIHU’E — Where representatives of nonprofit organizations seeking donations are concerned, there is a huge untapped source on Kaua’i and across the state .
Part-time residents.
“There is a tremendous opportunity in terms of tapping part-time residents” for gifts to local charitable organizations, said Kelvin H. Taketa, president and chief executive officer of the Hawai’i Community Foundation (HCF).
The HCF manages over 300 philanthropic funds in the state, and is responsible for doling out millions of dollars each year to nonprofit groups across the state.
While the potential for tapping into the largely untapped market of part-time residents for charitable gifts is enormous, people have to understand that many part-time residents come to Kaua’i to escape, to be anonymous, so getting to them takes skill and finesse, said Scott Giarman, executive director of the Kaua’i United Way.
“Not blowing their cover is important,” he said.
Representatives of nonprofit organizations won’t be able to get to all of the part-time residents, but making the attempt is important, Taketa said. “If you get to their hearts and minds, you will get to their checkbooks,” said Taketa.
Word of mouth is how you reach these part-time Kaua’i residents, said Joan Shaw, of Island School. “I think building relationships is the key.”
“The good news is that you already know how to do it,” Taketa said. Still, he stressed, full-time residents need to remain the full-time focus for nonprofit fundraisers.
“Hawai’i remains a very generous state,” said Taketa.
Taketa came to Kaua’i to discuss results of HCF’s 2002 Hawai’i Giving Study, and around 75 people attended the presentation at the Kaua’i Marriott Resort & Beach Club this week.
“More households are giving, and giving more, through hard times,” he observed.
There are a lot of things about Kauaians’ giving trends revealed in the study Taketa finds “remarkable.”
Among them:
- Some 97 percent of all Kaua’i households give to charitable causes;
- Over 86 percent of Kaua’i households with household incomes under $25,000 also give, Taketa thinks because they have greater understanding than the average household of services Kaua’i nonprofits provide;
- On average, each Kaua’i household gives $1,133 a year to charitable organizations;
- Even the poorest Kaua’i households still give $434 a year to local nonprofits.
In what Taketa calls an “exceptionally difficult” fund-raising environment, representatives of Kaua’i nonprofit groups have found willing local donors if they ask them, he said.
“Most households continue to give across the board,” he said. And they’re more apt to give if they’re asked, he added.
If people are on regular-payment schedules, either through payroll or credit-card deductions, and if someone they knows asks them, donors are more likely to give more money, he said.
“Hawai’i is still a place where who you know is still a very important thing,” Taketa said.
Motivations for giving held true on Kaua’i and statewide, with specific donations made to organizations best suited for the jobs they’re doing the top motivation. The good feeling of helping to ease pain and suffering was another top motivation, as well as helping out loved ones, survey results revealed.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
