 Aloha and welcome to our first episode of non-profits mean business where we will delve into services provided in our community by non-profit organizations. I'm your host Krista Stadler, joined by my co-host and co-creator Brandon Keenan. We will be joining you every other Thursday at noon and are very excited about this opportunity. Aloha Brandon. Aloha Krista, how are you today? I'm fabulous. I would love it if you will share with our audience how the show came about. Oh, of course. Well, I happen to be very passionate about contributing to the community in the form of volunteering time to non-profits that are near and dear to my heart. And as it turns out, when I brought that conversation point up, Krista feels the same way and she's also very passionate about giving back to the community and the history of doing so as well. You get that sense of synergy that came about and got very excited about the concept, so much so that we thought, hey, this could be a very good show. There are thousands of non-profits in the state of Hawaii and all of them are contributing and giving back to the community in various ways and they might like an opportunity to get their message out in a different way that might bring different resources as well as volunteers for their various efforts that they're making on behalf of their non-profit. So we pitched it to Jay, who is the founder of ThinkTech Hawaii. Go ahead. Which just so happens to be a non-profit as well. So Jay Fadal is the founder of ThinkTech and just through his efforts by providing this outlet, if you will, to the community is obviously contributing to the community in his own way as well. And I think getting the word out is just another form of publicity and it allows those non-profits to have another voice. Yes, absolutely. Well, we definitely want to encourage various leaders in the non-profit world to come in and talk to us about their non-profit events coming up and whatnot. But we also, as the title says, want to get into the business of the non-profits mean business and how they're operated. How do you establish a non-profit? What type of resources are there out there and grants and whatnot? And I have a couple of topics today. We're just really wanting to kind of give a broad picture to what the show is going to look like and where we're going. Of course that may change as we go along. But right now we have some things that we really wanted to touch on. And Brandon, I'm going to ask you one of the things we had discussed when we were just formulating all of this is what do non-profits, what can non-profits do better than government? What flexibility do they have? Yeah, that's a great question. So when you talk about putting resources into the community, when the government gets involved, as we all know, there's a lot of red tape, a lot of loopholes, a lot of things that have to be done in order for them to deliver on that service. Whereas a non-profit doesn't have to go through all that. They have a passion. They develop an administration. They say, hey, we want to find a way to give this service to the community. And then they establish a non-profit, which allows, of course, them to take resources in from various contributors. And in return for that contribution, which ultimately ends up as a service to the community, they get a tax advantage for that. And they have sums of money that they would like to direct into the communities, and they're looking for ways to do it. They want to give back, but they don't necessarily have the passion to give back in a particular manner, but they have the resources. So they're looking for outlets, and that's the relationship between the non-profit and the community. And the government, the community government. Yeah, yeah, of course. Yes. And also you're talking about foundations that may feel the same way. It would be great if we could get, you know, have a guest that was representing a foundation that was contributing to non-profit charitable organizations. And they may be in the same boat. They don't have the operational resources, but they want to make an impact. Correct. They don't want to necessarily establish an entire organization around, like to say delivering a music program to a neighborhood or a community where they, like, maybe the school doesn't offer music programs anymore. And we all know how important music and arts are to the development of our keiki. So when the non-profit can fill that void and they can come in and they bring in various people that want to volunteer their time, next thing you know, there's a music program set up in that community, and the community is benefiting from that. There's a lot of foundations that want their resources directed very specifically into the community. And when they bring those resources together with a non-profit, then it ends up being a very good relationship. There's a level of accountability. They want to see something done. But as long as they're providing those services and it's in favor of the type of work that the foundation would like to see done in the community, that becomes a very good relationship. You were telling me before the show about an opportunity. I'm so sorry, I can't remember exactly what it was, some kind of redevelopment program that they're looking for non-profits to participate in. Oh, are you talking about the haiku stairway? Yes. Yes. So ironically, this is a very contemporary subject matter. It was on the news this morning as a matter of fact. The city actually is interviewing non-profits and businesses to come up with a plan to do something with the haiku stairway, which we all know as the stairway to heaven. It's a resource that I don't think people really want to see go away at the same time the water company or whatever. They own the land that it sits on, and so they're not necessarily excited to spend all that money to fix it. But because of what it means to our communities, and we want that in our community, they reached out to non-profits. And so I think that's a clever way to utilize that relationship with non-profits and businesses to do something for our community without having to worry about all the red tape of going through government. That really brings up a good point because you're talking about businesses as well. And I know there's foundations and then there's government funding for different things, but there are quite a few businesses. I know the business that I work for, we have a group called Vision of Aloha, and we actually calendar out different organizations that the group of us, and of course we invite everyone in the whole company, but there's a base of us that go out and make these contributions. But even with the organization that you're supporting, you go out to businesses and ask for donations for beverages and food at events and things like that. So it's really kind of interesting how there's the nonprofit, the community, the volunteers, the government, and then private businesses all working together to make things happen. I just love that. So great. You know, it's an opportunity to find out who there is in your community that want to get back, talking about directing resources. So yeah, in this scenario, it's a community cleanup effort, and so we need water for the volunteers, we need food for the volunteers, we need materials for them to provide the cleanup effort. And so yeah, you're coordinating a lot of different efforts within the community, you're involving the entire community at that point, including the public officials in some respects. So they want, they like to know what's going on in their communities, and they get excited, if you will, to find out that there's somebody that's passionate about doing something in their community, and they also would like to participate in those things. Oh, it's great, which does help sometimes bring publicity to the event, which is also beneficial because it helps to promote it, which is awesome. Yeah. Oh, so yeah, there are, there's a various amount of resources available in the community. Some of those are available from state and also county resources in the form of grants. And naturally, there is an application process, and there is accountability measures that need to be put in place to make sure that those resources are utilized in the community, the means of which they had intended. And that's just one specific example. So we talked about business, and so non-profit is have to formulate a type of a business structure. So they have to have, business acumen would be very beneficial. You need to have somebody that understands numbers, you need somebody that knows how to bring the community together and handle the administrative elements of that. There's also taxes that need to be filed. There's a number of different things. So it's like a little board of directors and a little, it's a business in a sense. And you're just running it in a manner that serves the community. They're marketing and print materials, labor management. I mean, you could just go on and on and on. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, true story. Yeah. You know, I was just kind of doing some investigating for the show and it is so amazing how many different types of non-profit organizations we have here in Hawaii, on this particular island in the state as well. But I mean, just from a product standpoint, you know, some of them focus on providing obviously food. That's a huge one, whether it's prepared food or, you know, non-prepared food, pantry type items, diapers, books, school supplies, breast milk, homes like for Habitat for Humanity, clothing, and then, you know, then we have those that are focused on medical issues of, you know, cancer, ALS, Alzheimer's, heart issues, diabetes, dyslexia, it goes on, it just goes on and on. I'm sure I'm missing some, so I'm sorry if you support one of those. You already touched on the arts, but there's even legal aid support assisting people with legal aid, you know, child and elderly caretaking services that can be provided, parenting support, I mean, cultural education, athletic opportunities, you know, so I feel like even if you don't have a lot of money to contribute to a charity with this huge list of possibilities, just donating your time and energy or maybe a special talent that you have or if you're in business and you own your own business or in some type of higher level management and you can see to providing either, you know, support from financial support, well, I said not that, but your staff support maybe taking a Saturday and all going out and doing a cleanup or working on a Habitat for Humanity build, I mean, I've done that before and it's just so much fun, it's a real bonding experience, so anyway. It's very rewarding, it is, and there's also the aspect of like the Honolulu Marathon, right? I was a co-captain on one of the aid stations and that was school children, it was a number of community individuals and resources came together to make that happen. There's all kinds of, there's the, you know, the Heart Association, right? There's the Cancer Society, there is March of Dimes and that's regarding birth defects. I could, I mean, the list is staggering, to be honest, and so there are plenty of opportunities for each and every one of us to find something that is that we may feel passionate about and are thinking of ways, how can I, how can I get involved? How can I give back to my community instead of, you know, looking to your public officials and saying, how come you aren't doing something? You know, how about you just say, wow, guess what? I can, I can find an organization that gets involved in my very own community and now I can see the results of my efforts and the efforts of those other individuals around me that feel the same way I do about giving back. Yeah, and I think there is a little spark that can hit all of us and I'm really, really, truly hoping that as we have our various guests from the various nonprofit organizations, they can be very specific about the type of volunteers that they're looking for and the needs that they have and they can, they can share that using this forum to share it with the community and also talk about operationally what it takes, you know, you get a little bit more respect when you actually understand what it takes to, to, to support especially the larger long, non-profit organizations. So that'll be very interesting. No, you're absolutely right. And so one of the things that I think is important because nonprofits come and go, they do. And one of the more important elements of that, looking at it from a business standpoint, is sustainability. So you want to make sure that you're utilizing the resources efficiently and effectively. At the same time, you're just finding ways to make sure that you budget correctly and that you report back how you utilize the money so that the organization that gave you the money in the first place is more likely to continue to do so. You know, I think we're going to have a break. Let me check with my lovely producers. Yes, we are. So we're going to take a break and we will be back in just a little bit. Thank you so much. And the energy man every Friday here on Think Tech Hawaii. If you're really interested in finding out what's going on in energy, especially here in Hawaii, but also all the way around the world, and especially if it has to do with hydrogen, look into Stanley Energy Man every Friday, 12 o'clock, Think Tech Hawaii. Be there. Aloha. Aloha. Welcome back. I am Krista Stadler here with Brandon Kenan, and we are on our first episode of non-profits mean business. And I wanted to talk a little bit to Brandon about the non-profit that he's working with right now. Brandon, would you like to share a little bit about that? I would. Thank you for asking. So the organization that I volunteer time with is called KYDO, or Time of Key Youth Development Organization. And the mission of that particular non-profit is to give back to the underprivileged children and families that live in the Polo Valley and in the housing. A lot of times when they come here from the Pacific Islands, they're not really sure how to integrate with the community. And so one of the things that we like to do is like to involve them in various activities. And one of those, of course, is developing leadership programs for the young men and also developing similar programs for the young women in that community. And then we also put together activities for them to get involved with that allow them to feel that sense of what it's like to give back. And so when you give back, you're not so focused on yourself. And once you start focusing outward into the community and you start to feel like you're part of that fabric of the community, you have a sense of belonging and you also have a buy-in. You have a commitment because instead of going out and tagging the building, you just painted last week, you know, you wouldn't do that. So I want to understand, you're actually having these children, this group of youths go out and work on other types of needs for other non-profit organizations. Is that right? Well, what we're doing is we're teaching them what it feels like to give back to the community and how to become involved in that sense. We've done a number of different things where we've done a lot of fundraising so that we can, like last year, for a matter of fact, we actually took a group of young men. We took the entire football team for kind of a key, actually, to the mainland. And a lot of those boys have never been on an airplane. A lot of those boys don't have a vision, if you will, beyond the island. They don't see themselves moving to the mainland or going to college or doing any of the things that a lot of people think of themselves doing once they reach a certain stage in their life. And until you sort of start planting those seeds, it was like all of us when we all found ways to, we either had mentors in our lives or we had sports coaches or we had an English teacher or we had somebody that inspired us to think beyond our own realm. And once we did and realized, gosh, there really is something else out there, your level of creativity and your sense of self starts to diminish and you start thinking more about your community and more globally. And not just a community that you drive into, but one that you have worked on, you know, you've worked in the park, you've done all the various development aspects and given back in such a way that you take on a sense of pride now. And you're like, yeah, you see somebody doing something like, hey, man, I just painted that last week. What are you doing? Yeah, instead of, you know, that sort of thing. So giving them examples, giving them people to reach out to. Do you ever have folks that have maybe been in their situation and have seen the bigger picture and actually gone down that path? Yeah, that's a great point. I can relate to you type of thing. Well, so that's it. Thank you for bringing that point up. And actually, that is true. So we like to bring in people into the community that have gone beyond the community and have succeeded. So in this scenario, we're talking about pro athletes, various professionals in the community that have gone on to success. Maybe when they started out, they didn't really have a sense of what direction they were going to go in. But once somebody stepped in and took a personal interest in their life, was able to see something beyond where they were. And those individuals are also looking for ways to get back to those communities that they came from. And we bring those individuals in. David Taltofi is the director for KYDO. Quite an amazing gentleman. He recently returned from the mainland. He born and raised here, grew up in the Polo Valley and went off to play football at UCLA, ended up in Las Vegas working for a private school, doing some coaching and various things there. And then he came back to the island as a lot of people reached out to him and asked him because they felt that they needed him. And sure enough, he came back and has made a dramatic impact in that community. And one of the things he's done is for the boys is help them develop a sense of pride and self and self worth. And I'd like to give you an example if that's acceptable. Sure, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So I think everybody knows who Sama Pahama is. And if you don't, you're certainly welcome to look him up. But I can tell you this much. If it hadn't been for David and the organization reaching out to these young men and Sama Pahama happened to be an exceptional example in this respect because he is one of the top defensive backs in the state last year. And that was not his trajectory when David met him. So David took a personal interest in this young man and helped him with his, and he does amazing work, to be honest. I'm always amazed by the things he does. He cobbles all these boys together and he puts a football team together and they end up taking the OIA to state championship last year. Sama was one of those examples. And he had every major college, Alabama, USC, University of Washington, all wanting to give this young man a full ride scholarship. And so he went from a young man in Polo Valley with too much time on his hands to being a top recruit to the state and ended up going to University of Washington with a full ride scholarship. So that's just one example of the kind of work that we do. He's a great example and that's a fairly recent example, someone that the kids can all relate to. Yes. And so we are planning on bringing Sama back in the interim and having him speak to the boys and just providing some leadership figure for the community. I think that's so amazing. Yeah. With David's organization, are their funds contributed by a foundation or the government or is it all just by doing events and what not? Or do you know? Well, thank you. There's a variety of contributions that come from all over. And so David and I have reached out to the community through various connections that we have that we've established and continue to establish. And as we pointed out earlier in the show, these are individuals who initially we reached out to our public officials in our district and we started talking about ideas that we had for doing various projects within the community and what our philosophy was behind it and why we were so passionate about it. And we needed some help. We needed a place to start. And so we started with our local representatives and Calvin say, who I think a lot of people know who he is, was a great start. And he was very willing to introduce us to people who could provide the kinds of things that we needed so that we could provide these services. For an example, on the 15th of this month, we're going to be doing a cleanup in the parks and recreation in Palo La Valle. And we've gotten overwhelming response, not only in the form of volunteers. This is the largest project we've ever had. It's over 200 volunteers. And so we're going to be providing food. We're going to be providing obviously water and other things that were donated by very generous businesses in the community. And we also are going to be, you know, I'm going to be manning a barbecue at some point and, you know, grilling hot dogs and hamburgers and handing out water and supervising various aspects of the project. Our ultimate goal is to make sure that there's evidence that we've been there and that the people who've taken the opportunity to volunteer. And a lot of those people will come from Palo La Valle. And our organization will have a community park that they can feel proud of. It's a really nice park actually. It's a little help. I may have to come volunteer that day. Oh, you're certainly welcome. We'd love to have you. Yeah. Get some of my crew from the office to come and join me. The ones left to volunteer. You know, I have a philosophy. My family kids me about it. But it comes up when you're bringing up this, you're going out and asking the council folks and whatnot. If you don't ask, you don't get. If you don't take one step forward to ask for it or to reach out, just like us with talking to Jay about the show, you know, whatever it is, if you don't take that first step, so many people are just afraid to take that first step and it just limits them. And sometimes you'll take one, two, three steps and you may think you're going one direction and it leads you to something else that could be even better. But again, if you don't ask or take those first steps, it can never happen. So anyway, just sharing a little bit of my thoughts on that, Brandon. No, that's a great point. And that's exactly how we got started. And we got started because David and I met and we had a discussion about what he wanted to do. And he was looking for some input and some help with that concept and actually bringing it all together. And I told him I'd be more than happy to do whatever I could to help. My son actually is one of the coaches on the team and he introduced me to David and David and I hit it off very famously. And then I found out very quickly what his, where his heart was. And as it turns out, it was very easy for my heart to follow. And once I got involved with the boys and started working with them and doing all these different activities with them, I got to tell you, I'm really, I'm proud to represent the organization and I'm really thankful. Well, thank you. Well, I'd like to thank everyone for joining us today. We hope we have inspired you in some way to find a way to give back to your own community by supporting a cause that you are passionate about. And we hope to see you in two weeks at noon on Thursday for our next show. Thank you so much and mahalo.