Programs & Services

Following are HACBED's major programs and services:

• Community & Organizational Capacity Building – organizational assessments (diagnostics), strategic thinking and planning, community economic development training and technical assistance, and executive coaching to assist communities and non-profit organizations in building capacity to plan, implement, and sustain community-based economic development and asset building ventures.

• Community Based Planning – community based planning for sustainable community-based economic development and asset building, including design and facilitation of community engagement and participation processes, coalition and network building, and development of community-based institutions.

• Family & Community Asset Building For Self-Sufficiency – developing policy and community practice around strategies to help individuals, families, and communities build wealth and assets in order to achieve self sufficiency and develop increased opportunities to exercise choice and control over their future.

Community & Organizational Capacity Building

HACBED has developed a body of information, experience, and expertise to support the field of community-based economic development and asset building in Hawai`i by:

• providing organizational capacity development support to grassroots organizations involved in CBED and asset building across the state and elsewhere;
• supporting community-based organizations through trainings, workshops, coaching, technical assistance, and other support services; and,
• implementing field building strategies to improve the environment in which community-based organizations must operate in Hawai`i.

In the past several years alone, HACBED has conducted in-depth organizational assessments for more than 80 nonprofit organizations. These have been conducted through individual contracts with organizations and/or through contracts with private and public funders providing assistance to their grantees. This experience provides HACBED with a perspective of organizational development from an organizational life cycle and systems perspective. These organizations ranged in size from large to small and in stage of development from new and emerging organizations to long established organizations.

In recent years, HACBED has also provided technical assistance and coaching support to more than 30 community-based organizations for strategic planning, feasibility analyses, and business planning.

HACBED also provides more intensive training and technical support programs that includes a mix of training, technical support, learning circles – facilitated peer to peer action learning and coaching groups, and coaching support for organizations involved in the CBED and asset building fields in Hawai`i. These initiatives have included:

• The CommunityConnection. HACBED’s nine month training and technical support program for community-based organizations that are planning and implementing economic development and asset building ventures. Held in 1994, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2006, CommConn has provided support to more than 320 grassroots leaders from over 160 community-based organizations from all islands.

• Workshops & Trainings. Workshops and trainings have been organized and conducted on such topics as microenterprise development and lending, Individual Development Accounts (IDAs), the Community Reinvestment Act, commercial real estate development for nonprofits, legal structure issues in the development of business ventures, developing and managing food processing business incubators, systems thinking, media – communicating values and shaping opinions, fundamentals of nonprofit management, nonprofit organizational assessment, and others. In 2000, HACBED was awarded the Niu Award from Volunteer Legal Services of Hawai`i for nonprofit training.

Other examples of HACBED’s community and organizational capacity building experience and expertise include:

• Editorial Board & Board of Directors of The Nonprofit Quarterly. In 2001, HACBED was appointed to the editorial board and the Board of Directors of The Nonprofit Quarterly, a national publication for the nation’s nonprofit sector.

• Field Building Consulting Services. Based on its organizational assessment, strategic planning, and organizational capacity building work, HACBED has provided field building services for organizations in such areas of interest as faith-based organizations, foster care, and youth asset building. Citibank and the National Alliance for Nonprofit Management also contracted HACBED to provide a field building workshop for Asian and Pacific Island CBED organizations from California and Florida.

Community-Based Planning

The following are examples of HACBED’s work in the area of providing technical assistance for community-based planning efforts:

• Empower O`ahu. Served as fiscal sponsor and management agent and technical support for an island-wide initiative to create opportunities for residents in low/moderate income communities on O`ahu. Established through the federal HUD Empowerment Zone application process, 9 communities are investing and leveraging $4 million in City CDBG funds for community development. HACBED developed and implemented the community planning processes in the 9 communities that led to the development of the City & County of Honolulu’s 1998 and 2000 federal Empowerment Zone applications.

• Hawai`i 2050 Sustainability Planning. Organized and provided facilitation support for island-wide community conversations on O`ahu to gather input on Hawai`i’s 2050 Sustainability Plan.

Family & Community Asset Building For Self-Sufficiency

HACBED’s Ho`owaiwai – The Hawai`i Asset Policy Initiative is a statewide collaborative effort involving nonprofit organizations, private sector representatives, public sector members, and community residents that has identified and championed policies and strategies that promote the creation and retention of assets and wealth in low income families and communities throughout Hawai`i. With support from financial institutions, government agencies, and CBEDOs, HACBED organized the 2004 CBED conference – “Families Defining Economic Success: Redefining Wealth & Poverty In Hawai`i” that laid the groundwork for this work.

The initiative continues to seek to increase family and community self sufficiency by (1) building grassroots leadership, networks, and capacity to develop and advance asset building policies; (2) increasing community capacity to plan and implement wealth creation ventures and strategies; and (3) establishing new resource partnerships to affect innovative approaches to investing in culture and values based development of Hawai`i’s low-income communities. This work has included:

• State Asset Policy Task Force & Hawai`i Asset Policy Network. HACBED worked to establish and continues to provide support to the State Asset Policy Task Force and the Hawai`i Asset Policy Network that are comprised of more than 120 individuals and organizations who have collectively worked to advance asset development policy initiatives including a children’s savings account, financial education, State Earned Income Tax Credits, Tax Credits for Individual Development Accounts, a Volunteer Tax Assistance Program, eliminating asset limits, addressing predatory financial services, regular updating of Hawai`i’s Self Sufficiency Standard, and other asset policy efforts.

• Asset Development Publications. In partnership with 3Point Consulting and other partners, HACBED developed the publication Ho`owaiwai . . . Asset-Building Policy for Hawai`i that identifies six goals for a Hawai`i asset building policy agenda – make work pay; teach asset-building; break down barriers to asset-building; help people save; help people start and own businesses; and help people buy homes. In addition, One Step Forward, Two Steps Back – Policy Incentives & Deterrents in the Lives of Low Income Families was also produced. HACBED’s most recent publication, Asset Policy Roadmap: A Strategy For Advancing Financial Security & Opportunity In Hawai`i was developed in partnership with the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED).

• State Asset Leaders Learning Circle. HACBED is one of six state asset policy initiatives that was the focus of research supported by the Fannie Mae Foundation and is currently part of the on-going learning network (the State Asset Leaders Learning Circle) that emerged from that effort and which now includes 3 additional states that have launched statewide asset policy efforts.

• Family Independence Initiative – Hawai`i. HACBED managed the FII-Hawai`i initiative which was designed to support families taking action to shape their own pathways to self sufficiency and exercise more choice and control in their lives. In less than two years, the participating families from four communities on O`ahu were able to achieve an 18% increase in their monthly household income; a 75% increase in family net worth; and a 377% increase in savings.