For those who Maui

Here's the latest on how you can sustain, fortify, and safeguard Maui from wherever you are.

General Funds and Shelters

Not sure where to start? These organizations are the bedrock of the acute phase of recovery on Maui.

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The People's Fund of Maui, established by Dwayne Johnson and Oprah Winfrey, aims to supplement Maui families who lost their homes with a monthly stipend of $1,200. The fund will support qualifying families until funds run out.

The Red Cross is working around-the-clock to offer aid to wildfire victims.

The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, Alakaina Foundation Family, and Kako’o Haleakala will match up to $3 million in donations for Kako’o Maui.

Hawaii Community Foundation’s Maui Strong Fund has been funding the efforts of volunteer run Maui Rapid Response to ensure shelters are well-managed and goods are distributed.

Aloha United Way has created the Maui Relief Fund that will go directly to efforts supporting victims of the fires.

Transportation and Supplies

As the news has covered, keeping supply lines to provide relief to West Maui is among the most difficult challenges of our recovery. These organizations are making things run smoothly and enabling community-led support so that no family is left waiting for formal support channels.

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Despite their own team’s losses, the Pacific Whale Foundation has been making continuous supply runs via boat to West Maui to quickly get goods to families without power or water.

Hawaii Community Foundation’s Maui Strong Fund has been funding the efforts of volunteer run Maui Rapid Response to ensure shelters are well-managed and goods are distributed.

Maui Economic Opportunity has provided shuttles to and from shelters so that evacuees can run critical errands and get medical care while getting re-established.

Baby 2 Baby is getting ready to send supplies for babies and children who have been affected by the Maui fires.

Rooted in Wailuku, a Hawaiian-owned refill bar, is supplying toiletry kits for displaced families comprised of products entirely made on Maui, using funds raised from their Pay It Forward program.

Lahainaluna community member Blake Ramelb is running a community hub out of his family home in order to distribute supplies to Lahaina families as quickly as possible. His Amazon wishlist is here and updated daily.

Food

Maui (and Hawaii at large) has an absolutely incredible network of chefs. You might have seen folks like Sheldon Simeon, Leanne Wong, and Madame Donut on various cooking shows. They and chefs throughout Hawai’i are laser-focused on Maui’s evacuees thanks to the efforts of several organizations.

If you have friends and family on Maui, you might also consider buying a gift card from one of their restaurants to support these businesses as they weather changing economic circumstances:

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World Central Kitchen is on the ground at shelters on Maui and making meal deliveries to families in short-term housing.

Maui Food Bank is organizing and supplying shelters with basic food needs.

Chef Hui Hawaii is a network of professional chefs across the islands mobilizing to prepare food (and, when off-island, freeze and ship them directly to Maui).

Hawaii Salvation Army is providing meals for thousands displaced in Maui emergency shelters. They’re asking for monetary donations and large volume meal donations from restaurants and certified kitchens. All money donated for disaster relief will go to disaster operations.

Hawai'i Farmers Union United is supporting Maui food producers impacted by the disaster to help them identify support and funding resources.

Pets and Animals

We’ve already heard wonderful stories of displaced animals being reunited with their families, and fostering of pets—Maui Humane Society and HARF are making that possible.

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Maui Humane Society is Maui’s only full-time animal shelter, and has been providing care to animals injured or displaced in the fires, and, where needed, coordinates finding them new homes off-island.
Hawaii Animal Rescue Foundation is a volunteer-run network of foster homes for pets that also coordinates medical care and adoption.

Shopping for the Cause

Businesses small and large around the world are leveraging their platforms to support the Maui community; many have created things you’ll probably love and remind you of Maui for years to come, and are dedicating most or all of their profits to various charities.

Here is a running list of Maui benefit sales and services.

Beyond that, many fantastic locally-owned businesses are featured here.

Below is a selection of some of these offerings, many only available for a short run (handpicked by me!) that would make incredible gifts for the Maui lovers in your life. Click each image to visit its product page.

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Direct Family and Worker Support

Lahaina town was the home of not just people, but many special community gathering places, fountains of knowledge and history, wonderful food and art, and the people that ran these places come from all over Maui.

FAMILIES & GENERAL AID

GoFundMe has assembled a comprehensive list of verified fundraisers to provide direct support to people impacted by the fires.

The Lahaina Community has also collected Venmo links for families affected by the fires.

Help Maui Rise is a megalist of these resources.

EMPLOYEE FUNDS

Among these are also staff recovery funds for Lahaina businesses. If any of these places had a special impact on you on a previous visit, consider contributing to one of these funds for their staffs.

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Transitional Housing

Less than two weeks after the fires, most evacuees were successfully relocated to short-term housing in hotel rooms, condos, Airbnbs, and ADUs in homes. While this is not the end of the road, this rapid response is a welcome respite for families looking to re-establish normalcy.

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Maui Economic Opportunity Wildfire Relief Fund: Providing rental assistance to those displaced by the wildfires

Airbnb.org is raising funds to place victims in short-term housing with their Maui hosts.

Moku Roots, a local Maui restaurant, has been independently coordinating housing matches between evacuees and homeowners, and is taking donations to aid these efforts.

House Maui is Hawaii Community Foundation’s housing advocacy arm. They connect those who have lost their homes to the fires with Hawaiʻi homeowners who have vacant rooms, units, or houses they’re willing to offer on a temporary basis.

Children and Educators

One of the longest roads to recovery will be helping the island’s children cope with grief, trauma, and loss of agency as a result of the fires. Their teachers’s well-being and a healthy educational environment are equally instrumental in their healing.

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A Keiki’s Aloha is Maui’s answer to the Make-A-Wish foundation. They’re raising funds to support child-led school supply and home good purchases for children in crisis.

Hawaii State Teachers Association has a donation hub for teachers affected by the fires.

The Public Schools of Hawai‘i Foundation (PSHF) is partnering with the Hawai‘i State Department of Education to support our public school communities impacted by the destructive wildfires on Maui.

Pūnana Leo o Lahaina is a Hawaiian language immersion preschool whose campus was destroyed by the fire. Their parent organization, ʻAha Pūnana Leo, is raising funds for supplies and materials, family support and programming, and renovation expenses.

Nā Keiki O Emalia provides peer grief support for children, teens, and their families who are grieving loss. In light of the wildfires, they are also operating an Amazon Wish List for children affected by the fires.

History and Culture

Waiola Church | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

Lahaina was more than a tourist destination—it has been an invaluable place going back to the establishment of the Nation of Hawaii—royal churches, museums, history centers, and more.

One of the first priorities of the rebuild is restoring and rebuilding as much of this history as we can ethically under the guidance of native Hawaiian leaders.

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Waiola Church: the historical congregation of the Hawaiian Royal Family

Nā ʻAikāne Cultural Center: A native-led research and cultural center leading recovery efforts

Lahaina Restoration Foundation operates many historical sites across West Maui, many of which were impacted by the fires.

The Japanese Cultural Society of Maui has launched a relief fund for the Lahaina community. Three Japanese Buddhist temples were lost to the fires, with their ministers displaced. The Ganbare Maui fund aims to help their families get re-established and to rebuild the temples.

Permanent housing

First things first: please do not consider this disaster as an opportunity to get a good deal on real estate on Maui. The people who lost their homes absolutely love their communities—many have lived there for generations. While imperceptible at the individual scale, each time a new Maui resident comes from afar, the culture shifts just a little bit, and at such a grand scale as is possible in Lahaina, we have a lot to lose. Please help to preserve what makes Lahaina special by keeping the lands in the hands of the people of Lahaina.

Here are some of the organizations working to make that happen.

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While not underway yet, Habitat for Humanity Maui is mobilizing volunteers and collecting donations in preparation to rebuild.

House Maui supports housing advocacy to address the long-running and ongoing housing crisis on Maui.

Maui Economic Opportunity Wildfire Relief Fund: Providing rental assistance to those displaced by the wildfires

Nature and Land Management

It is easy to see how climate change has exacerbated the destruction on Maui—abnormally high winds from ocean warming and an ongoing drought created the conditions for the rapid spread of the Lāhainā wildfire.

As has been proven in communities across the American Continent, indigenous-led land management efforts help to immediately mitigate the effects of climate change. These Maui Nui-based organizations are leading the charge here.

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'Aina Momona: focused on indigenous-led agriculture and land management and advocacy

Kipuka Olowalu: Restoring the endemic biome of the Olowalu area

The Pacific Whale Foundation has established a new fund to help study the impacts of this disaster on the waters and marine life of Maui Nui to continue protecting them.

Economy and Tourism

Anyone who has been to Maui will tell you that it is a very, very special place. We can’t blame you for wanting to come.

On a typical day, having a tourism-dependent economy is a hot-button issue. Publicized statements from several state and county-run organizations, as well as small business owners, say that Maui is still open and welcoming visitors, and local businesses depend on tourism as a lifeline.

Other residents have very complex feelings—many work in tourism wanting to help their families thrive while also resenting the fact that so much of Maui’s wellbeing is intertwined, often to the detriment of our quality of life, to the outside world. Among Native Hawaiians, the problems with tourism run deeper—centuries of exploitation have led to separation from ancestral lands, and the degradation of natural resources. Tourism continues to exacerbate these issues—on a typical day, one in three people on Maui is a tourist.

With these issues in mind on a good day, you can imagine that seeing visitors continue to fly in for a period of enjoyment and relaxation is extremely painful for people in mourning and recovery. Perhaps a day lies ahead where a pathway to non-extractive tourism is in reach, and when it is, we’ll be the first to let you know.

In the meantime, here's what you can do.

Show your support

Consider postponing your trip, or canceling it and using the funds to contribute to any of the worthy funds across this site.

Shop Maui businesses online!

Call your senator to advocate for forgivable PPP loans for local businesses impacted by natural disasters.

If you opt to visit: Tip generously—nearly everyone who works for you knows someone who was impacted. Mind that you are likely sharing your accommodations with victims and their families. Support unionized hotels to prevent employee exploitation. Do not visit the west side, especially while recovery efforts are still underway. DONATE DONATE DONATE.

Support work that helps make Maui's economy more resilient. The Purple Mai'a Foundation, who is working to ensure a self-determined future for Hawai'i by training for an economy built on the wisdom of our ancestors.

Native Hawaiian Philanthropy funds various projects that support indigenous-led, self-sufficient community futures.