ABOUT US
WHAT IS AN NHO?
Native Hawaiian Organizations (NHO) are non-profit organizations like the Ho‘omaka Foundation (formerly the Native Hawaiian Legal Defense and Education Fund) that serve the Native Hawaiian community. Our foundation is also the owner of several for-profit companies called NHO-owned Entities. In 2004, the Department of Defense (DOD) Appropriations Act (P.L. 108-87) placed NHO-owned Entities in the same category as tribally-owned firms for the purposes of DOD acquisitions, which allowed them to participate in the SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program. The profits of our NHO-owned Entities support the Ho‘omaka Foundation, which administers economic and educational programs that benefit the Native Hawaiian population.
What is an NHO-owned entity?
An NHO-owned Entity is a for-profit company that is majority-owned by a not-for-profit NHO. Under the authorization of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 19, NHO-owned Entities are authorized to participate in the SBA 8(a) Business Development Program which provides business assistance to companies majority-owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged populations, including Native Hawaiians. Each year, the federal government aims to award at least 5% of all federal contracting dollars to small disadvantaged 8(a) businesses. The NHO-owned Entities majority-owned by the Ho‘omaka Foundation currently support several federal agencies, including the DOD and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The profits generated by our NHO-owned Entities benefit the Native Hawaiian population through subsidizing various social, economic, and cultural programs administered by our foundation.
Why We Do it
Native Hawaiians, as a minority in our own homeland, have suffered tremendous political oppression for more than 150 years. Beginning with the first Constitution of 1840, the Māhele Act of 1848 and the Kuleana Act of 1850, Native Hawaiian traditional land tenure gave way to the foreign private property system. From the Bayonet Constitution of 1887, forced upon the Hawaiian monarch by foreign interests, to the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom in 1893, to the illegal proclamation of a new Republic of Hawai‘i in 1894, to the illegal annexation of Hawai‘i to the United States in 1900, political tools have been used to benefit others at the expense of Native Hawaiians.