Trusted by the Native Hawaiian communities we represent, Mālama Kaʻū Foundation serves as a bridge between our people and the United States military across the Pacific.

Led by retired Native Hawaiian military officers with combat experience — our NHO board of directors understand both the deep responsibility of those who have called these islands home for generations and the operational imperatives of the warfighters who train here to defend the nation.

Our NHO board members bridge that gap naturally — because there is no gap for us. We have served this nation in uniform and come home to these same communities our entire lives. We don’t strengthen the Department of War’s relationship with local residents by building it. We strengthen it because those residents are our parents, our cousins, our neighbors, our kūpuna. You cannot fake that. You cannot contract it out. And you cannot replicate it with anyone who wasn’t born into it.

Mission Statement

Rooted in Kaʻū with a Native Hawaiian ancestral heritage verified by the State of Hawaiʻi, Mālama Kaʻū Foundation is owned, controlled, and led by Native Hawaiians — and built to prove it. We transform federal partnership into direct investment, funding health, education, and economic opportunity for the people of Kaʻū while building the Pacific Bridge that strengthens our communities, our industry partners, and the warfighter across the Indo-Pacific.