Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund Accomplishments

This page last updated in June 2025.

Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund has been community-driven and volunteer-powered since our inception over 28 years ago.  We owe our success to the thousands of people who have joined us in our efforts to recover the health of our marine ecosystem in Hawaiʻi nei.

HWF is a highly effective nonprofit organization with a small team of staff and hundreds of dedicated volunteers across three islands (Hawaiʻi, Maui, Kauaʻi).

Together with thousands of volunteers over nearly three decades, we have saved more than 13,170 endangered hawksbill and green sea turtle hatchlings, protected hundreds of basking green turtles, recovered miles of sensitive native coastal habitat (by removing over 430 tons of marine debris, protecting native and endemic plants, and restoring native wildlife), hosted seven science symposia to-date, trained hundreds of marine naturalists and interns, reached over 7,800 students on three islands since 2014, assisted in setting local, national and international marine conservation policy, educated more than a million people about ocean and coastal habitats… and more!

We are a small but effective non-profit 501(c)(3) organization with just 4 full-time, and 8 part-time employees plus another 12 part-time or seasonal contract team members spread over three islands (we added a Kauaʻi debris trio in 2024) at any given time, yet we have achieved significant conservation results and are very proud of our cost-effectiveness and impact. Our Federal EIN Number is 99-0326669 and more info is available online (HWF is a Gold-Level GuideStar participant and 3-star nonprofit on Charity Navigator) and we are committed to organizational transparency so please ask us if you would like more info.

We look forward to another action-packed year and hope that you can join us in one of our upcoming projects or events to continue our collective legacy. You can stay tuned with our online calendar (wildhawaii.org/calendar) and social media channels, plus keep a lookout for the save-the-date announcement for our 30th anniversary party happening in 2026!!

Together with thousands of volunteers over two decades, we have saved more than 10,500 endangered hawksbill and green sea turtle hatchlings, protected hundreds of threatened green turtles, recovered miles of sensitive native coastal habitat (by removing over 345 tons of marine debris, protecting native plants, and restoring native wildlife), hosted five science symposia, trained hundreds of marine naturalists and interns, reached over 4,000 grade-school students on three islands since 2014, assisted in setting local, national and international marine conservation policy, educated more than a million people about the marine ecosystem… and so much more!

Check out our 2024 Impact Report (a.k.a. Brag Sheet) —> Click HERE to download (0.4 MB)