Community Links Hawaii to close doors in January

Community Links Hawaii, a Honolulu resource center for nonprofit startups, announced it would close at the end of January because of lack of money. Launched four years ago as a nonprofit incubator to help new charitable projects and ideas get started, CLH has incubated 34 projects and programs.

While some of the projects have matured successfully beyond the startup phase, they were unable to generate sufficient revenue for Community Links Hawaii, which received 10 percent of a sponsored project’s income as fiscal sponsor.

“We are proud for so many reasons,” said Josh Levinson, CLH president and CEO. “Since opening in 2006, CLH has incubated 34 new charitable projects, managed 71 grants totaling more than $6.2 million, and launched popular initiatives like the monthly First Tuesday @ Downtown events.”

As a startup nonprofit itself, however, CLH was not immune to the economic forces that are making ongoing operations tenuous for so many charitable organizations in Hawaii, Levinson said. “We believed 100 percent in what we were trying to accomplish, but shutting down at this time is the prudent course of action.”

The percentage of project revenues allocated to CLH “was never enough to cover the cost of operating the central office and we have been unable to make up the difference through direct financial assistance to CLH,” Levinson said.

“In this market, at this time, we simply couldn't generate the financial backing required to support our efforts serving our projects and the broader community. We have given our projects 60 days to make alternate plans for the future operations of their programs. Although CLH could not sustain its central office, the incubated projects' assets remain intact,” he said.

Four of CLH’s five paid staff were terminated in December, including Levinson, although all volunteered to facilitate winding down the organization and to help projects find new corporate homes.