HPR and Foodland ‘Give Aloha’ campaigns succeed

Two recent high-profile Hawaii fundraisers reported impressive successes in October:

Foodland Super Market Ltd. announced its annual “Give Aloha” program raised nearly $1.9 million for 665 Hawaii nonprofit organizations. Foodland and Sack N Save customers statewide donated a total of $1.5 million to the program during the month of September, and more than $329,000 was donated by Foodland and the Western Union Foundation to match part of the customer donations, according to a statement from Foodland.

The total is the highest amount ever raised by the “Give Aloha” program, which was created in 1999 in honor of Foodland founder Maurice J. “Sully” Sullivan.

Nonprofit Hawaii Public Radio’s semiannual fundraiser ended on schedule Friday, Oct. 22, with a total of $813,725 raised in 10 days. More than 200 volunteers worked on Celebration 2010 with HPR staff, answering a total of 2,668 calls from supporters during the drive, according to a statement from the nonprofit radio station.

“We are thoroughly delighted at this amazing outpouring of support for our public radio service,” HPR President and General Manager Michael Titterton said in the statement.

The HPR pledge drive is in some ways a barometer of Hawaii’s economy. The speed in which the goal is made this fall will be seen as a measure of how fast the state is recovering from the recent recession.

This fall’s $808,000 goal is the largest semiannual donation that HPR has asked for. It surpassed its spring goal of $786,000 and has met every pledge goal for the past 11 years, Titterton says. The only glitch was in fall 2008 when he had to extend the deadline by two hours to reach the goal. Titterton says the $808,000 figure is no gimmick, and has nothing to do with Hawaii’s area code. Rather, it is an estimate of what it will take to operate the stations over the next six months.

Pledge drive proceeds represent about 65 percent of HPR’s budget. Another 25 percent comes from corporate underwriters and about 6.5 percent from federal grants. The remainder is generated through events such as performances at HPR’s Atherton studio.