HONOLULU, HI — The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust has awarded $1.5 million in grants to Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i (SCH) and the Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project (PMDP) to fight plastic pollution threatening the state’s coastlines, oceans, and communities.
The grants of $750,000 each will enable SCH and PMDP to scale their efforts to remove plastic from shorelines of the Main Hawaiian Islands and from the reefs of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument). They will also expand awareness through scientific data collection, compelling storytelling, and hands-on education that invites people around the world to be part of the solution.
“Plastic and microplastic pollution not only pose an unprecedented burden on the ecosystems of the Pacific but also threaten human health. PMDP and Sustainable Coastlines Hawai’i do stellar work cleaning up marine debris in Hawai’i and the remote Northwestern Hawaiian islands and educating people about how to reduce plastic waste going into the ocean,” said Walter Panzirer, a Trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust. “Helping these organizations grow will enable them to expand their essential work.”
The organizations’ efforts are rooted in the values of kuleana (responsibility) and aloha ʻāina (love for the land), honoring the reciprocity between people and the natural world.
Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i engages communities through large-scale cleanup festivals, immersive education that gets students out of the classroom, and zero-waste consulting for events and businesses. SCH’s mentality is that everyone, everywhere, can find their connection to a coastline and take small, proactive steps to bring to life a world where we no longer need to clean beaches because waste has been eliminated at the source.
“This kind of funding is visionary and transformational,” said Rafael Bergstrom, Executive Director of Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i. “We believe our work can inspire and ignite global change, and this support recognizes that deep, lasting impact requires strategic staff support and the ability to innovate. We’re honored to have Helmsley’s trust and partnership.”
The Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project is the only organization dedicated to cleaning the reefs and shorelines of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. This highly protected marine region consists of ten remote and largely uninhabited islands, atolls and open ocean reefs that span some 1,300 miles of the Hawaiian archipelago. This work is essential for protecting the sensitive wildlife and critical habitats of this extraordinary area and serves as a global model for tackling marine debris in some of the world’s most remote regions through grassroots place-based conservation initiatives.
PMDP will use this grant to increase its operational capacity through an investment in administrative capacity, organizational development, and fundraising capability.
“We are thrilled to have received this support from the Helmsley Charitable Trust. A nonprofit’s ability to do good work is only as good as the back-end systems that support it — a detail that is often overlooked. This type of funding will allow our nonprofit to move smoothly through a critical growth period, resulting in a more robust and sustainable organization with an enhanced ability to conduct remote cleanups on a larger scale,” said Kevin O’Brien, Founder & President of PMDP.
These grants lay a foundation for future collaborations and support, inviting donors, media, and the public to rally behind scalable, place-based solutions rooted in community and culture exemplified by the two organizations.
About Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i
Sustainable Coastlines Hawai‘i is a grassroots 501(c)(3) non-profit with a mission to inspire communities to care for coastlines. For almost fifteen years, they have used beach cleanups as a direct action engagement tool for volunteers to see the problem of plastic pollution firsthand, while offering upstream solutions to inspire meaningful change. Their fun, hands-on programs have engaged tens of thousands of volunteers locally, inspired millions globally, and removed over 750,000 pounds of debris from Hawai‘i’s shores. Learn more at www.sustainablecoastlineshawaii.org
About Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project (PMDP)
The Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project (PMDP) is a. 501(c)(3) non-profit organization created to protect the sensitive wildlife and critical habitats of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (Northwestern Hawaiian Islands) from the threats of marine debris. Since 2020, PMDP has removed 1.1 million pounds of ghost net and plastics fromt the reefs and shorelines of Papahānaumokuākea. Learn more at www.pmdphawaii.org
About Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust aspires to improve lives by supporting exceptional efforts in the U.S. and around the world in health and select place-based initiatives. Since beginning active grantmaking in 2008, Helmsley has committed more than $4.5 billion for a wide range of charitable purposes. Helmsley’s Rural Healthcare Program funds innovative projects that use information technologies to connect rural patients to emergency medical care, bring the latest medical therapies to patients in remote areas, and provide state-of-the-art training for rural hospitals and EMS personnel. To date, this program has awarded more than $800 million to organizations and initiatives in the states of Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and two U.S. Pacific territories, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. For more information, visit www.helmsleytrust.org.