HCF’s Taketa Named to Top 50 Innovators List

Kelton Taketa, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Hawai’i Community Foundation, was recently named to the 2015 Power & Influence Top 50 list of nonprofit innovators by The Nonprofit Times.

The Nonprofit Times is a leading national publication for nonprofit executives.

Taketa was first named to the list in 2010 and is the only nonprofit leader in Hawai’i to be named to the list.

For the past 18 years, the Power & Influence Top 50 list has celebrated the achievement of executives leading the largest and most impactful nonprofits in the nation.

The 2015 honorees was picked from a pool of 300 of the nation’s top performing leaders who have demonstrated innovation and achievement in their sectors, ranging from health care to public policy, education, equal rights, and more.

“It’s an honor to be in the company of these influential leaders, whose actions have a strong impact on a national, and even global, level,” said Taketa. “My mission has always been to support the nonprofits of Hawai’i – our programs are designed to cultivate strong nonprofit leaders at home, so together we can work towards a positive future for our community.”

The Hawai’i Community Foundation is the state’s largest nonprofit investor and one of the nation’s oldest community foundations, and recently under the leadership of Taketa, launched the Nonprofit Excellence Initiative to develop and award high-performing nonprofits in Hawai’i.

Part of Taketa’s innovative impact in 2015 was measured by the initiative’s FLEX Grants program. The program provides unrestricted funds to nonprofit organizations.

Brian Gallagher, president and CEO of United Way Worldwide, Bill Gates, co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Jim Gibbons, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International, and David Jeffrey, national commander of the Salvation Army are all among those who have been awarded to the list.