APPLICANT RESOURCES

Apply for Funding

The Maui Recovery Funders Collaborative (MRFC) is a partnership of philanthropic organizations working together to support Maui’s long-term recovery from the 2023 wildfires.

As part of our commitment to responsive, community-centered giving, MRFC is currently accepting applications through two funding tracks. These tracks are designed to meet both urgent, time-sensitive needs and longer-term, systems-level efforts that move recovery forward.

We encourage organizations to review the track descriptions below and select the one that best matches the timing, scale, and readiness of their proposed work.

What We Fund

MRFC will consider proposals aligned with one or more of the following priority areas:

  • Medical care and mental or behavioral health services

  • Healthcare adjacent solutions (e.g.: medical respite, workforce housing, etc.)

  • Temporary and stable housing, including shelter and rental assistance

  • Financial assistance, including direct aid, financial readiness and assessments, and foreclosure prevention

  • Food security and essential household support

  • Child care gaps and family stability services

  • Disabilities and elderly support services

  • Safety and security for women and children

  • Case management and navigation

  • Translation and language access services

  • Community needs data and recovery coordination

  • Cultural and/or natural resource management

  • Hazard mitigation, preparedness, and recovery planning

  • Support health/social impact research and access to care

These priorities reflect the most pressing needs identified across the disaster response and recovery phases.

Available Funding Tracks

1. Urgent Impact Grant Track (Under $100,000)

For projects that address time-sensitive needs or smaller-scale efforts where a delay in funding would disrupt critical services for fire-affected individuals and families.

2. Long-Term Recovery Grant Track (Typically over $100,000)

For larger, more strategic or collaborative projects aligned with long-term recovery goals. This includes programs that strengthen recovery infrastructure, systems coordination, and sustained community support.

Please note:

  • Each individual program or service may only have one active application in one track at a time. Submitting the same project to both tracks is not permitted.

  • However, organizations with more than one distinct program may submit multiple applications, as long as each proposal is clearly differentiated and aligns with the appropriate track based on timing, scale, and urgency.

Pre Application Checklist: Identify Which Track is Right For You

1. Urgent Impact Grant Track

This track supports smaller-scale or time-bound projects that must be implemented quickly to avoid disruption in critical services or to seize an immediate opportunity to serve fire-affected communities.

✔️ This track is for you if:

  • A delay in funding would interrupt or end services for fire-impacted individuals or families

  • You are filling a short-term funding gap that jeopardizes one of the priority areas

  • A unique or seasonal window of opportunity exists 

  • You are providing essential stopgap services while waiting for longer-term resources

❌ This track is not for:

  • Projects still in early planning or development

  • General operations or programs that are not time-sensitive

  • Applications primarily driven by organizational fiscal timelines

Potential examples of eligible services:

  • Mental Health or Behavioral Health Resources

  • Food Security

  • Transportation Needs

  • Laundry Services for Temporary Housing

  • Moving Fees for those in FEMA programming

Details

  • Amount: Up to $100,000

  • Decision timeline: Typically within 45–60 days

  • Implementation window: Within 6 months of award

Review process: Rolling, based on urgency, community impact, and readiness

2. Long-Term Recovery Grant Track

This track is designed to support organizations leading or collaborating on high-impact recovery efforts with potential for long-term, system-level outcomes. These proposals often require larger investments, cross-sector coordination, or expanded timelines.

✔️ This track is for you if:

  • Your work aligns with one or more long-term Priority Recovery Areas 

  • You are proposing a project with broad, sustained community benefit

  • You have a strong implementation plan with experienced staff and partners

  • You are coordinating or filling a structural gap in Maui’s recovery

  • It is clear that this program moves recovery forward for impacted households

❌ This track is not for:

  • Projects without a clear implementation timeline or measurable goals

  • Organizations that are still in the early stages of building capacity for delivery

  • Proposals that lack a plan for sustainability through the grant term

  • Applications focused solely on one-time needs that are better suited to the Urgent Impact Grant Track

Examples of eligible services:

  • Stable housing development and rebuilding

  • Long-term mental health care infrastructure

  • Cultural or environmental restoration with long-term stewardship

  • Preparedness or hazard mitigation efforts for future resilience

Details

  • Amount: Over $100,000

  • Decision timeline: Rolling

  • Implementation window: Flexible based on project scale

Review process: Based on alignment with priority areas, phase of community recovery, impact potential, organizational readiness, and collaborative approach

Timeline

    1. Grantseeker completes the application and uploads it to MRFC’s portal along with required attachments.

    2. MRFC’s administrator completes an initial assessment of incoming applications, ensuring each request is complete and eligible.

    3. Within two business days of submission, email confirmation is sent along with any preliminary questions.

    1. MRFC’s Funding Partners individually review applications and assess alignment with their own additional eligibility requirements and specific funding priorities.

    2. After individual review, the Collaborative convenes to discuss requests, share insights and assessments, leverage the preliminary support of others, and identify any additional questions or needs from applicants.

    1. MRFC’s administrator or individual foundations, if desired, contact applicants as necessary to gather additional information to inform decision-making.

    2. MRFC’s administrator may provide supplemental technical assistance to support equitable, complete and competitive applications, or to support a prerequisite from an interested funder (e.g. developing a policy, formatting financials, identifying metrics) before a decision is made.

    1. Within 10 weeks of initial submission for a Long-Term Recovery Grant and 60 days for an Urgent Impact Grant, applicants will be contacted with a decision.

    2. In the event of an award, MRFC’s administrator supports applicants to connect with funder(s) to complete the final award agreements or, to complete the next steps.

    3. Applicants who are awarded funding will continue to work directly with grantmakers to process grant agreements, which may include grant requirements, and to receive payments.

    4. If the application is declined you will have an opportunity to review the application with the MFRC Administrator and access technical support, if applicable, and: have the option to remain “reviewable” in our database for up to six months."

How to Apply

  1. Determine your organization’s eligibility by reviewing the checklist above. Contact the Fund’s administrator with any questions.

2. Complete the Maui Recovery Funders  Collaborative Application Form

3. Upload your completed application and documents via the Collaborative’s portal, which also asks a few additional questions and provides an opportunity to upload additional materials.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • A variety of philanthropic and corporate grantmakers participate in the Collaborative. Learn more about the Maui Recovery Funders Collaborative members here

  • All of the Collaborative’s Funding Partners  are able to fund 501(c)(3) organizations;  organizations fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)(3); and 509(a)(1) organizations. 

    A few are also able to fund jurisdictions, municipal governments or public entities, religious organizations, and for-profit businesses with charitable purposes.

  • The Collaborative’s Funding Partners are able to fund a variety of requests, including general operating, programmatic requests, capital, capacity building, and more. The Collaborative is unlikely to be able to fund endowments and direct grants to individuals (such as scholarships). While several types of requests are allowed, requests for specific aspects of disaster recovery, especially for historically underserved populations and those most impacted by the Maui fires, are generally preferred. 

    • Medical care and mental or behavioral health services

    • Healthcare adjacent solutions (e.g.: medical respite, workforce housing, etc.)

    • Temporary and stable housing, including shelter and rental assistance

    • Financial assistance, including direct aid, financial readiness and assessments, and foreclosure prevention

    • Food security and essential household support

    • Child care gaps and family stability services

    • Disabilities and elderly support services

    • Safety and security for women and children

    • Case management and navigation

    • Translation and language access services

    • Community needs data and recovery coordination

    • Cultural and/or natural resource management

    • Hazard mitigation, preparedness, and recovery planning

    • Support health/social impact research and access to care

  • Please complete an application form. In addition, you are required to submit:

    • Project timeline

    • Project budget showing expenses and revenue

    • Current fiscal year operating budget

    • Your most recent 990

    In addition, if available please also submit:

    • Most recent reviewed or audited financial statements

    • 501(c)(3) determination letter, if applicable

    • Board of Directors List or Roster

    • Conflict of Interest Policy

    We encourage you to provide any supplemental materials that will help Funding Partners better understand the need for, and impact of, your request. This may include letters of support, Annual Reports, MOUs (as applicable for collaborative requests), pictures, schematics, proformas, one-pagers, brochures, and more. In the application portal there is an opportunity to “Add another” (a gray button under “Choose File”); you may add an unlimited number of additional attachments.

  • Yes, if your organization has applied to the Collaborative, you are still able to apply directly for funding from the Collaborative’s Funding Partners.  Similarly, if you have recently applied for funding from one of our Collaborative’s Funding Partners, you are still eligible to apply for funding through this Collaborative application.