Janis Reischmann

Janis Reischmann is a longtime Hawaiʻi nonprofit and philanthropy leader. In April 2008 she was selected — following a national search — as the first-ever Executive Director of the Hauʻoli Mau Loa Foundation, a Honolulu-based private foundation whose name is Hawaiian for "happy forever." She joined the Foundation's Board of Directors in 2011 and led the organization for roughly 15 years, completing her service as both Executive Director and board member on October 31, 2023.

She brought more than 20 years of Hawaiʻi nonprofit-sector experience to the role. Before joining Hauʻoli Mau Loa, she served as a Vice President at the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation and ran a seven-year independent consulting practice focused on organizational development for nonprofit and government clients, with deep experience in grant-seeking from local and national foundations. She holds an MBA from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (completed circa 2000).

The Hauʻoli Mau Loa Foundation she led focuses its grantmaking on expanding opportunity for less-fortunate children and on the stewardship, preservation, and protection of the environment, organized around program areas including "Hope for Kids," Environment, First Generation (education), Affordable Housing for Families, Field Building, and Humanitarian Relief. Under her leadership the Foundation was known for a collaborative, partnership-driven, team-based grantmaking style — a philosophy she summarized in a reflection: "Over the years I have learned that grantmaking foundations realize their success through the hard work of others."

Since departing the Foundation, Reischmann has continued in the sector as Founder and Principal Consultant of Rewired Consulting LLC, based in Hawaiʻi.

• Philanthropic-first, not venture equity: Her "investing" is grantmaking and mission capital, deployed to strengthen Hawaiʻi's nonprofit ecosystem rather than to buy startup equity.
• Impact investing via CDFIs: She led the Foundation into impact investing through a partnership with the Hawaii Community Reinvestment Corporation, providing both a multiyear operating grant and a low-interest loan the CDFI could re-lend. In her words, the partnership was "a way for the foundation to help grow the local CDFI industry and learn about impact investing."
• Focus areas: disadvantaged children and youth; environmental conservation and stewardship; first-generation college education; affordable housing for families.
• Collaborative approach: She favors long-term, trust-based partnerships and a team-based model, emphasizing that the Foundation's impact is realized "through the hard work of others" (grantees).
• Geography: Strongly place-based in Hawaiʻi, from Honolulu to Hilo.