Kelvin Taketa served as a senior executive at The Nature Conservancy for 18 years, helping to start the program in Hawai’i as its Executive Director, leading all of The Nature Conservancy’s membership, fundraising, communications and government relations at its headquarters in Arlington, VA and founding its groundbreaking work in the Asia/Pacific Region. He then became the President and CEO of the Hawai’i Community Foundation from 1998 to 2017, guiding the foundation to become the leader in facilitating charitable investments in Hawai’i and a trusted community resource on charitable trends and best practices in the state.
During his tenure, the foundation became Hawai’i’s largest foundation, more than tripling the amount of funds it distributed in the state, launched several major initiatives with a coalition of local and national funders and government agencies, and developed grant programs that had proven results and led to national recognition for the foundation. A national leader and commentator about philanthropy and nonprofit organizations, Kelvin was recognized several times by The Nonprofit Times as one of the “50 most powerful and influential people” in the sector in the United States.
Kelvin has also served on a number of nonprofit boards, including CoGenerate, Hawaii Leadership Forum, Sustainable Conservation, Independent Sector, Stupski Foundation, Center for Effective Philanthropy, Elemental Excelerator and Feeding America, as well as serving in private sector capacities as the founder of a private equity company and on the board of Hawaiian Electrical Industries and Hawaiian Electric Company. He is a graduate of Colorado College and holds a J.D. from the University of California’s Hastings College of Law and continues to provide consulting services and mentoring around leadership, strategy and organizational development when the fish aren’t biting.