Funding Report User Guide
This page is your starting point for understanding workforce development funding in Hawaiʻi during 2023. We’ve built it to help you explore the data behind our statewide snapshot of federal, state, and county investments in Hawaiʻi’s workforce ecosystem.
You’ll find:
A clear explanation of what this report shows—and what it doesn’t.
Guidance on how to use the data for planning, strategy, and collective sense-making.
Definitions of key funding categories and a transparent look at how the data was gathered.
Answers to common questions and an open invitation to help improve future iterations.
We know this is a new kind of resource. While some readers may recall a similar report from 2018, this version was created by a different team, using a different methodology—shaped by feedback from those who worked with the earlier report. Rather than offer definitive conclusions, this report is meant to prompt more thoughtful inquiry. Use it as a tool for reflection, coordination, and collective investment in Hawaiʻi’s workforce future.
How to Use This Report
This report is designed to help Hawaiʻi’s workforce community see the bigger picture.
You can use it to:
Understand the scale and flow of funding across sectors and agencies.
Spot opportunities for collaboration and areas that may be underfunded.
Support planning, grant strategy, and discussions about braided funding and investment alignment.
Spark collective sense-making about how we shape the future of work in Hawaiʻi.
However, it’s not a tool for:
Tracking what individual organizations spent in 2023.
Calculating return on investment based on 2023 program outcomes.
Drawing conclusions based on calendar or fiscal-year budgets.
Expecting dollar-level precision—totals are rounded and reflect funding availability, not audited expenditures.
Holding organizations accountable for funds they didn’t spend within the 2023 calendar year.
Think of this report as a map of potential investment, not a ledger of financial activity.
What the Numbers Reflect
This report captures the total value of workforce-related funding that was active at any point in 2023. That includes:
New grants or contracts awarded in 2023, even if the funds will be spent over multiple years.
Multi-year awards from prior years that were still active in 2023.
Examples:
If an organization received a $100,000 grant in 2023, it is included in full.
If an agency received a $300,000 award in 2022 that spans through 2025, the entire $300,000 is counted—because it was still “live” in 2023.
This means the report may overstate what was actually spent in 2023, but it accurately reflects what funding was available that year. It’s best understood as a map of potential investment—not a ledger of past expenditures.
Note on Scope:
To focus on the most significant funding streams, we excluded federal grants under $100,000. This helps reduce noise and keep the report’s insights clear and actionable.
Methodology
To estimate the total value of workforce-related funding in Hawaiʻi during 2023, we used a combination of self-reported survey data and publicly available federal data from USASpending.gov. Our goal was to create the clearest possible snapshot of resources flowing into workforce development across agencies and organizations statewide.
Data Sources
We drew from two main sources:
Survey responses submitted by workforce stakeholders across sectors.
Federal grants data pulled from USASpending.gov, filtered for relevance to workforce development.
In some cases, we also incorporated follow-up information from survey participants who clarified incomplete submissions.
How We Combined the Data
Data Source Prioritization: When a funding stream appeared in both data sources, we prioritized the survey response, trusting that organizations know their funding context best.
Manual Follow-up Process: Where overlaps or discrepancies existed, we made limited attempts at reconciliation, including outreach to some respondents for clarification.
Key Choices and Assumptions
Multi-year funding was counted in full if the grant or contract was still active in 2023.
Only federal grants of $100,000 or more were included to reduce noise.
No formal deduplication system was available for complex pass-through funds (e.g., federal → state → nonprofit), which may lead to some unintentional double-counting.
Note on Comparability
This report should not be compared to the 2018 workforce funding report. That earlier report was developed by a different organization using a different methodology. Many of the design decisions in the 2023 version were informed by limitations and usability challenges identified by implementers of the 2018 report. This is a new baseline—not a continuation.
This approach reflects the best available data at the time of publication, but we recognize its limitations. Future reports will aim for greater accuracy, transparency, and traceability.
Category Definitions: Understanding the Types of Workforce Funding
To better understand how workforce dollars are used, we asked survey respondents to categorize each grant or contract according to its program focus. Respondents could select multiple categories for a single funding source, so totals should not be summed across categories.
Each funding source in this report was categorized based on how it might be used—not how funds were spent.
Respondents could select multiple categories for a single grant or contract.
As a result, category totals are overlapping and should not be added together to calculate a statewide total.
These categories reflect the potential applicability of funding, not discrete spending amounts.
Education
Programs that support students and adult learners on their path to the workforce.
Includes:
Career and college counseling
Dual credit and remedial support
GED and adult education
Corrections education
Career and technical education (CTE)
Language and literacy development
Work-Based Learning
Programs that offer real-world experience through paid or unpaid work.
Includes:
Internships and practicums
Fellowships
Apprenticeships (in trades or other sectors)
Job Training
Programs that build job-specific skills or credentials for workers and job seekers.
Includes:
On-the-job training and upskilling
Credentialing and certification
Career readiness programs
Apprenticeship models (training-focused)
American Job Centers (training services)
Job Search & Placement
Programs that help people navigate the job market and access employment.
Includes:
Job placement and search tools
Labor market information services
Unemployment Insurance (UI) support
Services for underrepresented groups (e.g., Native Hawaiians, immigrants, veterans, people with disabilities)
American Job Centers and the state job board
Employer Services
Programs that support businesses in finding and keeping the right workers.
Includes:
Talent sourcing and recruitment support
Employer-facing workforce services
known Limitations & Recommendations for Future Reports
This report is an honest attempt to increase visibility—but it’s not a forensic accounting. While every effort was made to reduce duplication, we acknowledge several limitations:
Timeframe alignment challenges:
This report includes the full value of any funding that was active during 2023, regardless of whether it was awarded in a previous year or spans multiple years. While this approach highlights the total potential investment in workforce development, it also introduces limitations. Totals may not align with calendar, fiscal, or program-year budgets, and should not be interpreted as annualized spending.
Overlapping funding records:
Some federal funds appear under both state agency and nonprofit grantee entries due to re-granting or subcontracting relationships. Without fully aligned reporting systems, we cannot always track the full lifecycle of a dollar.
Relational—not discrete—funding streams:
The funding shown across federal, state, and nonprofit sectors reflects relational flows. We were not able to fully capture how money moves between levels of implementation.
Intentional exclusions:
Only federal grants of $100,000 or more were included, in order to focus on higher-impact funding streams and reduce noise.
Shifting federal data availability:
Since 2025, the availability and reliability of some federal data sources—particularly USASpending.gov—have changed significantly. It is unclear how much this impacted data completeness. This adds complexity to being able to replicate our methodology even against data that may have been available in 2024 when this data was first pulled.
Looking Ahead
To improve future versions of this report, we are exploring:
Offering webinars to demystify the survey process and improve response quality.
Encouraging faster survey completion, allowing more time for data validation and follow-up.
Advocating for state-level accounting codes that explicitly flag workforce development investments, making tracking easier and more consistent.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can I compare this report to the 2018 version of the workforce funding report?
A: No. While both reports aim to increase visibility into workforce funding in Hawaiʻi, they were developed by different entities using entirely different methodologies. This 2023 version was shaped by feedback from implementers who used the 2018 report and highlighted key limitations—particularly around data categorization, multi-year funding, and usability. As a result, the two reports should not be directly compared.
Q: Why doesn’t the total match what I actually spent in 2023?
A: This report measures what funding was available in 2023, not what was used. Many grants span multiple years.
Q: Why weren’t smaller federal grants included in the totals?
A: To maintain clarity and focus, we included only federal grants of $100,000 or more. This helps reduce noise and highlights the most significant funding streams shaping Hawaiʻi’s workforce landscape.
Q: Why does my organization’s funding appear under multiple categories?
A: Categories were self-identified or inferred based on program descriptions and reflect the multiple strategies organizations may be supporting (e.g., job training and career navigation).
Q: Can this report be used to measure ROI or performance?
A: No. Since this is a snapshot of funding availability—not outcomes or expenditures—ROI calculations would not be accurate.
Q: Why do some organizations seem to have more funding than expected?
A: Multi-year grants awarded in earlier years are counted in full if they were active in 2023, so some totals may reflect cumulative awards.
Q: Can I use this report to compare funding year over year?
A: Not yet. This is a snapshot of funding available in 2023—not funding awarded or spent during 2023 alone. Because of multi-year awards and timing mismatches, comparisons across years would require additional tagging and standardization.
Q: How will future reports improve?
A: This is our first statewide effort to visualize funding patterns. We hope future iterations will incorporate spending data, outcomes, and clearer tagging of programmatic intent—based on your feedback.
Join the Conversation
We’re committed to continuous learning and collaboration. With Hawaiʻi preparing to make a generational commitment to equitable economic opportunity, we believe this kind of visibility is essential. It helps us shift from fragmented funding to aligned investment—and ultimately ensures that the next generation of workers can find meaningful, family-sustaining work here at home.
We know this requires new ways of working and new ways of measuring. We ask for your patience, your insight, and your partnership as we refine this tool together.
Use the button below to schedule a 30-minute conversation with HWFC Executive Director Matt Stevens. Whether you have questions, concerns, or ideas for how to make this data more useful, your input is welcome.