We hope that as you may make decisions about your end-of-year giving, you consider a donation to Kōkua Mau to continue and expand our work in the coming years.

Kōkua Mau, as a local non-profit, community-benefit organization (Kōkua Mau is not a state agency and not state funded!), is fueled by the passion of dedicated volunteers with a lean budget and every penny spent on making our work possible.

Your generous tax-deductible gift will allow us to have a real impact on improving quality of life for those with serious illness and their loved ones. (And yes, the virtual mug is still available)

As the year draws to a close, we can look back and see that we have accomplished a lot - together.  And we look forward to the New Year and the tremendous opportunities in Hawai'i as we work to improve care for seriously ill people, their loved ones and professionals who help to take care of them.

Materials to help people facing serious illness and their loved ones understand the choices they may need to make. We completed 2 new easy to understand handouts - "Tube Feeding" and "Questions on CPR" in addition to updating the Advance Directive materials. In time for the holidays, we have completed a new 16-page booklet "A Guide to Advance Care Planning: Making Life Decisions" distributed state wide.

POLST legislation to include APRNs. Kōkua Mau was instrumental in passing this important legislation in 2009 and is the point organization for POLST in Hawaii as we provide information and brochures on the website, respond to inquiries and host the POLST Task Force. Because of POLST's success and our interest in increasing access to POLST, we are working on legislation this year to expand signing privileges to APRNs. Senator Roz Baker will introduce the legislation and Gov. Abercrombie will include it in his legislative package.  

National Trailblazer Award: Kōkua Mau has been honored with the 2013 Trailblazer Award by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). The national award recognizes us for "for developing innovative methods to improve patient access to quality and compassionate care".Expanding networking and education for professionals.  

Kōkua Mau continues to provide professionals an opportunity for education and networking through: Kōkua Mau Monthly Meetings, which usually include a speaker, Palliative Pupus clinical case discussion and the Palliative Care Open Discussion Forum, a chance to talk with colleagues about work. Additionally our constantly updated website and eNewsletter keeps people up to date on local events, educational offerings and new resources.

Thank you for your support for Kōkua Mau, our hospice and palliative care organization.

Making a tax-deductible donation is easy. You have two options:

1. Go online and donate with a credit card

2. In the good ol' US mail - Three steps:

• Write a check payable to Kōkua Mau and put 'donation' in the memo field


• Get an envelope and address it to:

Kōkua Mau

PO Box 62155

Honolulu HI 96839

• Put a forever stamp on it and put in the mailbox (must be postmarked Dec. 31 to count for 2013) 

In an effort to better serve our community, our Advance Care Planning Committee continues to identify resource materials for people facing serious illness, their loved ones and professionals.

We'd like your help in identifying good materials that you already use and gaps that we could fill, either by creating new materials or finding other resources. Thanks for your help in taking a few minutes to complete this survey to help us with our process.