Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 11, 1 November 2012 — Danner nets Visionary Leader Award [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Danner nets Visionary Leader Award

Hawaiian community leader and advocate Robin Danner has received the Visionary Feader Award from the Colorado-based First Nations Oweesta Corp. and Opportunity Finance Network. Danner, founding president of the Couneil for Native Hawaiian Advancement, is the first Native Hawaiian to receive the award recognizing an individual's long-term contributions to the Native Community Development Financial Institutions industry and whose loeal financing and asset-building efforts are an inspiration to

others. "This is truly an honor for me, but so mueh more so for the field of Native Hawaiian organizations that are making positive waves of change all across our homeland in the Pacific," Danner said at the awards cere-

mony, according to a news release. "Access to capital isn't a challenge, as mueh as it is the solution. Every time a loan or tax credit transaction is made in our eommunity, something big is happening for a household, for a farm, for a business - and

that means something big is happening for our state and our country." The award, whieh included a $10,000 eheek, was presented Oct. 17 at the 2012 Native CDFI Awards ceremony in San Antonio, Texas. Among other accomplishments, Danner founded the Native CDFI network to unify community-based lenders serving native populations, and founded the first statewide nonprofit loan fund serving Native Hawaiians. Together with Alaska Natives, she spearheaded the first ever deployment of new market tax credits in the State of Hawai'i. ■

Danner