Following the August 2023 fires, crowdfunding and money transfer platforms such as GoFundMe and Venmo proliferated among fire survivors looking to raise funds to rebuild their lives amid an uncertain future.
The Rise of Help Maui Rise
A group of local residents started a fundraiser called Help Maui Rise, utilizing GoFundMe. About — HELP MAUI RISE. Searches for Help Maui Rise on the State of Hawaii’s Business Registration Division, the Hawaii Attorney General Tax & Charities Division, and the IRS tax exempt organizations websites yielded no results. Civil Beat has attempted to track fire donations but Help Maui Rise is not listed. Maui Fires: Money Tracker - Honolulu Civil Beat. Civil Beat noted the difficulty with tracking donations based on the “sheer number of sources and the lack of detail about some programs and fund disbursements.” Maui Fires: Money Tracker - Honolulu Civil Beat.
The primary source of information regarding donations received and distributed by Help Maui Rise appears to be the organization’s website and what can be gleaned from individual GoFundMe pages. Help Maui Rise has collected about $1.2 million to date.
Help Maui Rise aligned with GoFundMe.org as a “fiscal sponsor” because the group did not have the status to legally conduct such a large, tax-deductible fundraising effort independently without first seeking exemption under IRS Code Section 501(c)(3).
According to Civil Beat, GoFundMe brokered $65,000,000 in fire donations from 375,000 donors from 100 countries:
Maui Fires Money Tracker. GoFundMe.org is registered with the Hawaii Attorney General Tax & Charities division but the most recent tax return posted on the Hawaii Attorney General Tax and Charities website is from 2021. Charitable Organization Details.
Help Maui Rise also posted a spreadsheet ranking about 1,600 individual fire survivor GoFundMe pages (“HMR Sorted Spreadsheet”) by the amount of donations received. Help Maui Rise: Directly Aid ʻOhana Displaced by Fires - Google Sheets. Help Maui Rise contributed funds to the individual GoFundMe pages, however, this author is not aware of any publicly available, comprehensive accounting of the Help Maui Rise distributions.
Review of the individual GoFundMe pages promoted on the Help Maui Rise website show GoFundMe.org as the donor, so it may be possible to painstakingly piece together some information regarding distributed funds.
Crowdfunding Winners and Losers
Two families on the HMR Sorted Spreadsheet show as receiving $0.00 in donations. Help Maui Rise: Directly Aid ʻOhana Displaced by Fires - Google Sheets.
The HMR Spreadsheet shows The Lahaina Grill Employees GoFundMe was the top fundraiser promoted on the Help Maui Rise List, receiving $677,966.00.
Help Maui Rise has not imposed means-based restrictions on who can promote a GoFundMe or Venmo account on the Help Maui Rise website. Thus, individuals and families with ample financial means were, and still are, able to use this platform to crowdfund donations, effectively competing with families of limited means that desperately need assistance.
16 families on the Help Maui Rise list raised $1,000 or less.
287 families received less than $5,000.
See Help Maui Rise: Directly Aid ʻOhana Displaced by Fires - Google Sheets. Hawaii Public Radio recently discussed the plight of local resident Beatrice Hoopai who fears eviction if she cannot raise $3,108 before March 1, 2025. Lahaina family struggles with FEMA requirement. With $65,000,000 running through GoFundMe, the concept that some families received little to nothing is astonishing and raises questions about who exactly did get money.
Close Up on a “Winner” That Found a Way to Monetize the Community’s Fragility During Recovery
Lahaina Strong Lead Organizer, Courtney Lazo who sometimes uses the surnames Ramos, La Bat, or Keahukalilani, is an example of someone that was able to form and promote a GoFundMe page and Venmo link on the Help Maui Rise website, as well as receive substantial funds from GoFundMe.org.
Pre-fire, Lazo celebrated herself as a highly successful real estate agent, real estate developer, real estate investor, and contractor who proudly sold properties for over asking prices, while indulging in spur-of-the-moment trips to California to cruise Rodeo Drive, participating in wine tasting in Napa Valley, and displaying ownership of luxury vehicles on social media.
Lazo started as a real estate investor attending “wealth building” conferences and marketing her ability to purchase homes from distressed owners with cash.
While not commodifying housing, Lazo was also dabbling in the designer dog breeding industry, selling “Micro Exotic Bullies.”
Around this same time that Lazo was peddling designer dogs, the Maui Humane Society was sending out cries for help for foster homes due to shelter overcrowding with animals in need of homes.
After the fires, Lazo thrust herself into the public eye with a dramatic pivot from real estate1 to focus on endeavors capable of producing income in the tumultuous post-fire environment of suffering and recovery, including her paid affiliation with Our Hawaii Action,2 operating a number of online businesses such as her “Human Design” courses, promotion of questionable supplements, and endorsing influencer fitness programs. While Lazo was telling Civil Beat “this putting profit over people needs to end,”3 her numerous public instagram accounts were promoting unregulated supplements, courses promising generation of passive income, and fitness programs, all for profit.
Lazo’s real estate license lapsed on December 31, 2024, raising questions about the sincerity of her statements to Civil Beat about her intent to continue selling real estate, just not “those not calling our islands home.” Why I Won't Sell Property To People Who Do Not Call Hawaii Home - Honolulu Civil Beat.
Lazo became a recognizable public figure by participating in numerous interviews, appearances in documentaries, and posing for photographs for various local and national media outlets. She initially reported that her family had been in Lahaina for 10 generations.4 Eventually, Lazo’s story evolved to claiming her “roots run over 15 generations deep”
Monetizing Grief, Suffering, Recovery, and Vanity
Anyone with a credit card can now hire Lazo as a “Soul Real Estate Agent” to start a “Journey Home to Yourself Today.”
For only $500, Lazo’s self-guided course promises that participants will have “found your inner home so that life can become more meaningful and enjoyable!”
Lazo’s Soul Real Estate practice claims to be “a synthesis of […] Astrology, the Hindu Chakra system, the Chinese I Ching, the Kabbalah, and Quantum Physics” to help participants as follows:
See About – Aligned Babes. Lazo’s background, education, and studies, if any, related to Astrology, Hinduism, I Ching and Quantum Physics are unknown raising questions about whether Lazo’s program accurately portrays any of these disciplines of study, or whether she is even qualified to be a paid instructor in these areas.
If transcendental meditation isn’t your thing but lack of a booty is what’s holding you back, Lazo also has that covered. For only $315, you can participate in the Sir Mix-a-Lot approved “Get Thick 30-day Transformation Plan.”
If too much thickness or brain fog is your problem, you can use Lazo’s affialiate code to purchase a wide variety of unregulated weight loss and brain supplements including Tight & Tone Cleanse, Lipo Lean, Definition Detox, and Brain Bomb:
With names like Lipo Lean and Brain Bomb, these products raise serious concerns about efficacy and safety.
With Increased “Fame,” Lazo GoFundMe Increases Goal from $50,000 to $500,000
The Lazo GoFundMe had an initial fundraising goal of $50,000.
With her role as Lead Organizer for Lahaina Strong, Lazo put herself squarely in the public eye, routinely posing for pictures, conducting interviews and giving speeches at every opportunity. The fundraising goal on Lazo’s GoFundMe page recently increased to $500,000. To date, the Lazo family GoFundMe has received $36,609, which is a mere 7% of the lofty goal.
Lazo participated in fundraisers for Help Maui Rise, including selling Christmas ornaments at the Fishing for Housing encampment. The Christmas ornament fundraiser brought in about $100,000 to Help Maui Rise according to informal Lahaina Strong reports. Lazo received numerous donations from Help Maui Rise’s fiscal sponsor, GoFundMe.org, including a single donation in the amount of $12,000. See Lazo GoFundMe.
Many families were not so fortunate to have direct connections with large fundraisers, or the exposure that Lazo gained as Lead Organizer of Lahaina Strong. In fact, the HRM Sorted Spreadsheet identifies 687 families that were not even able to raise $12,000 in total, let alone benefit from a single donation of $12,000.
Why did some families receive so much less than others? Did local fame and notoriety play a part, incentivizing some to grovel for media attention, conduct interviews, pose for photo opportunities, join social movements, utilize large social media platforms, and remain highly visible to maximize exposure and donations? For all the good that Help Maui Rise has done, allowing those with means to compete with families in need for finite donations allowed those with notoriety to turn Help Maui Rise’s fundraising effort into a popularity contest where the winners were not those with the greatest needs.
While some families were unable to raise virtually any money, leading to continued struggle and in some cases facing eviction, Lazo recently broadcasted the receipt of a lavish Valentine’s Day gift on social media:
The cost of this gift alone is more than the total amount that at least 10 Lahaina families on the HRM Sorted Spreadsheet were able to raise. See Help Maui Rise: Directly Aid ʻOhana Displaced by Fires - Google Sheets.
Comprehensive Audit of GoFundMe, Venmo and Other Crowdfunded Donations and Distributions is Warranted
In the absence of a comprehensive audit of donations received and distributed through crowdfunding platforms such as GoFundMe and Venmo, the community is left with substantial uncertainty as to whether donations are going to those that actually need assistance, as opposed to those that have recognized the 2023 fires as yet another opportunity to hustle. Media outlets and citizen journalists will hit the wall trying to conduct this investigation based on the lack of publicly available books and records. Additionally, fiscal sponsorships with organizations like GoFundMe.org that allow individuals with no corporate structure, tax exempt status, Attorney General registration, or accounting experience to handle seven figures of donations create a lack of transparency unless organizations voluntarily publish an accounting of the distributions.
A government entity with investigative and subpoena power is likely the only way of uncovering the truth here. Last year, the Legislature passed, SB 2983 which now appears as H.R.S. Section 467B et seq., titled Solicitation of Funds from the Public. This new law imposes penalties on those who use deceptive tactics to raise funds, and attempts to expand the Hawaii Attorney General’s ability to regulate fundraising platforms. Unfortunately, that law doesn’t take effect until January 1, 2026.
This author challenges all donation hustlers (you know who you are) to once and for all disgorge funds received to families with greater needs. In the meantime, the community will standby, waiting to see if any governmental entity has the courage to tackle this difficult issue and protect the public from bad actors.
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