Alex Jamile, president of the Moanalua Gardens Foundation, established in 1970, said he was saddened to learn on Friday that the Bishop Museum had laid off 6 percent of its staff. Jamile said he could sympathize with the museum's plight. He's had to let go most of his own small staff.

Since April, Jamile's nonprofit organization has laid off its executive director, curriculum administrator, and two of three teachers (the third teacher is on maternity leave).

That leaves one person: Jamile himself, who is now acting as executive director. He said he cannot be laid off: He's a volunteer.

"We're kind of caught in a bind," said Jamile. "The market has gone south, the economy has taken a back seat, and people just don't have the funding they had four or five years ago."

Other nonprofit organizations are also feeling the pain of what Bishop Museum President and CEO Timothy Johns described as "the challenging economic climate facing our state."

Stephen Little, director of the Honolulu Academy of Arts, which has about 150 full-time employees, said "I can tell you we've instituted a hiring freeze, as of this week."

He added, "Although I can't be precise, there may be some early retirements proposed. And through attrition and the hiring freeze together, I think we're going to be careful not to immediately refill empty positions."

Those measures are being taken to avoid having to make layoffs, Little said. While he said he's not positive the plan will succeed, he said the academy is fortunate in having a strong endowment to bolster its financial position.

"I think every museum in America is facing this right now," Little said. "And nonprofit cultural institutions, especially, are being hit by the economy."

'UNFORTUNATE PATTERN'

Brian Schatz, chief executive officer of Helping Hands Hawaii, a major nonprofit social service agency on O'ahu, said, "I think we're looking at this being the beginning of an unfortunate pattern." He added, "It remains to be seen how long it will last. Hawai'i's economy is resilient."

Schatz, too, said he believes layoffs can be minimized. For now, he said, he doesn't anticipate layoffs of any of his 140 full-time employees. But for some organizations, he said, letting people go will likely be an unpleasant reality.

"I think it's wise for all nonprofits to make adjustments and reorganize, just to maximize efficiency," he said. "And we'll be doing that this year. But we're going to try and minimize the pain."

TAKING SMALL STEPS

Over at the Contemporary Museum, there's a sense that being small is a blessing during bleak and turbulent economic times.

"We have no plans at this time to make any cutbacks in staff or programming," said Georgianna Lagoria, executive director of the museum, which has a staff of 24 full-time employees.

"What we are doing is brainstorming about ways to bring in new dollars and to be proactive in that department. When you're small, I guess you're used to taking small steps all the time. And any movement is measured."

John Flanagan, president and CEO of the Hawai'i Alliance for Nonprofit Organizations, said there will likely be more Bishop Museum-type layoffs in the coming months.

"I think it's good to say that we've gone through this in the recent past, and people will have learned from that. You hope that as a result, that it won't be as bad as it might have been, and it won't last as long.

"But in the meantime, it's tough. And some organizations are going to have to make tough decisions — such as what Mr. Johns did at the Bishop Museum."

For the Moanalua Gardens Foundation, which aims to preserve Hawai'i's native culture through education, the tough times have already arrived. Organization leader Jamile said that for three decades, the foundation was self-sufficient. Then, when its two founding sisters and benefactors died, the foundation requested and received the first portion of what was supposed to be biennial grants-in-aid funding from the state totaling $600,000.

Jamile said the money would have been enough to return the foundation to self-sufficiency. The first of the $300,000 grants arrived as expected in fiscal 2007.

This year, though, state Budget Director Georgian Kawamura issued a statement saying her office was "returning without action" the fiscal 2008 request due to "insufficient documentation of outcomes resulting from the initial $300,000 grant ... "

A SURVIVAL ISSUE

Consequently, the foundation may not see the remaining money it had hoped would keep its education program — and maybe the foundation itself — afloat. Still, Jamile remains convinced the Moanalua Gardens effort will continue. "We can survive — somehow," he said. "We'll do the best we can."