The Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation continues to be a proactive, fully staffed and engaged charitable foundation. Officially founded in 1894 and with charitable roots stretching back to 1836 in Hawaii, our founder was a noted 19^th century abolitionist, suffragette, social reformer, feminist, Christian spiritualist and philanthropist who, after the emancipation of slaves in 1865, adopted women rights, temperance, and early childhood education as her primary cause. Mary Tenney Castle, with the advice of her children, and building on Castle philanthropy, drew up plans for a perpetual family foundation at the death of her husband in the 1894. Her primary charge was that the foundation provide teacher education in connection with the founding and establishment of progressive kindergartens inspired by family friend John Dewey of the University of Chicago. In addition, her foundation provided funds to build kindergartens, provide capital improvements to facilities, and tuition assistance to families in need of support to enroll their child in one of many private kindergartens on Oahu. Her Castle Kindergarten, established with the help of John Dewey in 1899, was the lab school for Hawaii until the UH Lab school was built by the Foundation in 1941 (Castle Memorial Hall). It still serves Hawaii at the present time.
     The Foundation also honors Samuel Northrop Castle. Mr. Castle, a scion of a venerable New England family, was a chief financial officer for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions office in Hawaii. An adviser to several kings, he was a generous donor to education and many civic projects, a member of the House of Lords, and a tireless promoter of nascent liberal democratic institutions in the kingdom. In 1851, he became the primary founder of Castle & Cooke Incorporated, a factoring agency with national impact. The Samuel N. & Mary Castle Foundation honored both Mary Castle (2022) and S.N. Castle (2023) with the addition of $100,000 to each of their memorial scholarships at Punahou School. An additional investment was made to the Mary Tenney Castle Scholarship Fund in 2024.

      Today, the Foundation is led and managed by a direct descendant of the founder and the trustee body is composed of a majority of family members. President Dr. Kitt Baldwin, a prominent member of the Castle and Baldwin family, was elected President in 2024. His foundation trustees include Theresa Lock (community representative), Cynthia Quisenberry, and Alfred L. Castle. Dr. Baldwin is also a direct descendant of Samuel and Mary Castle. The Foundation staff is small and the executive director depends, in part, on volunteers and community advisors to achieve the reach of a state-wide funder. In addition, Theresa Lock was nominated to serve a three-year term in 2024 representing the community and Early Education in Hawaii. The Foundation is open 7 days a week including all holidays. Preschool directors who deal with the Foundation often say how much they appreciate being able to work with the Foundation on weekends when preschools are closed. Saturdays are also devoted to parents of children helped by the Foundation. Parents are encouraged to let us know where opportunities for investment lie.

      As the recognized leader in non-governmental early education funding in the state of Hawaii, the foundation continues to provide investments in tuition assistance, small capital improvements to pre-k facilities, construction of pre-k facilities, teacher training opportunities, scholarships to study at Chaminade University, Colorado State University and the University of Hawaii system for preschool teachers or aspiring pre-k teachers, support of federal and state policies that advance the education and well-being of children, management training for pre-K leadership and substantial support for the recruitment and retention of teachers for the public pre-school system. Additional funds are made available to support early education conferences in Hawaii. A continuing interest of the Foundation, as originated by Mary Castle and her family, is public advocacy for improved access to high quality pre-k for all Hawaii’s residents. Advocacy for state policies that favor early learning is funded through an intermediary, Hawaii Children’s Action Network. Additional political advocacy by Al Castle was advanced by serving on the steering committee of the “Commit to Keiki” campaign. He also serves on the Hawaii Funders Hui of Grantmakers. Federal advocacy is achieved through active membership and leadership in national groups such as the Early Education Funders Collaborative.

      Educated at Punahou School, Colorado State University (Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude graduate), the University of New Mexico, the University of Virginia, Columbia University, and the Episcopal Divinity School (Cambridge), the Executive Director is a published historian, researcher, educator and executive. He has used his 30 years in education to research, write, publish and teach in various universities intellectual history, diplomatic history, philosophy and logic. He approaches his problem-solving for early education with historical continuity and development in mind. He also continues to serve in various capacities that allow him to interpret Castle family history to the public, both nationally and in Hawaii. He also writes public editorials about philanthropy from time to time. Al Castle received a Doctor of Humane Letters from Chaminade University in 2013.

      Nationally, Al Castle is an active participant with the Early Education Funders Collaborative (Washington, DC) and in that capacity has served as a board member and frequent program presenter. His efforts to promote Hawaii to national funders have brought funding to Hawaii as well as greater understanding of Hawaii’s unique assets and needs. Throughout the 2020-2022 pandemic and beyond, he has been an active participant in national Zoom conferences in foundation policies and practices. Locally, he is a leader in the Hui of Hawaii Foundations, the Early Childhood Action Strategy, the Hawaii Children’s Action Network, and the “Commit to Keiki”, a non-partisan campaign to educate political leaders about the issues in early learning. As of 2025, he serves as an advisor to Chaminade University’s graduate ECE program.

      The Castle Foundation is widely respected in Hawaii and on the mainland for innovation in teacher education. Since 2023, Al Castle has worked with Native Americans in philanthropy and the Early Education Funders Collaborative to plan a November conference of foundations in Washington, DC. He served on the steering committee for a 2024 national conference in Native American cultural-based early education innovation in Albuquerque. Al was a speaker and will introduce national foundations to the current variety of Native Hawaiian early learning programs for infant-toddlers and pre-K students. The conference was held in April of 2024 and included speakers from Kamehameha Schools.

      Al Castle serves on numerous committees and task forces in Hawaii as well as advising foundations which   are interested in Hawaii’s non-profits. He served as an instructor (and founder) of the Weinberg Foundation Fellows program and the Weinberg Foundation Awards Committee for Excellence in nonprofit management in the health and human services for 30 years. He manages the Hawaii grants of the Pettus Foundation, a St Louis, Missouri-based foundation which has invested millions of dollars in Hawaii since 1977. In 2016, he was re-elected a trustee by Northern Trust Company (re-elected in 2025) and given responsibility to co-direct all Hawaii grants. He has established an office through the St. Louis Community Foundation to staff his work. In 2024, he was named to serve as the lead trustee of the Foundation by the Attorney General of Missouri. Informally, he advises or has advised, the following national and regional foundations: The Conrad Hilton Foundation, the William R. Hearst Foundation, the Martha S. Trimble Charitable Trust (he serves as a trustee for life), the William Irwin Foundation, the Levi Strauss Foundation, the Federal Philanthropy Fund (as a former director), and the Kresge Foundation. He remains a valued advisor to the WK Kellogg Foundation which has been a co-funder with the Castle Foundation for numerous projects in Hawaii. The Castle Foundation actively seeks matching grants from such leading Hawaii-based foundations as the Weinberg Foundation, the Hawaii Community Foundation, and Kamehameha Schools. These matching grants have increased the impact of Castle Foundation grants.

      In 2025, Al Castle provided in-service training for all law interns and new attorneys at the law firm Goodsill, Anderson, Quinn, and Stifle. William R. Castle, Sr., an Attorney General under King David Kalakaua in the 19^th century, founded this prominent and large Honolulu law firm. WR Castle, Senior, was President of the Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation for almost 40 years. He played a prominent role in Hawaii’s political and legal history. The occasional seminars are an essential introduction to Hawaii’s complicated history for many interns and mainland attorneys.

      For 25 years, Al Castle has been an advisor to the Greater Saint Louis, Missouri, Community Foundation. He has worked there on operationalizing equity programs as well as creating new marketing strategies for the community foundation’s programs. He also serves as partner of the Hawaii Community Foundation’s Early Care and Education Division for West Maui recovery.

      As a philanthropy leader, he has been recognized by Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in the West and the 2025 Writer’s Directory. He is also active with his Phi Beta Kappa chapter at Colorado State University. He was a Liberty Fund (of Indianapolis) Fellow five times from 2014-2024. He has been awarded research grants at Episcopal Divinity School, The University of Virginia, the National Endowment for the Humanities and Columbia University. He has served as a recipient of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point’s visiting scholar assigned by the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command. 

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      2025 brought continued pressures on foundations to introduce flexible policies and practices to meet the community’s needs. The same was true of the Castle Foundation as it worked overtime to meet the state-wide needs of early education to sustain its operations, continue to provide professional development, and provide scholarships for a new class of preschool students in the fall of 2025.

      To meet this need, the trustees funded over $2.7 million in grants for low-income families’ tuition assistance, funds for facility repair and rehabilitation, funds to sustain operations with reduced enrollments, funds for continuing education for teachers, teacher conferences, expansion of preschool outdoor facilities, and the completion of the whole child initiative which will be renewed in 2026. In addition, the Castle Foundation invested another $100,000 to assist the Maui Strong Fund’s restoration of educational services in West Maui.

      The 4-year $600,000-$700,000 a year initiative to “Strengthen Families with Young Preschool-Aged Students” was a highly popular state-wide program to assist low-income families in furthering their role in early education. The grants were limited to eleven financially stable and expert organizations that had been carefully vetted for their history of producing outcomes for families with young children. The organizations provided annual reports and evaluations to guide the Castle Foundation’s grantmaking. The three-year pilot initiative is scheduled to conclude at the end of 2025. Due to the popularity the infant-toddler projects will be renewed in 2026.

      From the perspective of the Castle Foundation, adding an infant-toddler component to our annual allocation gave us a continuum of family and child support. As Dr. Kitt Baldwin, our president, put it, the added component fund would help prepare children for success in preschool, which in turn prepared children for success in the K-12 school system. In short, the Castle Foundation is a private sector leader in the sponsorship of families with children 0-5. It is noted that over thirty community leaders were consulted about this decision, and the constructive ideas sustaining it were vetted repeatedly to ensure it met community needs. As they always do, the trustees will assess the project’s success and continue to weigh how well the additional focus of children 0-5 reflects Mary Tenney Castle intentions in establishing the Foundation and how well we are serving low-income families and their aspirations for their children’s wellbeing and academic accomplishments.

      Finally, the executive director continued to represent the Foundation in local and national philanthropic circles to combine Castle Foundation’s influence with the influence of Hawaii’s general business and foundation community, along with national foundations, to increase public funding for early education.

      In 2025, the Castle Foundation worked in league with advocacy groups for children pre-natal to age five. As a co-funder with Kamehameha Schools, Omidyar, the Hawaii Community Foundation and other foundations, “Commit to Keiki” staff worked influential groups from education, politics, foundations, corporations and businesses to support numerous legislative bills to enhance the lives of children and families. Led by Governor Josh Green and Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke, and much of the Democratic party leadership, the early learning community received the largest public investment in decades. Indeed, over a billion dollars in new investments were phased-in over a period of ten years. The investments were as follows:

• Removing economic stressors for families ($820 million). Increasing tax credits to help working families, reducing homelessness, and increasing affordable housing.
• Providing sufficient, culturally appropriate, quality child care and early learning services ($235 million). Expanding Preschool Open Doors subsidy program, creating charter school preschool classrooms, providing staff to operate more pre-k classrooms, kindergarten entry assessments, and building teacher housing.
• Ensuring our youngest children can live a trauma-free life ($195 million). Enabling access to health care: Increasing Medicaid reimbursements, Child Wellness Incentive Pilot Program, and Hawaii State Loan Repayment Program for Healthcare Professionals. Addressing child abuse and neglect: Funding Child Protective Service contracts, foster board payments, sex trafficking victim support and the Family Resource Center Network.
• Living in Hawai’i is expensive, especially for families. “Commit to Keiki” supported Governor Green’s “Affordability Package” to reduce the economic stressors for families. While Governor Green’s bill did not pass, several tax credit increases, estimated at more than $120 million, were adopted and reduce the economic burden on families – HB 954: Earned Income Tax Credit is doubled, Food and Excise Tax Credit is doubled, and the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit is increased from $2,400 per taxpayer to $10,000.
• Housing is the largest portion of Hawaii family’s budget. Governor Green’s efforts to address homelessness and provide more affordable housing will reduce the economic stress on families and prevent homelessness. Almost $700 million is being appropriated to address homelessness and expand affordable housing.
• In addition, $235 million investment has been made in implementing a “universal” access for all 3–4-year-olds to quality early learning. The project will be completed in 2032 and will enjoy private as well as public support.

      Independently, the Castle Foundation built on its advocacy for Act 46 in 2020-2022, which called for a revamped time for a universal preschool system to be implemented by the State of Hawaii. In the spring of 2021, a joint effort by Jack Wong, CEO of Kamehameha Schools, and Al Castle played an innovative and vital role in obtaining legislative support for a teacher stipend bill. Now part of a comprehensive plan for public education, the Castle Foundation has pledged to pay the cost of the annual stipends up to $100,000 a year. Considering our sponsorship, and with the advocacy of the powerful Kamehameha Schools, the Stipend Bill was passed, and planning for implementation was underway in the last quarter of 2021. We should see students planning to major in early education supported through scholarships and stipends to encourage their education and pledge to teach at least two years in Hawaii. Without the Castle pledge to provide funding at $100,000 a year for up to three years, the legislature would not have passed the bill due to the lack of adequate state funding in a public health crisis. Basic protocols for this project were underway between the UH and the EOEL. The pledge will continue through 2024-2025 academic year. Due to substantial public support for the stipend program, another Castle investment may not be needed in 2025.

      In recognition of the Castle Foundation’s continuing support of culture-based early care and education projects in Hawaii, we joined Kamehameha Schools on an ECE workgroup for the Native Americans in Philanthropy organization. Working with a subgroup of NAP, KS, and the Castle Foundation, participated in discussions of how best to use tribal resources across America to support developmentally-appropriate child development and education. The Castle Foundation was a co-chair of the culture-based Early Education Conference in New Mexico in 2024. Today, the Castle Foundation has played important founding roles in funding Hawaiian language-immersion preschools and family-child interaction and instructional programs in Hawaii. These programs are discussed on the Foundation’s website in great detail in the section “About Us” and specifically in the description of “Early Childhood in the State of Hawaii: Inspiring Focus on Cultural Equity, Intergenerational change, System Change and the Impact on Underserved Indigenous Children.”

      Given Hawaii’s shortage of qualified preschool and kindergarten teachers, the Castle foundation completes 2025 with a sense of urgency regarding maintaining or increasing its support for teacher recruitment, retention, and equitable compensation. It is the chief partner in the ECE3 project at the University of Hawaii to research and implement changes in preschool teacher salaries and benefits. To that end, we continue to seek out matching funds from local and national funders to enhance Castle dollars. This function of financial and political advocacy with remain essential to the Foundation as we head into 2026. At the end of 2025, we made a $150,000 grant to continue the University of Hawaii public and early education policy work.

      With the return of public demands for universal early learning and the further development of the public pre-K, the Castle Foundation has spent considerable time and resources in strengthening and rebuilding a diminished early education workforce. To that end, the Foundation helped sponsor a major compensation, recruitment and retention study at the UH. Continuing education for pre-K teachers was sponsored by the Foundation throughout 2025.

      In 2025, the Erikson Institute provided year-long cohorts in early mathematics and social-emotional learning. Among the innovative possibilities for teacher education and preschool curricula is the Castle Foundation’s grant to the prominent Erikson Institute, one of America’s most respected graduate schools of early childhood development. Scholars who led various Erikson-taught math, literacy, and socio-emotional learning teacher education programs in Hawaii will plan, in collaboration with Chaminade University, SEL skills-building initiatives and possible curricular changes for the DOE preschools. As explained on our website, the program planning is conducted in partnership with the Hawaii Executive Office of Early Learning and the Department of Education. In a nationally published scholarly article written by Castle Continuing Education Director Dr. Amanda Moreno, researchers have studied how the national trend toward social-emotional learning resonates with many traditional Native Hawaiian values. Erikson, working with its Hawaii partners in 2026-2027, intends to inventory pre-k teaching standards and content in our public and private preschools. The culmination will be a recommendation to the Castle Foundation and potential co-funders, such as HCF and Kamehameha Schools, on how social-emotional [earning can enhance student learning and outcomes. A planning grant was awarded, and a liaison scholar from Chaminade University was secured in July 2025.

      A local group of expert advisors conducted additional Hawaii-based instruction. The Foundation teamed up with Kamehameha and the Weinberg Foundation to connect under-represented high school students in rural Hawaii Island with early learning instruction at the Hawaii Community College and UH-Hilo. Teacher recruitment was assisted by generous scholarship grants to the UH’s ten-campus system and Chaminade University. In the Fall of 2022, the Foundation has also funded the first year of a three year pledge for a Hawaii State stipend program to encourage student enrollment in ECE programs in exchange for two-years of teaching early learning in Hawaii schools.

      With the expansion of universal access to high-quality preschools, the need to speed up teacher preparation and to find more flexible teacher education has become an opportunity and a challenge. To ensure quality the Castle Foundation has increased investments in ongoing professional development for preschool directors and teachers in public and private schools as well as Family-Child Interaction schools.

      A special note of thanks is due our trustee Dr. Theresa Lock. A University of Hawaii professor has represented the UH and often the Castle Foundation on countless committee meetings and conferences. Given the tiny staff of the foundation, Dr. Lock’s work allows us to be broadly represented in the community throughout the state. She has committed most of her professional life to early education in high-level positions. She was elected to be a community representative for our private foundation and has been invaluable.

      The Castle Foundation is, as the above account indicates, a vital partner in the needed work of the University of Hawaii College of Education. The need for a better prepared, educated and compensated workforce will be an ongoing task of the Castle Foundation, the UH, and the Hawaii State Legislature, the Lt. Governor and multiple agencies and preschools in the state.

Specific Goals for 2026

1. Work to help implement the many early learning investments made by the legislature.
2. Continue to provide a user-friendly accessible and responsive full-service grants office for Hawaii.
3. Continue to assist trustees as needed with projects that complement the tactics and strategies of the Foundation.
4. Continue to represent the Foundation in national committees and organizations where doing so improves Hawaii’s chances of receiving federal and/or national foundation financial support for early education.
5. Continue national service as a grant maker in Hawaii, Colorado and Saint Louis, Missouri.
6. Continue to manage mainland grants many of which support Hawaii human services needs (Pettus Foundation).
7. Continue to provide technical assistance to preschools seeking grants and mentorship for accreditation; continue to plan for targeted “Requests for Proposals”.
8. Continue to seek our innovative teacher training opportunities for preschool and kindergarten teachers in both the public and private sectors.
9. Work with the Foundation president and all trustees to find ways to increase teacher quality in the emerging public preschool sectors.
10. Work with the Executive Office of Early Learning/ ELB to co-fund where possible early education in the state. All possible public-private funding opportunities will be pursued aggressively.
11. Work with the Harold KL Castle Foundation to co-fund and maximize support for early education in Windward Oahu; find opportunities to co-fund kindergarten teacher training; and co-fund early education advocacy.
12. Seek out opportunities to assist and fund efforts to align a quality preschool curriculum with the K-12 and increase school readiness.
13. Continue to participate in Early Education Funders Collaborative meetings, work with HCAN, HAEYC, ELB, Hawaii Early Education Funders Hui, and other organizations to advocate for additional public support for early education.
14. Continue to inform the public in Hawaii and nationally about the long history of the Foundation and its continuing contributions to Hawaii’s children and families.
15. Work with Native Hawaiian organizations to increase culture-based early education and family support to meet the special needs of this community; continue to support culture-based early education where possible.
16. Maintain a flexible, pro-active approach to meeting unexpected challenges to early education and continue to work for universal access to high quality early education and universal school readiness.
17. Administer and evaluate the continuing initiative to provide tuition assistance to low-income pre-school students.
18. Continue to be responsive to unexpected emergencies in the early education sector.
19. Work with the Hawaii Community Foundation on the infant and maternal mental health initiative.
20. Help to develop a state-wide leadership program with PATCH in 2026.
21. Plan and implement a cohort for a new 3-year infant and toddler program.
22. Continue to plan for and implement innovative pre-school and teacher training programs for public and private teachers.
23. Continue to work with native Hawaiian culture-based organizations to enhance existing services to low-income families.
24. Continue to look creatively to find funding opportunities to nurture early childhood development and family well-being.
25. In making grants, prioritize socio-economic equity which has vital implications for racial equity as well.
26. When funding pediatric health grants, employ the early relational health framework that sees child health and development emerges best in the context of nurturing, warm and responsive early parent/caregiver child relationships, when the child is surrounded by safe communities with strong trust and social connectedness.
27. Continue investments in culture-based infant-toddler care as well as preschool education; continue national work with Native Americans in philanthropy.
28. Asses the strengths and weaknesses of all grant initiatives while planning for funded and co-funded initiatives.
29. Continue to maximize charitable investments from mainland and Hawaii-based foundations for Hawaii’s children and families.
30. Work closely with our president Dr. Kitt Baldwin to ensure the Foundation has a seamless leadership transition and that programs continue to enjoy success.

Long-Term and Ongoing Goals
for the Castle Foundation

1. Building the skills of the Early Learning workforce. Promote coaching and mentoring for preschool teachers, aligned with curriculum and assessment systems; scholarships or compensation associated with continuing education and training in early childhood education; training for principals and superintendents in early          childhood development; and enhancements that bring compensation for early educators to parity with early elementary teachers. The Foundation will seek co-funding opportunities with mainland and local foundations.
2. Building a continuum of high-quality early learning from birth to third grade. New investments to continue early education programs and services beyond federal investments in home visiting, infant and toddler care, or preschool in a state or region. Public and private leaders, like our Foundation, can invest in infant and toddler services where a federal Pre-school Development Grant is awarded, or in preschool where an Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership grant is awarded.
3. Enriching early education experiences. Strengthened language and literacy instruction in preschool classrooms; mathematics and science learning opportunities; resources for comprehensive health and mental health services (e.g., screenings, early identification, and management of physical, behavioral, emotional, and cognitive developmental needs), and family engagement. Greater support for the transition from          pre-school to kindergarten. Parent education programs and other resources for caregivers and educators about the importance of adult-child interaction and talking, singing, and reading with children in their earliest years.
4. Promoting equity in early education. We can support providers and policymakers to implement policies that eliminate suspensions and expulsions in preschools and child care centers which disproportionately impacts children of color.
5. Supporting early education infrastructure and facilities. Financing and facilities acquisition to expand the availability of high-quality early education, particularly in high-poverty neighborhoods with a shortage of quality programs.
6. Promoting innovation in early education. We can support pilots for innovative       programs, technology, and new approaches to early education. Support for research, evaluation and documentation to build the next generation of early education strategies and models.
7. Promote the well-being of the “whole child” through innovative and impactful         grantmaking. Strengthening families and the services low-income children 0-36 months old receive is a large part of our effort.
8. Seek out and support new parent education programs in Hawaii for both private and public pre-schools.
9. Work to promote public awareness of the importance and power of early education to improve educational and social equity. This can be done through joint advocacy with other foundations and advocacy non-profits such as HCAN.
10. Continue to contribute to state and federal advocacy efforts for early leaning.
11. Seek out multi-funding opportunities with local and national early education funders. The Castle Foundation is both a funding partner and a match agent for           advocacy and system-changing grants.
12. Seek out creative solutions to the issues surrounding workforce development, child well-being, and the need to link pre-school education with the K-3.
13. Complete the well-being of children 0-36 months old initiative. All efforts should be taken to strengthen low-income families and prepare very young children for successful pre-K to grade 12 instruction. The Foundation needs to consider retaining the infant-toddler initiative or plan to end it by the end of 2025.
14. Perhaps most of all, the Foundation is tasked with funding realistic solutions to enrollment short-falls in the private pre-K sector. We must seek ways to balance fair teacher compensation with the reasonable access of families to the private             preschools of high quality. The Castle Foundation, finally, must work to preserve the diversity and pluralism of the private preschool sector. In a culturally diverse state, the private preschool world must continue to reflect the broader community.
15. Continue to work with public and private entities to recruit, retain and compensate early education teachers. Hawaii faces a severe shortage of teachers at all levels; every opportunity should be sought to make the profession more attractive, especially for above average educational professionals.
16. Work to expedite changes brought about by the retirement of Robert Peters and the addition of out new trustee Dr. Terry Lock. Most of all, work to react quickly to changing circumstances for children 0-5 in Hawaii.
17. Work closely with our new president Dr. Kitt Baldwin to ensure the Foundation has a seamless leadership transition and that programs continue to enjoy success.