Padosi Foundation

Alongside its policy-driven giving, the Foundation sponsors humanitarian aid and health services, though many of these recipients also engage in left-of-center advocacy. Domestically, the Foundation funds food security programs, community healthcare, and cultural institutions, often supporting entities engaging in left-of-center political activism in its non-policy-related giving as well. ¹

Trustees Pamela Lichty, Simone Lichty, and Andrew Merz lead the Foundation. Pamela Lichty, a longtime drug policy activist, co-founded the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii. She has sat on the board of the ACLU of Hawaii, co-chaired the Hawaii Syringe Exchange Oversight Committee, and advised Human Rights Watch’s Women’s Rights Division. ²

Advocacy

Policy-Related Giving

In 2023, the Padosi Foundation gave more than half of its money to groups aligned with left-of-center activism, social policy advocacy, environmental litigation, and pro-abortion groups. Padosi’s largest single policy-related grant, for $500,000, went to the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker religious group historically active in left-wing advocacy for what Padosi described as “service, development, and peace programs.” Additionally, the Drug Policy Alliance in New York, a prominent left-wing advocacy organization advocating drug legalization and left-of-center drug policy changes, received $275,000 to “advance policies and attitudes that best reduce the harms of drug use.” ¹

The Foundation, as of 2023, also allocated $200,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a group that frequently engages in litigation supporting left-of-center racial causes. Similarly, the Equal Justice Initiative of Montgomery, Alabama, known for its left-of-center law enforcement advocacy, received $100,000. The Foundation supported election-administration-policy organizations actively promoting left-of-center election policy changes, granting $50,000 each to the Fair Elections Center and Campaign Legal Center, both based in Washington, D.C. ¹

The Foundation also supported abortion access groups, including Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands, which received $75,000 for “programs on reproductive health,” and the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy advocacy organization focused on abortion rights, which was granted $1,000, as of 2023. The Foundation also supported, as of that year, the pro-abortion access International Planned Parenthood Federation ($1,000) and Pregnancy Justice in Portland ($5,000). ¹

Left-of-center environmental advocacy groups received significant financial support from the Foundation in the 2023 fiscal year. Notable recipients include Earthjustice ($50,000), the Greenpeace Fund ($30,000), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) ($40,000), the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii ($100,000), and the Nature Conservancy of New Mexico ($50,000).  ¹

Other advocacy groups the Foundation funded in 2023 included Flex Your Rights ($1,000), a group known for campaigns criticizing law enforcement practices, and the Tides Center–Palestine Legal, which received $40,000, as of 2023, to defend individuals advocating for pro-Palestinian positions in the U.S. ¹

Non-Policy Related Giving

In the area of non-policy-related giving, the Padosi Foundation, as of 2023, gave mostly to humanitarian, health, and disaster relief groups, although in addition to humanitarian work, many of these groups engage in left-of-center political advocacy. As of 2023, Doctors Without Borders, a global medical aid group, received $270,000 from the Foundation, and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) received another $270,000 with the stated objective of protecting refugees internationally. The Foundation also supported Oxfam America, granting $100,000 to address global poverty and hunger issues. ¹

Local community health and welfare organizations, as of 2023, received significant support from Padosi, including the Hawaii Foodbank ($60,000), the Oregon Food Bank ($50,000), and the Maui Foodbank ($50,000). Project Vision Hawaii received $50,000 for healthcare services, while Waikiki Health received $30,000 to provide health programs locally. Smaller grants were also made to Hawaii Meals on Wheels ($10,000) for meal delivery services and the Salvation Army Hawaii ($2,500) to aid individuals in need. ¹

Cultural and educational institutions, as of the 2023 fiscal year, received modest funding from the Foundation. In 2023, the Foundation awarded $100,000 to the Portland Art Museum for general support and gave $5,000 each to the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra and Hawaii Public Radio for cultural programming. It contributed $25,500 to a GoFundMe campaign for Maui wildfire relief and sent $20,000 to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, a group previously linked to Arabella Advisors, for global disaster relief in 2023. ¹

Leadership

Padosi’s leadership comprises of three trustees: Pamela Lichty, Simone Lichty, and Andrew Merz. Pamela Lichty is a trustee of the Padosi Foundation. She is a left-of-center drug liberalization advocate. Lichty, a University of Hawaii at Manoa graduate, played a significant part in Hawaii becoming the first U.S. state to approve medical marijuana through legislative action, personally contributing to drafting the enabling legislation. ³

Lichty co-founded and spent 25 years at the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, a left-of-center advocacy group that lobbied for Hawaii’s statewide syringe exchange program. She has sat as a board member of the ACLU of Hawaii, co-chaired the Hawaii Syringe Exchange Oversight Committee, and sat on the advisory committee of the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. ²

Simone Lichty is Pamela’s daughter, and co-trustee of Padosi. ⁴ A licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist based in Portland, Oregon, Simone runs her own private practice, Simone Lichty Psychotherapy, focusing on anxiety, depression, trauma, and relational challenges. She previously worked as a therapist and case manager at Mental Health Partners of Boulder and Broomfield County, completed a post-Master’s Social Work Fellowship at the University of Colorado Boulder, and interned at the Denver Veterans Affairs. ⁵

Andrew Merz serves as a trustee of the Padosi Foundation and previously directed contemplative programs at the Hemera Foundation. ⁶

Financing

In 2023, the Padosi Foundation reported $3,727,700 in total revenue, with the vast majority (97.2 percent) coming from contributions, gifts, and grants. Other revenue sources included investment earnings from dividends and interest, as well as proceeds from asset sales. The group’s total expenses stood at $4,003,362, with $3,973,453 distributed to charitable disbursements. This spending pattern resulted in an operating deficit of $275,662, a slight improvement from its $3,604,383 shortfall in 2022. Despite this, the Foundation’s net assets declined by 13.6 percent, from $1,656,188 at the beginning of 2023 to $1,429,836 by year-end. ⁷

Over the past several years, the Foundation has experienced significant financial fluctuations, largely due to its reliance on external contributions. In 2022, the Foundation recorded only $23,144 in total revenue. Padosi reported $1,136,749 in revenue in 2021, $592,669 in 2020, and $441,771 in 2019. The Foundation’s net assets have also declined sharply over time, falling from $14.2 million in 2018 to $1.4 million in 2023. ⁷

The Foundation’s tax returns show a zero-compensation policy for the group’s trustees. Pamela Lichty, Simone Lichty, and Andrew Merz received no reported salaries or benefits in 2023, a consistent trend dating back to at least 2015, according to tax documents. The Foundation functions primarily as a pass-through entity, distributing nearly all incoming funds directly to grantees. ⁷