Maui Causes

Maui Causes A Crowd Funded Media Production Team whose mission is to create media for other not-for-profits. The participation of all these groups made the difference.

Aloha and greetings from Sam Small, Executive Director of the new MAUI CAUSES. I had the privilege recently of serving as the Media Director for the SHAKA Movement and Vote Yes Maui, working to craft the advertising campaign that helped bring Maui's historic GMO Moratorium electoral victory. Our well-targeted and simple but well-produced print, radio and television ads helped beat the Agro-Chemica

l giants Monsanto and Dow in spite of their $7 million dollar advertising budget that outspent us almost 100-to-1. A big part of our success was the participation of a coalition of small local not-for-profit groups that focus on a variety of progressive and transformational issues facing Maui's community: land use, water rights, cultural practices, clean air, clean water, agricultural practices, and many more. They deserve our praise and our support. And that's what MAUI CAUSES is designed to do. With your support, MAUI CAUSES can, in turn, support these groups by creating media that amplifies their individual agendas. With your support, MAUI CAUSES will flourish as a not-for-profit media production team who's mission is to create media for other not-for-profits. Our islands are locked in a hundreds year old stranglehold by plantation powers that never did and still don't serve the greater good. Only the people, standing up for what is right, on issue after issue, just as we stood up against Monsanto and Dow on GMO’s and pesticide abuse, can bring the kind of change that Maui needs and deserves. With your support, MAUI CAUSES can do a lot. As a multi-media production team MAUI CAUSES can cost effectively produce and distribute relevant informational content on these and many of the issues facing Maui today. Social media marketing is a convenient and cost effective way to get the message out, and so is Akaku TV. Many of you saw some of the 14 weekly TV shows I hosted on Akaku TV for SHAKA that addressed issues around the GMO Initiative. We're planning now to revive that weekly show under the MAUI CAUSES banner. Each show will profile another local not-for-profit initiative. I've been a hands-on media producer since 1979, wearing all the hats; writer, producer, director, cameraman and editor. With the addition of modern web marketing, TV and graphics production is the only work I've even done. I ran my boutique media production company, Small Wonder Video Services, in NYC for 20 years before I was asked to build and operate an in-house broadcast and commercial production facility for Prudential Financial. They knew my hands-on style of production would save them millions so they literally fired their advertising agency and made me a Vice President. For eight years I produced, directed and edited over 250 national TV spots in the US, Mexico and Japan. Maui provides, they say, and it sure provided me with worthy adversaries in Monsanto and Dow. We all got to see just how corrupt our local government really is and it brought to light the wide range of public issues that deserve to be addressed. Modern mass media is a tremendously powerful tool for raising awareness for not-for-profit initiatives but it requires specialized skills and equipment that are beyond the scope and capabilities of most small organizations. With your support MAUI CAUSES can do it. MAUI CAUSES is truly in it's infancy and will soon initiate the paperwork for our own Not-For-Profit status. In the short term we expect to find a temporary umbrella under one of Maui's many other not-for-profits but until then contributions, though appreciated, are not tax deductible.

31/07/2025
31/07/2025

Hawaii Off Grid’s Kūpono Hale project has won the Award for Excellence in Energy-Efficient Design at the 2025 AIA Honolulu Design Awards. The design was recognized during a July 25 awards gala in Waikīkī.

25/07/2025

Beyond Pesticides asks the U.S. House to voice their opposition on a provision that shields pesticide companies!

Dump Tom Cook
25/07/2025

Dump Tom Cook

Before he was elected to the Maui County Council, Tom Cook was receiving unemployment benefits from the State of Hawaii.  After the election, Cook was hired by a construction company, and began receiving an annual salary of $96,000.  Mr. Cook is not currently, and has not been for a number of  ye...

Here's a petition, perhaps a bit overstating the downsides of this project, but reasonably calling for an EIS Environmen...
23/07/2025

Here's a petition, perhaps a bit overstating the downsides of this project, but reasonably calling for an EIS Environmental Impact Study specific to this project and location. That's just the right thing to do. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfgRg2L0ZSzu2raIDQ_jcxeRTv2wEW-kSF5YAA9s_uglHj0TA/viewform Deadline to submit is Wed July 23 Do it now!!

E&K Aloha ʻĀina, LLC is proposing a landfill diversion project which would convert municipal solid waste and mixed plastic waste into renewable natural gas. Through this waste-to-fuel project, waste would be sorted, processed, and thermo-chemically transformed for beneficial use, instead of being ...

Maui County has now wasted almost $1 million fighting me and my friend Chris Salem in our efforts to expose corruption i...
07/07/2025

Maui County has now wasted almost $1 million fighting me and my friend Chris Salem in our efforts to expose corruption in corporation council, the Department of planning, and the department of public works.

Our Cause is just, we have the proof, and we will win.

The most tragic part is if they had listened to us from the beginning, environmental protections and infrastructure changes would have been enforced prior to the Lahaina fire that would have prevented Lahaina from Burning. These people have blood on their hands. 



The cases include allegations from the mayor's former chief of staff and a gender discrimination lawsuit against the Maui Police Department.

26/04/2025

Armed robberies upcountry

26/04/2025

Thanks to people power, Senator Rhoads and Representative Tarnas have agreed to raise the expenditure limit for candidates to allow those getting public funding to compete with private money campaigning—a huge step forward for public financing reform in Hawaiʻi. On top of that, they’ve agreed t...

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Aloha and greetings from Sam Small, Executive Director of the new MAUI CAUSES. I had the privilege recently of serving as the Media Director for the SHAKA Movement and Vote Yes Maui, working to craft the advertising campaign that helped bring Maui's historic GMO Moratorium electoral victory. Our well-targeted and simple but well-produced print, radio and television ads helped beat the Agro-Chemical giants Monsanto and Dow in spite of their $7 million dollar advertising budget that outspent us almost 100-to-1. A big part of our success was the participation of a coalition of small local not-for-profit groups that focus on a variety of progressive and transformational issues facing Maui's community: land use, water rights, cultural practices, clean air, clean water, agricultural practices, and many more. The participation of all these groups made the difference. They deserve our praise and our support. And that's what MAUI CAUSES is designed to do. With your support, MAUI CAUSES can, in turn, support these groups by creating media that amplifies their individual agendas. With your support, MAUI CAUSES will flourish as a not-for-profit media production team who's mission is to create media for other not-for-profits. Our islands are locked in a hundreds year old stranglehold by plantation powers that never did and still don't serve the greater good. Only the people, standing up for what is right, on issue after issue, just as we stood up against Monsanto and Dow on GMO’s and pesticide abuse, can bring the kind of change that Maui needs and deserves. With your support, MAUI CAUSES can do a lot. As a multi-media production team MAUI CAUSES can cost effectively produce and distribute relevant informational content on these and many of the issues facing Maui today. Social media marketing is a convenient and cost effective way to get the message out, and so is Akaku TV. Many of you saw some of the 14 weekly TV shows I hosted on Akaku TV for SHAKA that addressed issues around the GMO Initiative. We're planning now to revive that weekly show under the MAUI CAUSES banner. Each show will profile another local not-for-profit initiative. I've been a hands-on media producer since 1979, wearing all the hats; writer, producer, director, cameraman and editor. With the addition of modern web marketing, TV and graphics production is the only work I've even done. I ran my boutique media production company, Small Wonder Video Services, in NYC for 20 years before I was asked to build and operate an in-house broadcast and commercial production facility for Prudential Financial. They knew my hands-on style of production would save them millions so they literally fired their advertising agency and made me a Vice President. For eight years I produced, directed and edited over 250 national TV spots in the US, Mexico and Japan. Maui provides, they say, and it sure provided me with worthy adversaries in Monsanto and Dow. We all got to see just how corrupt our local government really is and it brought to light the wide range of public issues that deserve to be addressed. Modern mass media is a tremendously powerful tool for raising awareness for not-for-profit initiatives but it requires specialized skills and equipment that are beyond the scope and capabilities of most small organizations. With your support MAUI CAUSES can do it. MAUI CAUSES is truly in it's infancy and will soon initiate the paperwork for our own Not-For-Profit status. In the short term we expect to find a temporary umbrella under one of Maui's many other not-for-profits but until then contributions, though appreciated, are not tax deductible.