The Kohala Center has developed great expertise in, and derives great comfort from, building partnerships, working with island and scientific communities, and supporting the development of effective teaching and research programs. The Center currently works with the County of Hawaiʻi, the Edith Kanakaʻole Foundation, Hawaiʻi Community College, the Kamehameha Schools, the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo and Mānoa, Brown University, Cornell University, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Redlands Institute, the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University, U.H. Sea Grant College Program, the U.S. Office of Naval Research, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Washington at Seattle and Friday Harbor, among many others.

The Kohala Center fulfills all the typical functions of a research institute, including (a) accessing viable research sites, (b) providing logistics support, (c) locating suitable accommodations, (d) accessing appropriate laboratory space, (e) offering grant writing and grant management services, (f) managing foundation and government relations, (g) developing major donor relations, and (h) providing fiscal services. The Kohala Center is noted for its critical and key competence in community and public relations, without which research programs often run aground and without which educational programs garner little support from the communities they are intended to serve.

In its work with its partners, The Kohala Center prides itself in “taking care of anything and everything that can get in the way of good research and good teaching.”