Natalie Thielen Helper

Civil Beat It would be too depressing to constantly uncover problems if we didn’t have faith that some of them could be solved. It would be too depressing to constantly uncover problems if we didn’t have faith that some of them could be solved. Journalists typically get into this field for the same reason people become attorneys or social workers or maybe even politicians: We want to be part of changing things for the better.

Natalie Thielen Helper oversees institutional giving at Civil Beat, working with foundations to maximize their impact on Hawaiʻi’s information needs. Natalie began her fundraising career in the arts.

The air was warm, humid, and strangely familiar when I stepped off the plane in Pakistan. I could smell flowers as I made my way through crowds of people. Rose petals scattered the floor, evidence of an earlier celebration welcoming pilgrims back from the hajj, and group of young children gathered them into a pile, tossing them into the air to form a brief, bright pink cloud. It felt almost like the Honolulu airport.