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Time for nonprofits
to get down to business

The fledgling Hawaii Alliance of Nonprofit organizations, or HANO, is inviting local nonprofits to come to its kickoff conference at the end of this month to discuss strength in numbers and collective efforts.

HANO was founded in November with 35 nonprofit organizations and its membership has swelled to more than 110. The Hawaii Community Services Council birthed HANO to mobilize Hawaii nonprofits on public policy matters, manage and lead more effectively and to save money through group buying, among other goals.

The 8 a.m.-to-3:30 p.m. conference at the Sheraton Waikiki will feature local and national speakers, including Michael Weekes, president of the National Council of Nonprofit Associations and of the Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers.

Registration information is available online or by calling 529-0454.

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Cheeseburgers galore

Laren Gartner was a 43-year-old woman visiting Lahaina 15 years ago, realizing she was ono for a cheeseburger.

"I was invisible in the the marketplace," but she was thinking, "Yeah, I'd like to go to a joint and have a cheeseburger."

Now Cheeseburger Restaurants Inc. founders Gartner and partner Edna Bayliff, who previously made a living selling framed art at swap meets in Orange County, Calif., are the 2005 Women's Foodservice Forum's Entrepreneurs of the Year.

They received their award in front of a crowd of 700 at the 2005 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show in Chicago last month.

They founded the company in Lahaina 10 years ago and have three restaurants in Hawaii, one in Las Vegas, four more on the way in Poipu, Key West and South Beach, Fla., and Las Vegas -- yes, a second location -- and they're still scouting locations in New York City's Times Square.

One spot would have leased for $200,000 a month. She "went crazy" and turned it down, though she's familiar with high Hawaii lease rents.

"You can't scare me; I'm in Lahaina," she laughed. "It doesn't get any better or more expensive than Lahaina."

The company is on track to generate more than $27 million in 2005, some of which will go toward sending away the company's top-producing staffers.

The Lahaina restaurant's top server, who generated $648,000 in sales last year, is on a cruise to Disney World with her family.

"Each store's top server got a trip somewhere in the world," Gartner said. "These are the best ambassadors for aloha spirit and the Cheeseburger culture that I could ever have."