The Na‘i Aupuni board announced Wednesday that it will forgo bankrolling the ratification vote for the newly adopted Native Hawaiian constitution and instead let the convention participants take on that responsibility.

What’s more, a group of convention participants launched a crowdfunding website Wednesday that aims to raise $2 million for the ratification process.

The group said it collected nearly $70,000 at alohalahui.com on Wednesday alone.

“I’m excited,” said convention participant Kuhio Lewis, president of the King Kamehameha Hawaiian Civic Club. “I’m very optimistic we can pull this off.”

The move by Na‘i Aupuni, the nonprofit funded through trust fund grants from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, will allow the ratification vote to proceed without the appearance of state involvement, thus avoiding a potential legal challenge to a racially exclusive public election.

Na‘i Aupuni said it would return its remaining grant funds, estimated at a little over $100,000, to OHA.

In a statement, Na‘i Aupuni President Kuhio Asam said the members of the February convention, or aha, are best suited to share the proposed constitution with the community and ultimately arrange for the ratification process.

“The participants have evidenced a remarkable willingness and ability to identify leadership, build critical teams and respectfully support the voices of many divergent opinions. It is for these reasons that we are deferring to the aha participants to further advance their work,” Asam said.

Asam said that although Naʻi Aupuni was originally charged with conducting a delegate election, aha and ratification vote, the overarching goals were to provide an opportunity for Native Hawaiians to exercise their right to self-determination, to discuss self-governance options and, if they so decided, to create a constitution.

Na‘i Aupuni, meanwhile, continues to fight a lawsuit now before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The suit, supported by the watchdog group Grassroot Institute of Hawaii and the conservative Washington foundation Judicial Watch, accuses the state of putting on a racially exclusive public election, among other things.

On Wednesday, the Grassroot Institute criticized the nonprofit for its latest move.

“Despite their continued assertions that their actions are lawful and democratic and that they are soliciting the full spectrum of opinions from the Native Hawaiian people, every decision Na‘i Aupuni makes flies in the face of such claims,” Grassroot President Keli‘i Akina said in a statement. “At this point, it is obvious that the state recognizes that it lacks the support of the Hawaiian people as well the citizens of the state as a whole. Otherwise, why would they continue to hide from a public vote?”

Akina added: “After the millions that have been spent on the state’s nation-building process, from the marketing and lobbying efforts to the aha, what do the Hawaiian people have to show for it? An unconstitutional race-based election effort and a ‘constitution’ that the state seems to want to wash its hands of. This represents a significant waste of funds that could have been better used on the projects that Hawaiians truly care about — like health care, job training, housing, and education.”

Bill Meheula, legal counsel for Naʻi Aupuni, said the board plans to publish an accounting of how its funds were spent.

As for the lawsuit, Meheula said, “Now that we canceled the election and will not be conducting any ratification vote, Na‘i Aupuni contends that the appeal is moot and we are hopeful that the case will be eventually dismissed.”

However, Akina said his attorneys have argued that just because a defendant disavows the intention to do something doesn’t make a case moot, because the defendant could just start doing it again after the case is terminated.

“Thus, this case is not moot even regarding Na‘i Aupuni,” he said.

The constitution, approved Feb. 26 by an 88-30 vote at the Royal Hawaiian Golf Course in Maunawili, calls for a government led by executive, legislative and judicial branches and representing only descendents of the indigenous people who lived in the islands prior to 1778, or Western contact.

Participant Na‘alehu Anthony said Na‘i Aupuni officials indicated at the aha that they might not be able to underwrite the ratification effort, so a group of participants has been meeting to discuss how to continue the momentum started at the convention.

Anthony, the CEO of the ‘Oiwi Television Network, said the group plans to fund a campaign to educate Native Hawaiians about the new constitution, add new Hawaiian registered voters, stage a ratification vote and, if approved, fund an election of the nation’s officers, including a president, vice president and 43 members of a unicameral legislature.

Anthony said the group figures they need $2 million in donations, at least a quarter of which would come from small individual donors. The funds will be held in coordination with the Tides, a California foundation dedicated to social change.

The alohalahui.com website includes supportive quotes from former U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka and former Gov. John Waihee, who is also described as being part of the committee spearheading the effort.

The website also explains why OHA will not be asked to help fund the effort:

“The use of ceded land revenues for self-governance is under attack in a lawsuit funded by conservative outsiders who don’t believe that Hawaiians have the right of self-determination without the direct participation and voting by non-Hawaiians. While we should be able to use these funds generated from the lands being held in trust for the benefit of Native Hawaiians and it would be pono (righteous) to use them for programs, advocacy and even these self-determination efforts, there is too much at stake right now to risk further barriers to this historic process that will come up with the use of OHA funding.”