How we work as a funder
Nikau Foundation is Te Upoko-o-te-Ika-a-Māui, the Greater Wellington region’s community foundation. We are one of 18 community foundations across Aotearoa New Zealand, who are working to grow local generosity to support our local community long-term. You can read more about the network here.
We have an endowment fund model, which means we invest, grow and protect all donations we receive. This allows us to grow the funding pool, so that not-for-profit organisations can receive more reliable support and can get on with their important mahi.
As we are a community foundation, we are not dedicated to supporting one single cause. Instead, we are here to support the changing needs of our communities while working alongside our donors to honour their giving goals.
When a donor works alongside Nikau, they can design their endowment fund so it gives back to causes and/organisations they love. For example, The Blake Fund was established by Barbara Blake, to give back to youth while the Porirua District Fund is ringfenced to fund organisations supporting the people and places of Porirua.
With our living donors, we keep them informed on the challenges in our communities so that grants from their fund create the most meaningful impact.
We also have more general funds, such as our Nikau Community Fund, which are intended to provide support where the need is highest in our communities.
Every year when we receive grant applications, we work to match organisations with our funds – for example, we will match applications from youth organisations to The Blake Fund. Think of it as a bit of a jigsaw, like the below:
While some funds have a very broad scope (e.g. ‘to fund health initiatives’) others have quite a narrow focus, or name specific organisations. One example is the Zac Pearson Endowment Fund, which names two specific Scouts organisations. This can be a little confusing as while we generally don’t fund Scouts, we have two specific groups named we are able to support when granting from the Zac Pearson Endowment Fund.
It’s the same with the arts. While we have some funds that are focused on the arts, there are fewer with this focus than other areas.
As new donors join the Nikau whānau and new funds are set up, our ability to fund certain areas can change or grow. This means that our funding focus can change over time as we respond to the challenges our communities are facing and work with new donors.
The best gauge of where we are currently at and your likelihood of receiving funding is to check out what we funded last year via the page below.