An intergenerational fund
Lucy and Angus Milne were just kids when their community-minded grandmother Barbara established a fund supporting local causes. Now, 16 years on, the Milne siblings are themselves involved with the Barbara Milne Fund, continuing her legacy of supporting local arts, environmental and conservation causes.
Barbara Milne did not sit around waiting for things to happen. She made things happen.
If an organisation close to her heart needed support, she’d be there volunteering. If a cause she believed in needed fighting for, she was on the front line.
The importance of active community involvement was instilled in her children when they were young.
“My mother had me out collecting signatures for Save Manapouri – a campaign to prevent raising the lake levels – when I was only 10,” says son and Nikau Foundation Chair Chris Milne.
Barbara’s influence stretched down to the next generation too. “She always encouraged us to be our best selves and pushed us to do better,” says Lucy Milne.
Funding into the future
Throughout her life, the keen pianist and conservationist was involved with organisations supporting musical, environmental and conservation causes including the Hutt Valley Riding for the Disabled, which she helped set up, Forest and Bird and funding for two Steinway pianos for public use in Upper and Lower Hutt.
Barbara, whose own parents were equally active in their community, showed her support for organisations both practically through her voluntary work and financially. In 2003, she set up the Barbara Milne Fund to make sure that financial support would continue into the future.
Four years after Barbara passed away, Chris transferred his mother’s fund to Nikau Foundation – he saw it as a good fit for the Milne family.
“It was a deliberate act on my mother’s part to create something enduring,” says Chris.
“For me, the idea of forever funding was what really attracted me to Nikau. Every dollar that gets given to the Foundation stays there forever, and only the income gets given out.”
“One of the things I’ve been doing is adding to the fund every year, and I’ve said to Lucy, Angus and George, that when the time is right, they can do the same. I think that is something good to aspire to – I see it as an intergenerational family fund.”
While Chris and his children are involved in identifying where income from the fund is best spent, the Nikau Foundation model means the fund will continue forever, even if the future generations are not so hands-on in the decision-making process.
“The good thing is, because the fund is with Nikau, we know it doesn’t depend on us. So, it will always be there, still working and doing its good things,” says Chris.
A funding legacy
Today, the Barbara Milne Fund supports a range of arts organisations such as the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Hutt Valley-based Arohanui Strings providing free music lessons for children. Donations are also made to environmental and conservation-focused organisations such as Ngā Manu Nature Reserve.
“It was a deliberate act on my mother’s part to create something enduring.”
Lucy says it’s inspiring to see the impact that grants from her grandmother’s fund can have on organisations.
“Our family really loves Ngā Manu Nature Reserve. In Nikau’s most recent grants round, Barbara’s fund gave $1,000 to pay for a projector, which helps them deliver public talks, workshops and conferences.”
Memories of an active grandmother
Angus says being involved with his grandmother’s fund is a wonderful way to remember her.
“It’s really great that the fund will keep supporting the things that Granny saw to be important in the community – that it will keep going, keep contributing.”
And Lucy says Barbara would be thrilled with the income that her fund is generating and is being passed on to the local community in which she was so actively involved.
If you are passionate about conservation and the arts, you can make a gift to the Barbara Milne Fund.