Nikau Foundation works alongside Wellington North Rotary to build life skills for youth.
The power of collaboration in effective, meaningful grant-making.
When the first Rotary members congregated in Chicago in 1905, it was with the goal of connecting to share ideas, have meaningful conversations with like-minded people and form what-would-become lifelong friendships. Their motto, ‘service above self’ came later as the organisation’s purpose extended into humanitarian service. “Whatever Rotary may mean to us, to the world it will be known by the results it achieves,” said Founder, Paul Harris.
And what achievements it has made. Rotary now boasts over 1.4 million members across 46,000 clubs worldwide. Collectively, its members clock around 47 million volunteer hours a year and in 2020-2021, over $333 million was awarded to service initiatives across the globe. Locally, Rotary has had a presence for over 100 years, with Wellington North Rotary Club being chartered in 1965.
Delivering transformational change to our communities
The Club has had a long history of giving back both locally and further afield. Youth development became a philanthropic focus of the Club when the Wellington North Rotary Scholarship Trust was established in 1990 to mark its 25th anniversary. The Trust, which supports educational opportunities and builds life skills for young people, was significantly bolstered by a bequest from former member, Ian Crabtree in the early 2000s. Since then, the Trust has provided financial support to many young people pursuing tertiary education and vocational training opportunities with priority given to those in a circumstance of financial disadvantage.
Wellington North Rotarians volunteering at Khandallah Village Fair (L) and Rotarians packing up rice for Kiwi Community Assistance (R).
Working in collaboration to amplify impact
When Wellington North Rotary first connected with Nikau Foundation in 2022, the conversation pivoted around impact. How can we best support young people in our community? How can we make our grants more impactful? Where is the best place for our money to go?
“Although it is quite straightforward to find students to support with scholarships, working out how we could best support life skills was more challenging,” says Trustee Roy Ferguson. “We also wanted to move with the times,” says Roy, “we wanted to grant in a way that was more responsive to community needs.”
In true Rotary fashion, it was decided that collaboration was key to yielding a better result for the community. “We decided to work with Nikau to add another dimension to our grant-making,” says Deputy Club President, David Young. “Grant-making is Nikau’s bread and butter - they have good ideas, connections and good experience from which we can benefit.”
Collaborative grant-making
The first step was working with the Club to determine their giving goals. “Every organisation has slightly different giving aspirations so our first priority was making sure we had a thorough understanding of how, who and what Wellington North Rotary wanted to achieve through their grant-making,” says Nikau Foundation Executive Director, Emma Lewis.
Through this process, it was determined that, in order to maximise the Club’s impact, it would undertake a strategic shift to begin funding organisations alongside individuals.
“With Nikau’s guidance, we understood that to most effectively support life-skills and to create a ripple effect, it was best and more practical to fund organisations working with many young people, instead of funding solely on an individual basis,” says Roy.
With the criteria down (organisations providing practical life skills to youth), the Nikau team got to work, meticulously working through over 370 funding applications received during their 2023 Grants Round, performing key due diligence and consulting with Nikau local committee members across the region to find the perfect fit.
From all applications, three were selected for the Club’s consideration and presented in a bespoke presentation and proposal. These included Te Kāhu Tiu Trust; an organisation working with young offenders to address trauma and build capability, the Graeme Dingle Foundation, who are working with youth to increase employability and Tamaiti Whāngai Te Toi Ararau; a 20-week pathway to education and employment programme for rangatahi aged between 15 and 24 years of age. In total, $10,000 was given to the three organisations.
“Working with Nikau Foundation made our grant-making much more streamlined, professional and effective,” says Roy. “Everything was taken care of, and we were able to reach organisations we may not have otherwise known about.”
Additionally, through Nikau’s grant feedback framework and strong relationships within the community, Wellington North Rotary will be able to see the impact of their funding first-hand and feel assured that their grants had gone to the best possible place.
Like Rotary’s beginnings over 100 years ago, this chapter of Wellington North Rotary’s giving was characterised by coming together, meaningful conversation and sharing ideas for the betterment of our communities. To the world, Wellington North Rotary will be known by the results it achieves.
