Download 2025-26 Impact Report

Our Impact in 2025/26

Download our 2025-26 Impact Report

This report, which covers the period from October 2024 - March 2026, features stories of grassroots action across our communities, organisations doing amazing mahi to support the people and places of our region and generous locals, who are leaving transformative legacies for the causes they love. To download, please click below.

Download 2025-26 Impact Report

Stories from our communities

As a community foundation, Nīkau is not about one single cause We’re about our region, our people, our challenges and the organisations doing good mahi to support and uplift our communities. Over the period from October 2024 - March 2026, we were proud to distribute over $2,000,000 to organisations working across a range of areas from supporting youth to combating food insecurity to preserving our region’s flora and fauna. You can read about some of the wonderful causes we supported below.

Stories about our impact in the community

Supporting community wellness through intergenerational connection.

Local organisations, Ngahuru Charitable Trust and Kimi Oranga are fostering connection between generations to create better outcomes for taiao (the environment) and for our kaumātua.

Nīkau was delighted to support this important mahi by supporting key programme costs.

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Wrap-around support for our region's most vulnerable.

Homelessness is one of the most visible embodiments of the cost-of-living crisis. Sadly, the number of people affected is on the rise nationally, with organisations reporting far more people accessing their services.

In collaboration with Downtown Community Ministry, the Upper Hutt Housing Trust, Wellington Homeless Women’s Trust | Te Whare Nukunoa and the Paekākāriki Housing Trust, we take a look at the factors contributing to high rates of housing insecurity and the organisations delivering wrap-around support to vulnerable communities locally.

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Future-proofed support for Aotearoa New Zealand’s ageing population.

We’re living longer, staying healthy as we age and continuing to make a meaningful contribution to our communities as we enter our later years. While it’s certainly something to celebrate, it’s putting pressure on already strained services, including our health system, housing, 10 infrastructure and social services.

In collaboration with Te Hopai Trust, Dementia Wellington, Arthritis New Zealand | Mateponapona Aotearoa and Age Concern Wellington, we take a look at the challenges facing our ageing communities, the work charitable organisations are doing to support older generations and prepare for the future, and the role philanthropy can play in strengthening support for the sector.

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Stories of generosity

Across our region, individuals, families, couples, charitable trustees and for-purpose organisations are leaving transformative legacies for the causes they care about. You can read about some of these extraordinary acts of generosity, the factors influencing how Kiwis give and how local charities are securing powerful, practical succession plans via some of the stories below.

Stories about giving and generosity

The extraordinary legacy of a modest man

The Elma Coxon Fund – Nīkau Foundation’s first fund – was established in 2007 as a lasting tribute to a deeply loved sister. Today, it continues to make a meaningful impact for our local communities, reflecting the values and quiet generosity of the man behind it, Adam Coxon.

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Reimagining charitable structures for continued impact

In the face of economic headwinds, legislative change and social shifts, many long-standing charitable organisations are taking steps to pivot – and establishing endowment funds to support their new direction. For Ducks Unlimited New Zealand (DUNZ), transferring assets to a Nīkau fund provides a powerful, practical succession plan. For The House of Grace Trust, its fund offers a crucial tool to support the evolution of its service model.

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The changing face of philanthropy

Although Andrew Carnegie, Michael Bloomberg and Warren Buffet might be a few of the big names that spring to mind when you think about philanthropy, as Community Foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand Chief Executive Eleanor Cater says, “The most powerful force reshaping philanthropy right now isn’t a tech billionaire or government policy. It’s women.”

This article explores the rise of women’s giving, how their giving differs from their male counterparts and the compelling opportunity women’s giving poses for Aotearoa New Zealand’s for-purpose sector.

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Updates from Nīkau

Updates from Nikau

2025-26 Impact Report - From the Chair and Chief Executive

The past year or so has been monumental for Nīkau Foundation. In October, we were delighted to formally mark the milestone of distributing over $10 million (now $11 million) in transformative funding to our communities. Achieving this milestone is a testament to the strong local collective we have built – our office team, supporters, volunteers, donors and partners as well as Nīkau’s founding trustees – passionate Wellingtonians who got around a boardroom table in 1991 to discuss creating a Foundation that would support our region, forever. Some 35 years later, we are so proud to be the kaitiaki of over 100 endowment funds that have been established and committed to deliver intergenerational impact.

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2025/2026 generosity wrap-up

Since Nīkau was founded in 1991, giving has evolved quite significantly across Aotearoa New Zealand. in our 2025/26 Generosity Wrap Up, we explore how organisations are pivoting to ensure continuity of their services, how women quickly becoming a powerful force to shape the future of giving, how charitable trustees are securing powerful, practical succession plans and how locals are delivering long-term support to the causes they love.

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2025/26 Funding Wrap Up

The past few years have presented many challenges for Aotearoa New Zealand’s for-purpose sector. With a tough economy, high need and funding sources generally diminishing, providing a growing, reliable source of support is of great importance. While our change in financial year also meant moving our contestable grants round from February to mid-year, we were pleased to maintain our community support through targeted grant-making. Over these 6 months, we gave out over $600,000, bringing our total grants distributed from October 2024 to March 2026 to over $2,000,000.

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