2024 funding wrap-up
2024 was an interesting year for the for-purpose sector. With the ongoing effects of COVID-19, economic downturns and redirected government funding creating a perfect storm for under-resourced communities, the sector faced many challenges.
Image credit: Project Jonah.
We received the highest number of grant applications in our history – 454 requesting over $4.3 million in funding. This represented a 10% increase on total applications received from last year. Although we were proud to be able to deliver almost $1.2 million in support, it highlights the escalating demand for funding and the glaring discrepancy between supply and demand.
Accessible, streamlined funding experiences
We are continuing to place a focus on removing common funding barriers, streamlining our grantmaking processes and creating accessible, inclusive application experiences. Through this approach, we are ensuring that a wide range of organisations can secure the funding they need to grow – spending less time filling out forms and more time supporting our communities. We have received some amazing feedback on these initiatives so far, with organisations rating our funding experience as 9.41 out of 10 and our funding communications as 9.46 out of 10.
“Nikau Foundation makes applying, receiving funds and reporting simple. Their flexibility allows us to allocate funds where they’re most needed, empowering us to address urgent needs. It feels like they are true partners in our mission, and they give us a valuable platform to share our story.” - Project Jonah
Leaning in for effective community support
With so many organisations struggling and their books reflecting just that, we continued to operate with high trust, flexibility and context at the forefront of our decisionmaking. While due diligence and the review of an organisation’s financials remains an important touchpoint in our funding decisions, we know that it must be complemented by conversations with our communities, consultation with our local committees, connection with our donors and consideration of wider impact frameworks. By taking this approach, we are able to gain a more three-dimensional understanding of an organisation’s story and continue to provide support when times are at their toughest.
Nikau is committed to building meaningful relationships with our communities. For us, this looks like increasing our knowledge of their pain points, the issues they are seeing on the ground and how funders, like us, can most effectively support their visions. Acknowledging that every organisation has a different story, vision, structure and, ultimately, different funding needs, we were pleased to fund a wide range of expenses from rent to volunteer koha (donations), video production and events. By far our largest areas of support were operational expenses and salaries. This year, we delivered over $668,000 to assist with these costs – 58% of our total funding for the year and a 3.3% increase on last year.
“Without people, services aren’t able to be delivered. Nikau is prepared to invest in people! That’s what makes a difference.” - Moore’s Meadow Trust
Through this funding, we are helping organisations to deliver current projects while supporting their organisational scalability, resilience and key infrastructure so they can continue to grow and give back long term. Overall, Nikau was delighted to deliver 196 grants to support the people and places of our region.
Image credit: Wellington Volunteer Centre.
Meaningful grant-making
Each year, the Community Foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand network come together for a conference to share, learn and collaborate. This year, it was titled Shifting the Power. As a concept, shifting the power refers to sharing decision-making to instigate sustainable change. In the for-purpose context, it refers more specifically to bringing people together, sharing knowledge and amplifying voices from across the community to maximise impact. As a connector between local generosity and local need, Nikau continues to place a focus on creating opportunities, forums and mechanisms to foster collaboration, share knowledge and encourage generosity that is directly informed by community need. Through this focus, we were proud to channel a record amount of funding into priority areas, including health and wellbeing, food insecurity and environmental conservation, while honouring the giving goals of our donors. While we continue to focus on supporting community needs on a hyper-local level, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals provide an additional tool to align with a broader global movement below.
A full breakdown of our funding in 2024 and our work towards the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals is included on our 2024 funding page here.
Building a stronger, more equitable for-purpose sector
As a community foundation, Nikau plays a role in funding individual organisations as well as strengthening the for-purpose sector as a whole. This year, we funded a series of capability-building projects that will have a ripple effect for our communities. We are delighted to share some of these projects in this report, including those from the Tangata Whenua Community and Voluntary Research Centre and Volunteer Wellington Te Puna Tautoko. We continue to develop meaningful relationships with iwi, hapū and tangata whenua to ensure we are supporting Māori aspirations in an impactful and authentic way. This year, we were delighted to support many kaupapa Māori organisations. These included Te Rūnanganui o Te Āti Awa ki te Upoko o Te Ika a Māui, the Wainuiomata Marae Trust, Ōrongomai Marae and Kōkiri Marae Keriana Olsen Trust.
2024 has also seen us reach some significant funding milestones. These included over $1,000,000 distributed from the Porirua District Fund to date and granting from several new funds for the first time. The team is extremely proud to have delivered such transformative support to our communities this year.
To find out more about Nikau’s funding in 2024, please click here.
Download our 2024 Impact Report
Featuring almost 50 voices from accross the for-purpose sector - from volunteers to donors, funders to people on the front lines, founders to for-purpose organisations - Nikau’s 2024 Impact Report shares stories of impact and generosity from accross Te Upoko-o-te-Ika-a-Māui, the Greater Wellington region, funding and philanthropy trends and key mahi to grow generosity to support the people and places of our region.
