2025/2026 generosity wrap-up
Kate and Jim Clark set up the Kajim Cares Fund in 2025 to provide capability building and training opportunities to vulnerable communities.
Let’s go back to 1991. Across the world, the Cold War was ending, the IRA was still highly active, the first Gulf War had begun and the World Wide Web had just been publicly announced. Here in Aotearoa New Zealand, food banks and soup kitchens had reopened for the first time since the Great Depression and recession was looming. The economy hit its lowest point in December with -1.3% annual growth. Heavy rainfall caused major flooding in Wairarapa, a major avalanche lowered Aoraki Mount Cook’s peak by 10 metres and the community was battling a measles epidemic, with 10,000 reported cases.
Doing philanthropy differently
It is against this backdrop that founding Nīkau board member Jenny Gill ONZM travelled to Australia to find out more about how philanthropy was working on a bigger scale. Upon discovering the community foundations model, she came back to New Zealand, connecting with then Guardian Trust Branch Manager Neil Thorsen to discuss the viability of launching a foundation locally. They rallied the troops, forming a board of passionate locals chaired by Sir Michael Fowler. Nīkau was established to challenge philanthropic norms, inspire Kiwis to create lasting legacies and build an asset that would deliver intergenerational impact.
A generation down the track, we can look back at this moment not only as our founding story but as the seed that started a national movement. There are now 18 community foundations across Aotearoa New Zealand. As a network, we manage over $366 million and we have 785 committed bequests and over $1.3 billion in the pipeline. Giving that grows Although we spent our early years facilitating grant-making for generous Wellingtonians, we established our first-ever endowment fund in 2007 – the Elma Coxon Fund. Since Adam Coxon’s leap of faith, we are delighted to have worked alongside a strong collective of donors, charitable trustees and for-purpose organisations to create powerful legacies for our communities. In 2025, we reached the milestone of over 100 funds established and committed to supporting our region’s people and places, forever.
Over the last 18 months, 14 new funds have been committed and established to support a range Cares Fund, dedicated to supporting capability-building initiatives in vulnerable communities, and the Simpson Engebretson Fund, which will support the arts, health and wellbeing and conservation. It is our privilege to be the kaitiaki of these funds, ensuring the generosity of today delivers impact as new generations grow old.
Long-term financial resilience
Facing a tough economy, evolving challenges and a complex set of needs, many organisations are having to pivot, change their service delivery models and consider the viability of their current operations. For some organisations such as The House of Grace Trust and Dementia Wellington, establishing a fund with Nīkau is an effective way of supporting their long-term vision, service expansion and evolving service models.
Evolving charitable structures
As the deadline for incorporated society re-registration approached in early 2026, thousands of incorporated society members were left with some big decisions. Continue to operate, review their constitution and re-register or shut up shop? For many members, with dedicated decades of volunteer service, energy and passion to the cause, this administrative hurdle was the prompt they needed to reflect and consider what the next chapter held. For Ducks Unlimited New Zealand, transferring its remaining assets to establish Nīkau’s Ducks Unlimited Wetland Care Fund was a way to continue a 50-year-long legacy without the administrative burden.
Charitable trustees continue to face similar challenges. With the economy draining operating budgets, legislative compliance becoming more demanding and trustee recruitment proving more challenging, many are looking for a streamlined, future-proofed alternative. In late 2024, we were proud to establish the Douglas Walker Memorial Education Fund. Held by the Rotary Club of Ōtaki for over 25 years, the Douglas Walker Memorial Education Trust needed a safe pair of hands for the future. Through the fund, the baton has been passed and Douglas Walker’s legacy will continue.
A changing face of philanthropy
Although Aotearoa New Zealand is home to some very generous philanthropists, our social and economic history hasn’t generally been conducive to a well-developed philanthropic culture. However, major economic and social factors are creating conditions for exponential future growth.
The intergenerational wealth transfer – where an estimated $1.6 trillion will be passed down from one generation of Kiwis to the next – provides a compelling opportunity to grow the funding pool, and other inheritance trends have the capacity to change the face of philanthropy altogether. Specifically, women’s giving is poised to rise (you can read more about this later in our report).
The growth of community foundations makes philanthropy more accessible, mobilises more Kiwis to give and enables structures that support ongoing impact. Philanthropy is no longer just for the ultra-wealthy. It is for people like Samira, who built a nest egg and wanted to leave the world a better place, Thomas, who inherited a small sum and was driven to make a difference, and Mei and John, who had no children and wanted their well-earned money to do something meaningful.
A growing role
As traditionally reliable sources of funding continue to diminish, philanthropy must play a bigger role. While investing in structures that actively grow and protect generosity is important, we must also find ways to remove barriers, incentivise giving and nurture a strong philanthropic culture on a national level. In early 2026, we were proud to present to parliamentarians. Speaking about the challenges we are observing, the work community foundations are already doing and the opportunities that are upon us, we hope this will be the first of many conversations to support a strong philanthropic infrastructure. Additionally, we are actively contributing to sector-wide discussions exploring collaboration opportunities with government with the goal to grow giving.
Some 35 years ago, a group of passionate Wellingtonians got together to discuss an idea for the future. In doing so, they set the pathway for a billion-dollar philanthropic movement. Although our communities still face a complex set of challenges, like our namesake the Nīkau palm, we will continue to grow, adapt and nourish our surrounding ecosystem, forever.
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.