How to fund your charity

The Department of Internal Affairs

The Department of Internal Affairs works to build strong and sustainable communities in New Zealand. There are several groups within the Department of Internal Affairs that provide direct funding to community groups.

Community Operations provides funding support through the administration of a range of lottery and Crown grant funding for the benefit of New Zealand communities. They also provide information, resources and advice to communities. Check out their funding calendar for more information.

The Gambling Group also provides funding for community groups. Charities can apply for funding from gaming machine societies. These societies are the organisations that own and operate gaming machines and make grants to not-for-profit community organisations. You can find more information on the different gaming machine societies on their webpage.

The Office of Ethnic Communities also offers funding. The Ethnic Communities Development Fund is available for groups or projects that work towards supporting ethnic community groups in New Zealand. You can find more information on the Ethnic Communities Development Fund and how to apply here.

The Office of Ethnic Communities also administer the Ethnic Communities Digital Inclusion Fund. The fund is available for groups working to ensure ethnic communities can use digital technology. You can find out more about the Ethnic Communities Digital Inclusion Fund here.

Other government agencies

• The Department of Conservation has a number of funds available for the protection of the natural environment. For more information, visit the Department of Conservation website.

• The Ministry of Culture and Heritage has funds to support charities that advance culture and heritage. For more information, visit the Ministry of Culture and Heritage website.

• The Ministry of Youth Development offers a range of funding options for initiatives that are committed to youth development and the wellbeing of young people. For more information, visit the Ministry of Youth Development website.

• Te Puni Kōkiri offers a range of funding options for organisations with a kaupapa Māori focus. For more information, visit the Te Puni Kōkiri website.

• The Ministry for Pacific Peoples offers funding options to support Pacific individuals, groups and families. Visit the Ministry for Pacific Peoples website for more information.

• Oranga Tamariki has many different funding options available for initiatives that support young people. For more information, visit the Oranga Tamariki website.

• The Ministry for the Environment manages a range of environmental funds on behalf of their Ministers. For more information, visit the Ministry for the Environment website.

• Creative New Zealand offers funding for arts projects in Aotearoa. Find more about the funds Creative New Zealand offers on their website.

Funding for Māori organisations

There are a number of organisations in Aotearoa that offer funding to support Māori organisations. You can find a list of these funds on our Te Ao Māori webpages: Te tono pūtea – Funding.

Local councils

Charities may qualify for funding from their council. Each local council has different criteria and different funds depending on the community. Check out the website of your local council to see if your charity is eligible for funding.

Community Trusts of New Zealand

There is an expansive network of community trusts in each region of New Zealand. Community Trusts of New Zealand provide funding support that charities may be eligible for. Have a look at the website of your local community trust to see what funding options are available.

• Auckland and Northland

• Waikato

• Taranaki

• Bay of Plenty

• Eastern and Central Community Trust

• Wellington Community Trust

• Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury and Chatham Islands

• Buller, Grey, and Westland: West Coast Community Trust

• Mid & South Canterbury

• Otago

• Southland

Donor advised funds

Donor advised funds are charitable giving organisations that means you can give to a fund while still being able to guide where the money goes to. These are a great option if you are thinking about winding up your charity, but still want to continue to contribute to specific projects in your community.

• The Community Foundations of New Zealand focus on this work by providing a tool for community funding. As well as donor advised funds they can support local charities based on where the greatest needs are, often identified by research.

• The Gift Trust is another donor advised fund that provides a tool for charitable giving.

If you are a registered charity that is a donor advised fund, let us know and we would be happy to add you to this list.

Scholarships

For scholarships and other educational opportunities – most tertiary institutions have a website where all scholarship opportunities are listed.

The Govt.nz website has information on scholarships.

Other charities

Did you know there are almost 2000 charities that fund other charities as their main activity?

You can use the Advanced Search function on our website to find these charities.

• Search within the “Charity Search” option

• Categorise the rules as “Main Beneficiary” is “Other Charities”

• You can also see where those charities operate by looking up the “Areas of Operation” column

• You can then search for more information about each charity on the Charity Register Search, by searching for their legal name
  

Other government agencies also have portals to different funding for community groups:

• Arts, culture and heritage

• Community conservation groups

• Environmental groups

Some charities that provide funds are:

• The Lion Foundation

• Rotary Foundation

• The Tindall Foundation

• Next Foundation

• Len Reynolds Trust

• Wayne Francis Charitable Trust

• D V Bryant Trust Board

• Public Trust

• Perpetual Guardian

• Todd Foundation

• JR McKenzie Trust

• Hugh Green Foundation

• Working Together More Fund

• Sport New Zealand

Other sources of funding

This page outlines just a small selection of the funding available for charities in New Zealand.

For more funding information, you can subscribe to Generosity New Zealand who have the largest digital search facility for funding information in Aotearoa (you can also access this at your local library).

There are also other crowd sourced funding platforms that can help you fundraise:

• Give a Little

• Pledge Me