Grants for Community Projects to support and promote Volunteering in New Zealand

Deadline: 6 May 2020

Priority Areas

• This Fund recognises that volunteering can have a special meaning for Māori, Pacific and ethnic communities. It caters for the different approaches to volunteering and needs of different sectors.
• For Māori, voluntary work is called māhī aroha. It means unpaid activity that is done out of duty and caring for others. Māhī aroha follows the principles of tikanga (Māori customs and values), to preserve māna (spiritual force) and rangatiratanga (authority) rather than for financial or personal reward.
• For Pacific people, volunteering includes serving one another, as well as cultural responsibility, spirituality and duty. These concepts are reflected in the customs and values of Pacific organisations.
• Ethnic communities often view volunteering as fulfilment of family or social duties and responsibilities. It applies especially to activities involving helping, sharing and giving within families, extended families, communities and then the wider community.
• This fund also recognises the roles of Volunteering New Zealand and regional volunteer okcentres in promoting good practice and new ideas for managing volunteers. They are also responsible for developing skills and abilities within the voluntary sector, both nationally and within regions.

Expected Outcomes

The outcomes for this Fund are to:

• recognise and value volunteers and volunteering
• have in place systems and processes to protect volunteers
• support national standards and best practice in volunteer management
• have options available to support and enable māhī aroha and youth volunteering.

Funding Information

There is just over $1 million available in grants for:

• Māori, Pacific and ethnic, youth or community organisations for original one-off projects that will promote and support volunteering / māhī aroha (total funds available: $80,000)
• regional volunteer centres for promoting good practice in managing volunteers; recruiting and training volunteers; and providing training and networking for organisations that use volunteers / māhī aroha (funds available: $747,000)
• Volunteering New Zealand for working with community and voluntary sector organisations and regional volunteer centres to promote and support volunteering in New Zealand (funds available: $175,000).

The Support for Volunteering Fund does not make grants to:

• individual people
• projects or activities that will not directly promote and support volunteering
• projects or activities that have ended or started before a grant is made
• repay or service debts
• raise funds, including professional or commercial fundraisers that distribute money to others
• political activities
• projects that involve buying land, buildings, furniture or fittings
• projects where someone could personally benefit, but the conflict of interest has not been stated or dealt with properly
• duplicate or for business-as-usual volunteer services, programmes or activities that will continue into the future (apart from the services provided by Volunteering NZ or regional volunteer centres)
• projects intended to generate a profit – any planned profit or surplus must be shown in the budget and contribute to the project’s volunteering outcomes.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible organisations may be able to apply for multi-year funding
• The following organisations are eligible to apply for a three year funding grant at a fixed dollar amount per year:
  • Volunteering New Zealand; or
  • a regional volunteer centre

For more information, visit https://www.communitymatters.govt.nz/support-for-volunteering/