A successful year, with much more to come
Published on 12 December, 2025
By David Christiansen, Executive Officer, Momentum Waikato.
With this, our last newsletter for 2025, the team and trustees at Momentum Waikato wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and hope you’re all looking forward to a wonderful and well-earned summer break.
Looking back, it has been a great year for us at Momentum Waikato, with some notable milestones passed and upcoming.
We launched a set of ‘place based’ endowment funds covering the Coromandel, established our Professional Advisors Network (PAN), and had a successful Wills Month in September with some notable bequest pledges coming in.
As you’ll read below, we’re now also launching the first of our special focus funds, the Momentum Waikato Arts, Culture, and Creativity Fund. This is a timely move, with the awesome new Waikato Regional Theatre we initiated about to open in January, and the latest incredible Hamilton Arts Festival also looming in the new year.
Our funds earned a great return of just over 10% in the year ending June, meaning solid growth and an increase in their distributions, to a wide range of recipients across the region.
All in all, a very satisfying year.
Earlier this week we held our last Board meeting for 2025, where we farewelled long-serving trustee Simon Rickman and Chair Neil Richardson.
Neil has made an incredibly significant contribution to Momentum as a trustee over the past 13 years, including his last five-and-a-half years as Chair.
Simon meanwhile has contributed mightily over the past eight years.
It was fitting on their last day with us to take a sneak preview tour of the new Theatre, so they could reflect on the project’s amazing contribution to the region – a vision conceived right here at Momentum Waikato.
With Neil’s departure, Margaret Wilson will take on the role of Acting Chair, so we remain in great hands!
So once again, we wish everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday period, and may we all experience an awesome 2026.
