Momentum Waikato Update - August 2025
Published on 12 August, 2025
Nau Mai, Haere Mai!
Welcome to a bumper issue of the Momentum Waikato Update, there's something for everyone below!
Cambridge Community Fund is a happening thing!
Photo: Michael Jeans.
It is nearly a year since the Cambridge Community Fund was launched, and it is now fully established and being actively promoted locally by its Fund Champions Kevin Burgess and David Cooney.
“The Cambridge Community Fund has certainly received a very warm and encouraging welcome from the Cambridge community,” says David.
“There is a very high level of interest and support in Cambridge, with many potential donors requesting information.”
The Cambridge Community Fund was launched at a well-attended event at Te Awa Retirement Village last October. That day Kevin said the Fund would be a cost-effective way for local people to leave a legacy forever to their town.
Succession planning with a twist - for incorporated societies
By David Christiansen, Executive Officer, Momentum Waikato.
At Momentum Waikato we grow endowment funds that provide perpetual support for local charities and communities, to realise our goal of ‘A better Waikato, for everyone, forever’.
‘Forever’ is quite a long time, and the ultimate long-term view when it comes to succession planning.
It is not just businesses, farms or families that need to plan beyond their current people’s lifetimes – incorporated societies and charitable trusts, sometimes decades old, often struggle to see how their mission can be continued into the future.
Under the new Incorporated Societies Act passed in 2022, all existing incorporated societies must re-register by 5 April 2026. This comes with new requirements, which are generally reasonable, but may add more complexity and responsibility than some are willing to take on, such as new rules on dispute resolution and membership management.
If a society’s registration lapses next April, it will no longer be a legal entity, which will expose its committee and members to personal liability for its debts and other obligations, and possibly lose them control of its assets.
Welcome Susan Hassall and Stephen Town
We have recently welcomed two new trustees to the Momentum Waikato board.
Susan Hassall was Headmaster of Hamilton Boys’ High School from 2000 to 2024, and has recently been appointed Chancellor of The University of Waikato.
Stephen Town has held senior positions in education, transport and local government, including as Chief Executive of Te Pukenga.
Find out more about Susan and Stephen.
How lawyers and their clients can help the charitable sector
Calling all Waikato lawyers, we'd like to have a word please, about how legal practitioners can strengthen the community and charity sector.
There are some really simple shifts in your practice that could lead to big community outcomes. Read how simple it is in this recent LawNews article below by Eleanor Cater from our peak body Community Foundations of Aotearoa NZ.
It includes how an invested fund with a community foundation like Momentum Waikato may be just the right solution for your clients' philanthropic aspirations.
We're building a 'Professional Advisors Network' in the Waikato to help facilitate these discussions and opportunities, so if you'd like to know more, and or just get to know us better first, please do get in touch.
What is your rural legacy?
We know that people living in rural communities are very community minded and often care deeply about their local district.
Many farmers are finding a useful solution for their estate planning through an invested endowment fund with local community foundations like Momentum Waikato. It’s a solution that can also bring great fulfilment, in the knowledge that they can help their beloved rural community for the long-term.
Our peak body Community Foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand has produced a series of short podcasts featuring the stories of generous people who have decided to leave a rural legacy through their local community foundation.
Listen to CFANZ's Rural Legacy podcasts.
Pathways to Social Cohesion in Aotearoa by Nanaia Mahuta
The Waikato Intercultural Fund's Movement for Open Culture Aotearoa (MOCA) campaign hosted 'Honouring Te Tiriti: Pathways to Social Cohesion in Aotearoa', a public lecture by Nanaia Mahuta on Tuesday 22 July, help in partnership with the School of Law, Politics and Philosophy at The University of Waikato.
This was the first event in our MOCA speaker series 'Whiria Te Tangata: Weaving Communities Together'.
Nanaia shared some inspiring insights from her experiences in applying Te Tiriti as a Government Minister and offered a path forward for realising greater social cohesion in Aotearoa New Zealand through the nation fully and properly embracing its founding document.
The Waikato Business News ran an excellent story about Nanaia's speech on the front page of its August issue - read the WBN article.
Photos of the event have been posted on the MOCA Fb page - view photo post.
And the full lecture has been posted on YouTube by the University - watch the video.
From Imposter to Inspired: My Journey to LIONZ 2025
Mikayla Williams (right) and her sponsor Dr Ruth Tan of Te Rau Oranga Fund.
By Mikayla Williams, a student supported by Te Rau Oranga Fund.
When I first saw the email inviting applications for a sponsorship to attend the 2025 LIONZ, the Ladies in Orthopaedics New Zealand, conference, I brushed past it.
Orthopaedics has always been something I’ve loved — I knew deep down I wanted to pursue it — but I still found myself hesitating. I had that familiar mix of anticipation nerves and imposter syndrome.
The voice in my head saying: “You won’t get it; You won’t fit in; What’s the point in applying?”
Read more about Mikayla's adventure.
'Still We Rise' with Charlotte Twigg
Members of the Waikato Women's Fund had a delightful time at our event 'Still We Rise with Charlotte Twigg', held on Tuesday 29 July at Trust Waikato.
What a night!
Thank you to the phenomenal Charlotte Twigg for your brilliant and deeply inspiring kōrero.
Your words reminded us that real change comes not from waiting quietly - but from rising together, loudly and boldly. You challenged us, lifted us, and made us believe more than ever in the power of sport, sisterhood, and showing up.
We were so proud to also share some exciting announcements about the future of the Waikato Women's Fund – Te Ira Waahine o Waikato. If you’re a Fund member, keep an eye on your Inbox, we’ve got some big changes coming your way.
To everyone who joined us: thank you for being part of the movement. This is just the beginning. Let’s keep rising.
See more photos of the event on WWF Fb.
Women reshaping philanthropy
By Eleanor Cater, Philanthropy and Membership Services Director, Community Foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand.
So much has been written and debated about the “great wealth transfer”, the burgeoning phenomenon that will see the baby boomer wealth changing hands over the next 25 years. It’s an outsized bulge of generational wealth that the world has never seen in size and scale before, and, here in New Zealand, it’ll see NZ$1.2 trillion in earnings, property, and other financial assets changing hands as the older generation passes on.
It turns out there’s another really interesting shift going on as well. It’s a demographic shift where women will eventually become the main drivers and decision makers around family wealth, transforming wealth management, including estate planning and philanthropy.
Joy Shivas supports female entrepreneur start-ups through The Christchurch Foundation.
This has been coined the ‘horizontal wealth transfer’, a term somewhat patriarchal and simplistic in its nature as it doesn’t take into account women as co-owners of family wealth, non-nuclear families, or individual economic independence. Nevertheless, it’s a term that is sticking - and it’s easy to see why.
All Good Ventures announce 2025 support for social enterprises
Congratulations to All Good Ventures, the Waikato's own international social enterprise-support charity, for your latest successful start-up grants round.
Here above are the faces of the entrepreneurs they’re supporting for the next 12 months - Ibrahim, A Tanzanian doctor; Irene, a Kenyan food scientist; and Sahera, an Australian leadership coach - three driven founders building businesses that put underserved communities front and centre.
This is change-making mahi with a frontline impact around the world!
You can keep up to date with All Good Ventures by subscribing to their email newsletter.
As ever, we're proud to be playing a small part supporting their sterling efforts through the All Good Ventures Fund here at Momentum Waikato.
Donations towards the All Good Ventures Fund help build its investment income, which enables this support for new businesses making a difference - you can read all about it and donate at momentumwaikato.nz/allgoodventuresfund!
Help Grow Momentum Waikato Community Funds
The Waikato is a region of exceptionally generous people who makes things happen!
Our role at Momentum Waikato is to connect these people to activities that contribute to creating thriving communities.
A better Waikato for everyone, forever!
By donating into any of our purpose or place-based community funds listed below, your generosity will increase the fund’s positive social and-or environmental impact into the future. Donations can be one-off gifts, big or small, or through a gift in your Will.
Go to Momentum Waikato Community Funds to read more about each of our funds.
