Momentum Waikato Update - December 2024
Published on 3 December, 2024
Nau Mai, Haere Mai!
Welcome to the year-end edition of the Momentum Waikato Update newsletter.
Giving back at Christmas time
David Christiansen, Executive Officer, Momentum Waikato.
It is time to start wishing you all a Merry Christmas – as ever it seems to have come around far too quickly!
Christmas can mean different things to different people, though obviously the most popular view is that it is a time for giving.
Below you can read about the annual Craigs Workplace Giving at Christmas program, which is just one example of Craigs Investment Partners’ ongoing community engagement and support. And we know this is just one business amongst so many in the region that support our communities so generously.
Early in the New Year we have a new member of staff joining us. Debbie Stevens, who will be known to many of you, will be our new Relationship Manager focused on building our ‘Professional Advisor Network’.
What is that, I hear you ask?
Craigs Workplace Giving for Christmas focused on front line
Craigs Investment Partners works with community foundations around the country to deliver the firm’s Workplace Giving grants to local charities at Christmas.
The welcome support is enabled through Craigs Workplace Giving, which pools donations from Craigs branches across New Zealand in a fund held by the Acorn Foundation, Tauranga’s community foundation.
From there, Momentum Waikato has this year received a total $13,100 from Craigs and its staff to grant in varying amounts to five Waikato organisations they have chosen.
Protecting our wetlands and critically endangered wildlife
From Predator Free Hauraki Coromandel Community Trust, founders of the Fund for Nature Hauraki Coromandel.
Wetlands are a precious part of our ecosystem, acting like the kidneys of the earth, cleaning the water that flows into them. They trap sediment and soils, filter out contaminants; can reduce flooding and protect coastal land from storm surge; and return nitrogen to the atmosphere. In New Zealand they support the greatest concentration of wildlife out of any other habitat and yet 90% of our wetlands have been cleared.
Many of the community conservation groups in the Hauraki Coromandel are working to protect remaining wetlands and the endangered species that inhabit them, such as the Matuku-Hūrepo or Australasian Bittern.
A beautiful corner of the world, full of opportunities
Joan Forret, Trustee, Momentum Waikato.
I am a proud Waikato resident. I was born in Huntly, grew up in Hamilton, obtained my law degree from The University of Waikato and have worked as an environment and planning lawyer for over 20 years. I am also a very keen traveler, both within New Zealand and elsewhere.
All of us are shaped by our life experiences and mine have enhanced my belief in the strength and richness of the Waikato and its many varied communities. We are privileged to live in a beautiful corner of the world, one which offers so many opportunities for growth and development in all the ways expected by modern society.
For a better Cambridge for everyone, forever
Cambridge looking after its own needs is the driving principle for a new philanthropic investment fund set up to support the town and its people.
The Cambridge Community Charitable Trust has got together with Momentum Waikato, the region’s community foundation, to establish the Cambridge Community Fund, an endowment that will generate investment income for charitable activities and projects in the Waipa centre.
Inaugural Fund Champions David Cooney and Kevin Burgess say it’s the ideal scenario – a Cambridge-focused charitable fund enabled by a region-wide philanthropic investment entity.
“The Cambridge Community Fund is a cost-effective way for local people to leave a legacy forever to their town,” says Kevin, who is well known locally as a pharmacist, trustee on various boards and athletics supporter.
Welcome Debbie Stevens
We're well pleased to announce that Debbie Stevens has been appointed as our new Relationship Manager, starting in the New Year.
This is a part-time role focused on networking with professional advisors, such as lawyers, accountants and others who talk to people about their charitable generosity and legacy making, as well as supporting our general outreach to potential donors and bequestors.
Last piece of funding puzzle now in place for Medieval Garden
Hamilton Gardens is set to get a new jewel in its crown, the Medieval Garden, after the final external funding needed for the project was secured.
Joining the current 18 award-winning themed gardens, the Medieval Garden, inspired by St John of the Hermits in Sicily, features an apothecary garden for medicinal cures and a cloister garth for prayer and contemplation, reflecting the virtues of hospitality and healing practised by medieval monasteries.
Hamilton City Council partnered with Momentum Waikato early last year to raise $1.7 million of the $2.8 million total budget. Momentum ran a ‘Let’s Grow the Gardens’ campaign.
Momentum Waikato General Manager Endowments Janice Lapwood thanked the donors who have backed the Medieval Garden project.
Waikato Women's Fund grants announced for 2024
Thank you to the donor-members of the Waikato Women's Fund who nominated and voted in our grant round process, together as a giving circle we have now decided who we are supporting this year.
We are delighted to announce the following Waikato community organisations as the recipients of this year’s Waikato Women’s Fund grants of $4,625 each. Namely Bellyful Hamilton, Dress for Success Hamilton, Insight Endometriosis and Te Rau Āwhina Tokoroa Women’s Refuge.
Fund backs lads' leadership for life
The Boys Brigade Waikato Charitable Trust Fund is a great example of a community group having an endowment with Momentum Waikato to fund scholarships or grants that develop individuals' knowledge, abilities and capacity.
This year the Boys Brigade Waikato Trust applied the income from its Fund to providing grants that enabled three young men, Joel Chernishov, Jake Guyan and Dylan Young, to attend Stage 1 of Boys Brigade's National Leadership Development Course at Nelson Lakes in July.
Joel reported back that he "liked the way the course forces you to learn through practical challenges".
Jake (in yellow jacket in group shot below) said "All of the teaching sessions were insightful and eye opening in what they made me see in myself as a leader and the way I lead and work within a group".
Dylan said "I had such a great time and learned so many things and really went outside my comfort zone and had a blast. My favourite part was definitely the views. This was my first time in Nelson and I would never imagine how beautiful it truly was, so spending a couple nights with the beautiful sunsets and sunrises was incredible."
To learn more and donate to the Boys Brigade Waikato Charitable Trust Fund visit momentumwaikato.nz/boysbrigadewaikatofund.
If your community trust or group is considering setting up an endowment fund to generate investment income for grants to individuals or projects, get in touch with us here at Momentum Waikato.
