Momentum Waikato Update - June 2025
Published on 12 June, 2025
Nau Mai, Haere Mai!
we've released a new Momentum Waikato brochure, the first since re-branding last year, and we're quite pleased with it.
Check it out via the link below, and do please share it with folks you think need to know about our 'smart giving' model.
Translating financial wisdom into enduring community strength
By May Low, Momentum Waikato Trustee
It’s a privilege to share a little about my journey and my deep commitment to Momentum Waikato.
Some of you might know me through my role as COO at Kiwi Innovation Network, where I support the transformation of groundbreaking research into real-world ventures. Both my ‘day job’ and my involvement with community-focussed organisations speak deeply to my drive to build a better future.
My own story began in Fiji, but Hamilton has been my home for virtually my entire life. Growing up here, I understand, profoundly, the unique spirit and challenges of our Waikato communities.
This personal connection, coupled with having come from a background where resources were often scarce, truly fuels my passion for what we achieve at Momentum Waikato. I deeply understand the importance of opportunity and the transformative power that a strong foundation can provide.
New 'Generosity that Delivers' brochure now available
We've created a new eight-page A4 brochure to introduce our endowment offerings around bequests, named funds and trusts transfers.
This is the thing to have to hand when you talk to people about what Momentum does and why you support us!
You can check it out and download a PDF version, and or pick up copies from our office or the next time we cross paths with you, or we can post them out to you or whoever you think needs to see it, just get in touch.
Kiwis calling
Every year on the Coromandel dedicated locals head out into the winter darkness to sit quietly and wait. What are they waiting for? The call of the kiwi.
The Kiwi Call Survey is an important part of kiwi conservation efforts. Because kiwi are nocturnal and elusive, the simplest way of assessing their numbers is to listen for their calls.
Male and female kiwi have distinctly different calls, which can be confused with other nocturnal birds, like ruru (morepork), so listening teams get trained to correctly identify kiwi.
Grant helps Parafed Waikato athletes shine at Halberg Games
A $10,000 grant from a CCS Disability Action regional fund has helped 63 athletes, supporters and staff from Parafed Waikato attend the 2025 Halberg Games – an unforgettable experience that strengthened bonds and inspired a renewed passion for sport.
The support came from the Fund for CCS Disability Action Waikato, a philanthropic endowment fund at Momentum Waikato Community Foundation established and grown through generous bequests and donations from supporters in the region.
Cathy Wooller, Sports Development Officer for Parafed Waikato, shared the impact of the support: “Our athletes and families had an amazing time – our team are even more bonded now and passionate to play sports! Thank you for your generous funding to help us get to the Halberg Games. We couldn’t have done it without you.”
New Cambridge Community Fund pamphlet now available
As well as the new Momentum brochure above, we've also produced a new A5 pamphlet for the Cambridge Community Fund.
You can check it out and download a PDF version, or if you're in Cambridge, pick up print copies from Fund Champions Kevin Burgess and David Cooney.
Momentum Waikato Annual Report 2024
The Momentum Waikato Annual Report 2024 is now available for download as a PDF.
Here below are some of the articles from it...
Chair's Update from MW Annual Report 2024
by Neil Richardson, Chair, Momentum Waikato.
The past year, 2024, has been a satisfying period of consolidation and achievement for Momentum Waikato.
We have successfully transitioned from Covid, strengthened our organisational capability, completed major fundraising for the soon-to-be-opened Waikato Regional Theatre, and commenced action on our next ‘regional project of significance’.
Like most for-purpose organisations during Covid, Momentum had to draw on its limited capital reserves to survive and maintain its services. We have emerged leaner and fitter, with a clear strategic and operational focus, and are re-growing capital reserves to ensure our continued financial viability. We are moving forward with confidence and enthusiasm for what Momentum can achieve working with, and in support of, our Waikato community.
Building momentum for Peter Sergel’s ultimate vision
From the Momentum Waikato Annual Report 2024
Hamilton Gardens is both a much-loved recreational park and festival venue for the city’s residents, and a major star amongst the Waikato’s tourism attractions. It is everywhere you want to visit all in one place!
If you’ve been visiting the Gardens over the years, your sense of wonder will have grown as each new fascinating space has been added, most recently the astonishing Ancient Egyptian Garden. What was once a city rubbish dump is now a pastoral museum of the civilisations of the world, an undertaking of huge ambition that is only two-thirds towards realisation.
Filling the gaps others don’t reach
From the Momentum Waikato Annual Report 2024
The financial challenges involved in organising volunteer conservation work led a Hamilton couple to set up a philanthropic investment fund to fill the funding gaps faced by the region’s nature groups.
Selwyn and Dianne June first established the Waikato Hauraki Conservation Fund at Momentum Waikato with a significant donation in late 2021, which was during the Covid pandemic, so they only started grantmaking and promoting it to environmental networks in late 2023.
Five conservation projects around the Waikato benefited from those first grants - Kakepuku Mountain Conservation Society for trap refills and bait; Rings Beach Wetland Group Inc for possum, mustelid and rat traps; Kaitiakitanga Charitable Trust for engaging youth on pest control and riparian planting projects; Roselle Gould for predator traps near a stream and wetland at Whangamata; and Holthuizer Farm near Walton for riparian planting.
Launching a movement to counter societal divisions
From the Momentum Waikato Annual Report 2024
By Jenny Nand and Mark Servian, Co-Chairs, Waikato Intercultural Fund
The Waikato Intercultural Fund is governed by a diverse volunteer team dedicated to fostering a flourishing intercultural society in Aotearoa New Zealand.
We are driven by the belief that everyone should recognise and celebrate both the diversity of humanity and the humanity of diversity.
The Fund's primary purpose is to finance any activities that encourage and empower Waikato communities to embrace and implement an intercultural worldview, one where individuals and groups actively engage in dialogue with other cultures and instinctively practice open-minded inclusion.
Your Will can support your community forever
Originally published in the Waikato Times, Tuesday 22 April 2025
By David Christiansen, Executive Officer, Momentum Waikato.
Writing your Will is one of the few moments in life when you can choose to commit to giving significant financial support to the things you really care about in your community and across the world. Your decisions about what will happen to your money and assets after you are gone are an opportunity to make a real difference.
That’s the central proposition of The Bequest Report, newly published by financial advisors JBWere New Zealand.
Their research points to a curious anomaly of Kiwis’ generosity – our giving to charities over our lifetimes is relatively high by international standards, and yet the number of charitable ‘gifts in Wills’ is quite low here, when compared to bequest rates in equivalent countries.
This matters, because with the Baby Boomers beginning to pass away, the Western world is at the start of the largest-ever inter-generational transfer of wealth.
The Bequest Report is therefore intended to be a ‘call to action’, for all New Zealanders to leave a portion of their estates to charitable organisations, so that our society as a whole benefits from this moment in history.
What are the key researched facts in the Report that confirm this development?
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.
