Momentum Waikato Update - March 2023
Published on 15 March, 2023
Nau Mai, Haere Mai!
This Update reports on what we have been up to since the start of the year, so covers a longer period than the usual couple of months - expect the next issue in late April.
Enjoy!
New Fund for Nature backs Hauraki-Coromandel conservation
Image: Destination Hauraki Coromandel.
Preserving and enhancing biodiversity and conservation lands across Hauraki and Coromandel is a long-term project requiring vision, perseverance, and resilient funding.
The Predator Free Hauraki Coromandel Community Trust, established in 2017, supports the two districts’ 100+ conservation and backyard trapping groups, to expand, link and grow the conservation effort across this biodiversity hotspot.
It is a 286,000ha landscape scale project, stretching from the culturally significant Moehau maunga in the north of the Peninsula, to Te Aroha maunga in the south, with the aim of the rohe being predator free by 2030.
From the outset the Trust has had a holistic vision that such conservation work has hugely positive social, economic and cultural impacts, through both the immediate effects of the work being carried out and its downstream environmental benefits.
Trust Chief Executive Jude Hooson says they have a “very clear sense of what’s expected of us”.
Chair and Chief Executive Update - Annual Report 2022
The newly published Momentum Waikato Annual Report 2022 is full of great stories, a couple of which are below, with more to follow in future issues.
Print copies are available from the Momentum Waikato office in business hours.
From the front of the booklet, here's the Chair and Chief Executive's Report by Neil Richardson and Kelvyn Eglinton.
Last year we publicly challenged our peers in leadership positions – if the immediate and effective outcomes needed by our communities are to be achieved, we all have to pro-actively reach out across the barriers created by central agency structures, local government boundaries, sector silos and agency politics.
That call to action was a direct response to the events of the 2021-2022 year, as the disruptions of the pandemic continued to impact communities, supply chains and the very underpinnings of our democracy.
The ‘new normal’ was, however, an opportunity to think and act differently as the months unfolded.
The most unsettling aspect of this ‘post-Covid world’ has been the way talk of ‘a division in New Zealand society’ risks becoming self-fulfilling. Underlying disagreements on science, society and the state, usually set aside for the sake of a peaceful and civil life together, suddenly became visceral disputes.
Kickstarting social enterprise
From the Momentum Waikato Annual Report 2022 - see full report in PDF.
Hamilton-based business Sawubona, driven by Esther Gathambo, is one of the social enterprises supported by All Good Ventures.
A charity established by a successful Waikato couple to support social enterprises around the world has a new funding stream thanks to a dedicated public-facing Fund at Momentum Waikato.
Heather and Rod Claycomb are changing lives across the world thanks to All Good Ventures, their unique for-purpose organisation that supports social entrepreneurs to start or expand businesses that benefit people in need.
The entrepreneurial couple respectively own two successful Hamilton-based businesses - award-winning PR company HMC and dairy biotech outfit Quantec. They founded All Good Ventures in 2019 out of a shared determination to see people freed from deprivation through clever business ideas.
Waikato Women's Fund new chair and committee excited about 2023
New WWF Chair Chantal Baxter.
The Waikato Women’s Fund (WWF) is set for another good year, with a newly appointed chair Chantal Baxter and new committee members bringing additional experience and skills to complement the existing members.
The new committee held a strategic planning session in late February. Committee Chair, Chantal, explains: “The strategy meeting was a great chance for us to connect and set our priorities in 2023. These include bringing on new members, looking for regular donors, making some grants, and planning events to connect and collaborate. The committee is excited for the year ahead and firmly committed to improving outcomes for women and girls in our region.”
Coffee & Connect off to a great start for 2023!
It was great to connect with friendly faces at the Waikato Women's Fund's most recent Coffee & Connect event. Held at Agora Café in Frankton on Tuesday 28 February, committee members (old and new) were excited to connect in person with members.
Coffee & Connect events are held on a regular basis throughout the year. Each session has a slightly different agenda, sometimes with presenters or themes, but at its heart the focus is on building informal connections.
"With more and more people working from home and life being so busy, Coffee & Connect events held by the Waikato Women's Fund give us a chance to take a breath and meet with our members face to face. Personal connection is important and we love the conversations and laughter that come from these events”, says Chantal Baxter, Committee Chair.
Cyclone Gabrielle relief appeals in Tairāwhiti and Hawke's Bay
Image: Wairoa District Council.
The Sunrise Foundation and the Hawke's Bay Foundation, our equivalents in Tairāwhiti-Gisborne and Hawke's Bay, are respectively promoting and running appeals that funnel donations direct to overwhelmed welfare agencies on the ground.
Donations of money are still needed and are most welcome.
Sunrise Foundation is asking for donations for local relief funds - find out more and donate.
Hawke's Bay Foundation is asking for donations for its appeal - find out more and donate.
A reception at Government House, no less!
Representatives of Momentum Waikato and its donors were amongst those hosted last week at Government House in Wellington by Governor General The Rt Hon Dame Cindy Kiro.
Holly Snape, Janice Lapwood, Heather Claycomb, Rod Claycomb, Joan Forret and Kelvyn Eglinton at the CFNZ reception at Government House.
The reception was held to acknowledge the powerful work of Community Foundations of New Zealand – the national body which supports and unites the 17 regionally based Community Foundations throughout Aotearoa, for which Dame Cindy is Patron.
Over the past five years, over $50 million has been invested in New Zealand communities through these Foundations – all thanks to the generous giving of New Zealanders across the country.
Read Dame Cindy’s speech, and see more photos at the CFNZ site.
Boost your gift by claiming 33% tax back!
If you give by 31 March you could claim 33% tax back on donations made through Momentum Waikato.
You could make a donation to an existing community fund, or even start your own philanthropic fund.
With your tax credit and Momentum’s smarter giving model, you can truly make your giving go further.
