Momentum Waikato Annual Report 2025
Published on 26 May, 2026
See full Report as PDF booklet.
Chair's Update - Annual Report 2025
By Margaret Wilson, Chair of Momentum Waikato.
It is a privilege to have been asked to chair Momentum Waikato.
As I said after I first joined the Board in 2023, being a Momentum Trustee is a good way to give back to the region that has given me so much over the years, so I appreciate the opportunity to expand my involvement as Chair, as of February 2026.
I thank my predecessor Neil Richardson, for his huge contribution to the development of Momentum Waikato. Neil stepped off in December 2025 after thirteen years on the Board, the last six as Chair, he being the last of the founding trustees from 2013 to retire.
At the same time, Simon Rickman also left the Board, after eight years of service, for which we thank him.
A few months prior to those retirements we welcomed two new trustees, Susan Hassall and Stephen Town, who have since brought much wisdom and expertise to the table - see below. Susan has taken on the role of Deputy Chair, which I previously filled.
Executive Officer 's Update - Annual Report 2025
By David Christiansen, Executive Officer of Momentum Waikato.
While 2025 was a tumultuous time across the world, the Momentum Waikato team had a year of considerable and consistent progress on our core strategic initiatives.
Global markets held up well amidst the economic turbulence, which meant good returns for our endowed funds, 10.1% for the year, and in turn, generous distributions to the many great causes we support across the Waikato and Coromandel region.
It was also a good year for strengthening our own financial resilience, as we continue to steward our reserves with care.
The wider for-purpose sector however continues to be challenged with reduced funding and donations. The demand out there in our communities is unfortunately only growing, and therefore so is the need for more and better designed philanthropy and generosity, to grow support for the social services addressing ever-increasing hardship.
With that in mind, we are now offering more ways for people who are looking to increase the long-term impact of their charitable donations to access our community foundation ‘smart giving’ model when they don’t have the large sum needed to start up their own endowment fund.
Farewells to Neil and Simon - Annual Report 2025
Neil Richardson: 13 years of Momentum!
Neil Richardson, pictured above, retired as Chair of the Momentum Waikato Board in December 2025, the last of the founding trustees from 2013 to leave the table.
Since arriving from Australia in 1990 Neil has made his mark on the Waikato across the commercial, government, academic and not-for-profit sectors, at the local, national and international level.
A couple of years after joining the inaugural Board in 2013, Neil was elected as its Deputy Chair, and then in 2020 as its Chair.
“My thirteen years have passed in a flash of time,” says Neil, “and being a Trustee, then Deputy Chair, then Chair, were three distinct phases.”
Professional Advisors Network - Shaping tomorrow’s legacies
Above: Momentum Bequest Patron Ken Williamson speaks at 'An Evening of Connection and Conversation'. Photo: Key Imagery.
From the Momentum Waikato Annual Report 2025 - see full report in PDF.
Attracting Gifts-in-Wills, as a principal way to create and build endowment funds, is a key element of Momentum Waikato’s mission to create a better Waikato forever.
Large donations are made by the living of course, but the reality for most people is that the finalisation of their estate after they’re gone will be their only opportunity to make a significant contribution towards the charities and or causes they care about.
The message we therefore need to get out to people planning and writing their Wills is that the ‘smart giving’ endowment model offered by community foundations like Momentum is the best and surest way to turn a charitable gift in a Will into a perpetual local legacy.
Professional advisors – lawyers, accountants and wealth advisors – are well placed to start the conversations with their clients about whether they have considered leaving a charitable gift in their Will, and to then ask whether they are aware they can create or add to an endowment.
Coromandel Future Funds - Place-based endowments for an entire district
Thames, Coromandel & Colville, Mercury Bay, Tairua & Pāuanui, Whangamatā, and Coromandel Peninsula Future Funds
Above: Whitianga. Photo Key Imagery.
A ‘place based’ endowment fund is defined by the geographical area it seeks to support, with its grants being offered to charitable groups and projects of any kind in that specific community.
Momentum Waikato has for some years been envisioning the creation of a set of such locality funds covering the entire Waikato region, and we took the first step towards this with the start-up of the Cambridge Community Fund in late 2024.
The big push into this space then followed as a central goal for the Momentum team in 2025, establishing six ‘Future Funds’ for the Coromandel district - five based on council wards, Thames, Coromandel & Colville, Mercury Bay, Tairua & Pāuanui, and Whangamatā, and a sixth to cover the entire Peninsula.
With the oldest population of any district in the Waikato region, the Coromandel has a demographic and lifestyle profile that make it an obvious priority for offering place-based endowments. The specific catalyst however came from finding our agenda was converging with the efforts of several locals.
Cambridge Community Fund - By local, for local
Above: Cambridge Community Fund Champions David Cooney and Kevin Burgess. Photo: Michael Jeans.
Cambridge looking after its own needs is the driving principle for a fund set up in late 2024 to support the town and its people, the first example of Momentum Waikato’s new ‘place based’ endowments.
The Cambridge Community Charitable Trust got together with Momentum to establish the Cambridge Community Fund, to generate investment income for charitable activities and projects in the Waipa centre.
The Fund was officially launched with a well-attended function at Te Awa Retirement Village in October 2024, with David Cooney and Kevin Burgess, pictured below, from the Cambridge Trust stepping forward as the inaugural Fund Champions.
They see the new fund as the ideal scenario – a Cambridge-focused charitable fund enabled by a region-wide philanthropic investment entity.
Maungatautari Sanctuary Nest Egg Fund - ‘If you stand still in the forest, you can feel a heartbeat’
Above: Maungatautari Sanctuary Mountain Trustees Don Scarlet and Norma Taute sign the Fund's Deed of Gift. Photo: Key Imagery.
From the Momentum Waikato Annual Report 2025 - see full report in PDF.
A nature sanctuary is not a short-term project.
The effort to preserve and enhance Maungatautari, the Waikato’s ‘Sanctuary Mountain’ is, by definition, a very very long-term mission. It is a place that saves species and brings joy to people, and will do for centuries to come.
It is literally a commitment as close to ‘forever’ as any that can be made by humans.
Such an undertaking requires financial solutions that will provide support far beyond the usual horizons of conservation funding.
Which is why the Maungatautari Ecological Island Trust has established the Maungatautari Sanctuary Nest Egg Fund.
Waikato Regional Theatre - Stage is shared and seats are taken
Above: The Gallagher Auditorium. Photo: Jasmax.
The final year of construction of the Waikato Regional Theatre, 2025, was a steady stream of remarkable achievements.
The Waikato Regional Property Trust (WRPT) and its manager Gus Sharp ably led the Theatre project to its epic conclusion, working with RDT Pacific and Foster Group on delivering the building, and with Live Nation on preparing for its operation.
Their efforts culminated in the opening of the newly re-titled ‘BNZ Theatre’ in January 2026.
Gus, Chair Ross Hargood, Treasurer Belinda Mulgrew and the rest of the WRPT committee are to be applauded for governing and managing the creation of the Theatre, they have done a remarkable job.
The Theatre project began in 2016 as Momentum Waikato’s undertaking, and we drove it through the early planning, consenting, site selection and primary fundraising stages, led by our then-Chief Executive Kelvyn Eglinton from 2018 to 2023.
MW Arts, Culture and Creativity Fund - First ‘focus fund’ boosts Waikato arts momentum
Above: Arts patron Nancy Caiger with 'The Glow', a painting of the BNZ Theatre by Hong Cumming.
From the Momentum Waikato Annual Report 2025 - see full report in PDF.
Momentum Waikato marked the completion of the Waikato Regional Theatre, now the BNZ Theatre, by launching the ‘Momentum Waikato Arts, Culture and Creativity Fund’.
It is the first of a planned suite of Momentum-branded ‘focus funds’, which will offer Waikato and Coromandel people an easy way to access the community foundation’s ‘smart giving’ endowment model for addressing their greatest concerns or backing their favourite causes.
The MW Arts, Culture and Creativity Fund was kick-started with donations from two local arts supporters who, independent of each other, wanted to celebrate Momentum’s role with the new Theatre, by setting up a fund to further support the Waikato’s artistic and cultural development.
Creative Waikato CEO Dr Jeremy Mayall welcomed the move.
TANZOS Dame Malvina Major Legacy Fund - Helping our opera singers take flight
Dame Malvina Major and Patch. Photo: Dame Malvina Foundation.
Te Pae Kōkako The Aotearoa New Zealand Opera Studio launched the ‘TANZOS Dame Malvina Major Legacy Fund’ at the home of Lady Judi Gallagher on 20 November 2025, ahead of the 83rd birthday of the legendary Waikato soprano.
Housed at the Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts at The University of Waikato, Te Pae Kōkako TANZOS has been led since its founding in 2022 by soprano Madeleine Pierard.
It is already enjoying remarkable early success in vaulting emerging opera singers into international professional careers. A notable example is tenor Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono, a 2023 TANZOS graduate who was the first New Zealander to successfully audition at Covent Garden in London without having first trained overseas.
