Momentum Waikato Update - April 2026
Published on 21 April, 2026
Margaret Wilson and Susan Hassell now lead Momentum
Momentum Waikato Community Foundation is pleased to announce the recent appointments of Margaret Wilson as its new Chair, and Susan Hassall as its new Deputy Chair.
Margaret says it is a privilege to have been asked to chair the Momentum Waikato Board.
“Momentum is preparing to further develop our contribution to the Waikato and Coromandel. We are always grateful for the support we receive and look forward to continuing to work with communities across the region into the future,” says Margaret.
Susan says being on the Momentum board is an opportunity to support “an amazing organisation”.
“Momentum allows us all to gain happiness, through gifting, through giving, and in doing so, it creates a way to gift happiness to others, by providing them with the opportunity to receive. In other words, to really care,” says Susan.
REMINDER: Please help us understand giving in the Waikato
Momentum Waikato is supporting a national survey led by Community Foundations of Aotearoa New Zealand (CFANZ) to better understand how people give, and what makes giving easier or harder.
Whether you donate, volunteer, give koha or aroha, support whānau, or don’t currently give at all, your experience matters.
To build a true picture of giving in the Waikato and Aotearoa, we need to hear from a wide range of people and communities. Your response will help ensure voices from the Waikato are well represented.
The survey takes around ten minutes and is anonymous and voluntary.
As a thank you, you can choose to enter a draw to direct a $1,000 donation to a charity of your choice. Entry is optional and separate from your survey responses.
Take the 'Giving in Aotearoa NZ' survey.
Welcome Pamela Storey
We have recently welcomed Pamela Storey to the Momentum Waikato team.
As our ‘Manager: Professional Advisor Network’, Pamela is reaching out to lawyers, accountants and investment advisors to introduce them to what we do, and to then invite them to partner with us on encouraging people who are talking to them about writing a Will to consider including charitable bequests.
Vale Alan Livingston!
Kua hinga te tootara i Te Waonui-a-Taane.
We were deeply saddened when Alan Livingston recently passed away. Our condolences go out to Janet and the rest of Alan's family.
Alan had many important public roles over the years, he was a heavy lifter around Te Pahu, in Waipa, across the Waikato, and for New Zealand. A rare example of a 'local politician' who was universally respected and trusted.
Amongst his lower profile volunteer positions, Alan was the Chair of our Board Appointments Panel, after serving on the Momentum Waikato Board from 2020 to 2024, including a couple of years as our Deputy Chair.
The smile, and his firm handshake, is how we remember Alan. A man of great mana, wisdom and integrity, he will be missed.
The Livingston family asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to support Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari, one of the many causes that Alan championed. One way you can do this is to donate to the Maungatautari Sanctuary Nest Egg Fund in our care.
Frontline support for victims of sexual violence now under one roof
When the Midlands Sexual Assault Services Fund was launched with Momentum Waikato in 2023, the key message to its potential donors was that victim-survivors of sexual violence should only have to knock on one door, once, to get the help and care they need.
MSASS has always provided a primary point of contact for such support, but now the long-held vision of its Board has been fully physically realised.
In February, they opened their new purpose-designed service centre – a single-entry point to a ‘one-stop shop’, which ensures that victim-survivors of sexual violence don’t have to repeatedly tell their story to get assistance.
Finally united under one roof are medical support for victim-survivors of sexual harm (the Waikato Sexual Assault Assessment and Treatment Service), non-fatal strangulation and suffocation assessment, and MSASS’s own prevention education, social work, counselling and therapy services.
April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a time to take action on the troubling statistics.
‘Equity, Identity and Civic Courage’ event inspires
It was a privilege to host ‘Equity, Identity, and Civic Courage in Aotearoa’ on 31 March, a panel discussion that was the third ‘Whiria Te Tangata: Weaving Communities Together’ speaker event hosted by the Waikato Intercultural Fund team.
To our incredible panellists Margaret Wilson, Kemi Fayomi, Jumana Fouda and Molly Āperira Huggan (pictured above left to right, with WIF compare Niko Koya on right), thank you for sharing your insights, expertise, and lived experiences with such honesty and generosity. Your voices challenged us, inspired us, and reminded us of what true courage looks like - it was an evening of powerful kōrero!
A heartfelt thank you also to the hundred-or-so people who joined us at the Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts at The University of Waikato. Your presence, engagement, and willingness to 'lean in' made the occasion truly meaningful.
This ‘thought leadership’ speaker series has a simple but critically important intention - to bring people together, to spark courageous conversations, and to reinforce the social fabric of our region.
Empowering your Coromandel community into the future
The Coromandel Future Funds are a set of charitable endowment funds held by Momentum Waikato, the community foundation covering the Peninsula, that are being supported and promoted by some forward-thinking local champions.
The intention of this visionary and sensible initiative is to enable you, your family or organisation, to create a legacy that supports and empowers the Coromandel’s communities, forever.
There are six Coromandel Future Funds, one for each of the five main population areas – Mercury Bay, Coromandel-Colville, Tairua-Pāuanui, Thames and Whangamatā – plus one for the entire Peninsula.
Sitting behind the funds is an organisational partnership between Momentum and the Thames Coromandel District Council, so they are mapped and named as per the local body wards.
A small team of locals have been enthusiastically backing this initiative, not just formulating ideas and plans, but also putting up their own money to get things kick-started.
Creating futures with philanthropy for education
Education and endowments are both about creating a brighter future, so combining them can really illuminate the financial way ahead for people and institutions.
Momentum Waikato manages a number of philanthropic ‘named funds’ that support a range of educational activities, via both scholarships for students and direct funding to schools and programmes. And this support for the sector will be boosted when Momentum’s own ‘focus fund’ for education is activated – more about that later.
All up in 2025, funds in Momentum’s care collectively granted almost a quarter of a million dollars just to student scholarships.
College’s fund activates leadership camp
Te Awamutu College’s Year 13 Leadership Camp was supported this year by an endowment fund at Momentum Waikato.
Established by the Rogers Charitable Trust in 2020, the Te Awamutu College Foundation Fund provides a secure perpetual funding stream for the secondary school’s additional student activities and resources.
The annual Leadership Camp is a long-standing tradition and plays an important role in preparing students for their final year. Its focus is building leadership skills, confidence and camaraderie, along with giving the teenagers a range of fun activities and the chance to grow together as a year cohort.
In early February, 137 students and eight staff headed to Tui Ridge Park near Rotorua. Surrounded by 400 acres of native bush, the camp has space to move, explore and disconnect from everyday routines.