Sir Stephen backs launch of Mercury Bay Future Fund

The doors of the Coro Club's Main Hangar were open for a pleasant spring evening and enthusiastic chatter filled the air as local community and business leaders gathered on a mid-October evening for the launch of the Mercury Bay Future Fund.

If the support shown by the eighty-strong crowd is any indication, then the Coromandel ’Future Funds’ are off to an excellent start. Five of these new endowments cover areas based on the local council wards – Thames, Coromandel & Colville, Mercury Bay, Tairua & Pāuanui, and Whangamatā, while the sixth covers the entire Peninsula.

Mercury Bay locals await the start of proceedings.

After the successful launch last year of the Cambridge Community Fund, we prioritised the Coromandel as the next place we would offer to set up ‘place-based’ funds, and soon found a number of locals who were already looking into creating such endowments to support local initiatives.

Peter Farmer has been actively working on the set up of the Coromandel Funds.

In particular, Whitianga identity Peter Farmer had already been actively working on the idea and once we had found each other, he started enthusiastically promoting the Coromandel Funds plan in person and in the local media.

It was therefore entirely fitting that Peter was the MC for this launch event. He opened by thanking the Thames Coromandel District Council and Momentum Waikato, and Stephen Town as a key connector between us.

The biggest name to speak was Sir Stephen Tindall (pictured at the top of the page), founder of The Warehouse and now both a leading philanthropist and the principal facilitator of community-based philanthropy in New Zealand.

Alongside The Tindall Foundation itself, Sir Stephen helped establish the network of eighteen regional community foundations across the country, one of which is Momentum Waikato.

“I cannot speak more highly of community foundations, they are the best idea I have ever come across, and I couldn’t be more proud of the work they have done,” said Sir Stephen.

“The reason why they work is the fact that they are community foundations. When governments can’t afford to fund things, you have to rely on local people.”

Sir Stephen said caring for and “honouring people from birth to death” is a basic value of our society, so you have a responsibility to give back to the community that enables your own success and prosperity.

Having said that, he also emphasised that people with any level of income can look to community foundations to make their generosity perpetual and more effective.

To illustrate that, he told the tale of Edna Brown, who in 2003 left $67,200 in her Will to set up an endowment fund at Tauranga’s Acorn Foundation, with a portion of its income to be granted to local healthcare causes.

As of 2025, 22 years later, Edna’s fund has given out over $83,000, and with some of its income re-invested, it has a balance of over $100,000, showing anyone with assets can create a meaningful legacy via their Will.

“In the end, it comes down to the fact that being generous feels good,” said Sir Stephen.

The gathering also heard from Peter’s fellow local ‘Fund Champion’ Geoff Balme.

Mercury Bay Fund Champion Geoff Balme makes this point.

He said he found it frustrating that the Coromandel has only had rates to call upon for its development.

“I’ve previously suggested that we need to put a toll on the new Kopu Bridge as a way of funding things, but these new Momentum funds are a much better way to go,” he said.

The gathering also heard from Bill Holland from the Acorn Foundation, plus Janice Lapwood, David Christiansen and Holly Snape from Momentum Waikato.

All offered a big thanks to Farmer Autovillage, Craigs Investment Partners, Zealong Tea and the Farmer and Hopper families for their support of the event and the Coromandel Future Funds project.

The Coro Club's Main Hangar is an excellent venue for a function.