Thanks to all who joined the video call yesterday – great to have 45 of you listen in to the first one for the year with a refreshed format on zoom and then have some break out room discussions too – am sending out this video link of the recording while fresh. Why not watch this instead of Netflix and get some fresh updates that matter!
The kaupapa/purpose of these catch ups every two months is to connect across the “for purpose” impact sector so that we can get out of our silos, hear about what others are doing and learn from each other. Next call will be on June 18th (calendar appointment sent before, let me know if you want resent – it was for all the meetings in 2021).
I actually felt super energised and inspired after the call and especially hearing two stories of new charities that have started to help meet diverse needs in our society (Our Little Village + Makingtrax). Thank you Sue, Louise, Francesca, Anna and Jezza for sharing on a wide variety of things they are seeing in their mahi, summarised further below – they are copied as some of you may want to contact them if you saw synergies or had questions or saw ways you could help? This email can be forwarded on to others who would be interested and if they let me know can add them to the list too. Order of speakers and place in video:
- Louise Aitken CEO of Ākina on social enterprise, Impact Initiative and more: from 2:56
- Sue McCabe CEO of Philanthropy NZ on their upcoming summit and more: 11:34
- Francesca Ephraim on Charities Services and review of Charities Act update (also written summary below): 21:17
- Anna Judge on founding ‘Our Little Village’: 27:54
- Jezza Williams on founding Makingtrax: 35:25
- Break out rooms reporting back on what each group is seeing “at the coal face”: 51:23
We have just released a free 55 page guidebook for Charities which is downloadable and covers setting up, structure options, operating, liability, duties, leases, employment, impact investing, social enterprise etc – when things take a year or so to compile it is strange to finally release them, but here you go!!: https://www.parryfield.com/charities-in-new-zealand/ This joins our articles, videos, templates and more at our website as well as the Doing Business in NZ guide and Social Enterprise book and Start-ups Legal Toolkit book.
A few other updates and so on your radar:
- Jezza Williams shared about Makingtrax – here is the website for more on that https://www.makingtrax.co.nz/
- Jezza shared his personal story of how a life changing accident 10 years ago inspired him to start Makingtrax a company, which has now transitioned into a charity, which focuses on providing inclusive tourism for disabled people. The focus for Jezza is to educate the public on inclusive tourism and developing adaptive technology to allow for inclusive adventure. Jezza wants to challenge public perception of what it means to be disabled and empower people living with disabilities through the power of adventure. Listen to his part on the video and guarantee you will feel inspired!
- Anna Judge shared about ‘Our Little Village’ – website: https://ourlittlevillage.org.nz/
- Anna shared with us her story of how she founded Our Little Village. The charity was created from her experience with child birth and the challenges she faced, as a mother. With the support of her family and guidance of a doctor, she made it through the challenges but was the experience inspired to start Our Little Village, the name for which is inspired from a comment by her doctor saying it takes a village to raise a child. With the charity up and running Anna is now working with others doing similar work and with support from Ronald McDonald house is well on their way to delivering 20 packages to new mothers to support them with their needs.
- On Wednesday 12 May we (Parry Field Lawyers) will be hosting the Privacy Commissioner to give a talk about Charities/NFPs and privacy obligations in light of the new Privacy Act. This will be held in person in Christchurch with limited numbers, but also with the chance to join by Zoom – more information and to book is here. More than 50 have signed up already.
- The Philanthropy NZ conference is coming up 18 – 20 May – see here for info and early bird registration details. On the call Sue shared that the upcoming summit is designed for funders to discuss their challenges.
- The full programme is mainly for funders, it will include a keynote package that all can attend
- Title is “Amplifying Community Aspirations”
- Intention is to have different voices from different communities voice their challenges and needs
- Speakers presenting from a Maori perspective and from under served communities
- They also have other covering global issues of inequality, black lives matter etc.
- Am sure some of you will be interested in growth of impact investing – I am the Chair of Community Finance which just raised $40m last year and have $70m+ pledged for this year all for social housing. If you want to know more then have a look here https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/124472050/anz-bank-investment-firms-back-100-million-social-housing-fund
- IOD have a conference in Auckland 5-6 May described here. I’ll be going along to that one so maybe see some of you there.
- Have you come across Exult? Megan was on the call – their purpose is to help non profits grow – check them out at exult.co.nz. They have a magazine too: “Never miss a funding opportunity again. Subscribe to Tonic Magazine and get loads of ideas, information and advice, including a list of upcoming funding rounds, in every issue. It’s NZ’s most comprehensive publication for the community sector.”
- The new Trusts Act – an opportunity to revisit your rules? Article on this https://www.parryfield.com/charities-and-the-new-trusts-act-2019-any-impact/
- Fundholding paper – pulling in all the feedback on the draft white paper, will send it around later hopefully by next call.
- Kate Frykberg’s done a helpful overview of funding sources in Aotearoa – check it out here. https://kate.frykberg.co.nz/2021/04/13/a-brief-guide-to-the-philanthropic-sector-and-grant-seeking-in-aotearoa-nz/
- Impact investing – this is more and more relevant for Charities and others as a means to outwork purposes, see this recent overview from CSI
- The seeds podcast I’ve been doing just hit 250 episodes interviewing inspiring people – you can find out more at theseeds.nz
- Latest episode 250 I shared the 15 things I wish I had known when I was 17 as I gave a talk on that at the high school I attended https://seeds.libsyn.com/what-i-wish-i-had-known It was fun although actually it all still applies to me even now…
Update from Francesca at Charities Services:
- Our GM, Natasha Weight has recently returned from parental leave.
- You’ll have seen the modernisation of Charities Act is back underway, you’ll see a comprehensive update on the Policy Group website. Just a reminder, we aren’t part of this process, this is a separate branch of the Department of Internal Affairs – you can contact them by emailing charitiesact@dia.govt.nz or Modernising the Charities Act 2005 – Questions and Answers – dia.govt.nz
- Key focus areas include:
- The obligations of charities including annual reporting requirements for small charities
- Whether the regulators powers, decision-making and accountability to the sector is appropriate, and the accessibility of appeals under the current structure.
- Charitable business and accumulation of funds
- The Incorporated Societies Act is currently open for submissions. This is a big change for a lot of societies. Submissions close on 28 May date.
- The Trusts Act also changed this year which impacts on charities. Charities Services will be participating in a webinar on the changes sometime in May, but we published a blog explaining the changes, and keen on hearing your feedback. Sign up to the Charities Services newsletter on our website www.charities.govt.nz and like us on Facebook if you want to know when the webinar will take place.
- We are resuming our in-person engagement that we committed in 2019 after we received feedback that charities wanted to see us in person more. We’ve attended a few workshops in the greater Wellington region and Nelson. We are currently planning on a more systematic engagement for the next few years, where we’ll try to get around the country. We’ll be visiting Christchurch on 26th May, which will include in person clinics.
- One of our main priorities this year is a change to our IT system. This is mainly to improve security, but will also involve some changes to charities online portals, but this will be communicated via email closer to the date.
- Our new formed charities sector group will be meeting in May and you can read about what is discussed on our website https://www.charities.govt.nz/charities-in-new-zealand/charities-sector-group/ . You can also read about research in the charities sector in our brand-new research page.
- But as always, we really do want to hear from you, how are things going, what could we be doing more of, less of, don’t hesitate to get in contact – info@charities.govt.nz
In case you read this far (impressive!) and are wondering about who I am and why I am active in this area, this is a short 6 minute “Pechakucha” video where I shared my story in 20 slides for 20 seconds each: https://www.pechakucha.com/presentations/global-citizenship–generational-legacy-and-kaitiakitanga
