Philanthropy New Zealand is releasing a weekly update to share philanthropic and grant-making activity and insight as the sector seeks to support communities in the wake of COVID-19. This update is a general public document, provided to Ministers, Government, funders, community groups and media. Thank you to all our contributors.

Points for Government

• We acknowledge the work underway to reorient funding decisions for Budget 2020, to be announced on May 14. We understand that this may not be a full Budget package, with potential for further announcements to be made at a later date. We encourage this approach, given the early stage we are at and that Government needs to continue talking with sectors - including the not for profit sector and wider community - in order for its decision making to have maximum positive impact.

Points for philanthropic and grantmaker funders

• A group of PNZ funders are discussing the future of the food assistance system with MSD, taking the opportunity to share learnings about what has happened under the urgent COVID-19 response to transform the offering going forward. Consideration will include the necessary national and regional response as well as the roles of providers and funders across sectors.

• We continue to receive emails from funders about the situation of the gaming funds. We have been told that gaming societies have a legal obligation to retrieve funds that can’t be used for the intended purpose, which will be behind letters asking groups to repay money if they can’t spend it on what it was specified for. Guidance from DIA is that community organisations that have funding applications in progress can get in contact with the relevant society. Some have delayed or deferred decisions in the short-term. DIA says if you have an application that was being processed from the previous funding round or have received funds for an event that is no longer taking place, you should contact the relevant gaming society.

• A reminder that we are running regular zoom meetings for funders on health, food, and one for local government funders. We are facilitating groups of regional funders to connect, and there is also collaborative funder activity to reduce the digital divide. We’re offering a weekly zoom meeting on topics of interest. This week we discussed Government and philanthropic activity with Māori and Pacific communities. Please contact us if you wish to know more about how we are supporting funders.

• Funders can find a collection of articles and resources relevant to response and recovery here.

Points for community organisations

• A government support package of an additional $30 million has been launched to bolster the delivery of food and welfare assistance to those who need it the most. This is being delivered through regional Civil Defence Emergency Management Groups. This money is to support local foodbanks, community food organisations and other welfare providers to enable them to provide food and other essential household items. It has specific criteria so please read this fact sheet and talk to your contact at your local emergency management centre for guidance prior to applying.

• DIA Charities Services are more widely highlighting charities’ contribution to the recovery, so email them on info@charities.govt.nz outlining how you have helped and made a difference. They’re also encouraging charities to talk about what they’ve done fully in their upcoming Statement of Service Performance (for tier 3 or 4 charities).

• DIA Charities Services have also provided some further guidance for charities wanting to apply for the wage subsidy in their recent newsletter.

• The $6 million funding offered via MSD to support the wellbeing of disabled people who usually access MSD-funded Community Participation and Very High Needs services can be used to employ additional staff to provide regular support to people and their families or to develop resources to provide activities for people at home. If you hold an existing Community Participation or Very High Needs contract and you haven’t heard from MSD about this fund email: Community_Participation_Services@workandincome.govt.nz

Response and forward funding

ANZ Bank New Zealand (ANZ NZ) has donated a total of $2 million to Women’s Refuge, Age Concern New Zealand and the Salvation Army in New Zealand as well as the Red Cross and a series of local charities in the Pacific to support vulnerable people through the Covid-19 crisis. These donations reflect long-standing relationships with these charities. Women’s Refuge will use their $500,000 donation to respond to overwhelming demand to provide women and children with safe lodging in motels and Air BNBs as well as strengthening head office capacity whilst Age Concern New Zealand will be creating a longer term digital programme to help older New Zealanders to get online to connect with others and safely use digital services. The Salvation Army will distribute their donation to their network of foodbanks across the country.

Wellington City Council has allocated an additional $1m funding in 19/20 and 0.5m in 20/21 to support social and community agencies impacted by Covid-19. This is alongside reprioritised funding. The fund has a closing date for applications of 29 May 2020. More information on priorities for funding can be found here. The Council are keen to work with other funders to meet identified needs in Wellington and if you are a funder that would like to this discuss further, please contact Mark.Farrar@wcc.govt.nz.

The Gift Trust, a national donor-advised fund and philanthropic trust also based in Wellington, is helping an organisation in Malawi to raise funds to stop the spread of Covid19 in the country.

#Masks4AllMalawi has been set up by people on the ground in Malawi and NZ to produce and distribute face masks to protect the population against the spread of the virus. A huge number of Malawians have abnormal lung function due to their cooking facilities and are immuno-deficient and malnourished. This puts them at higher risk. The Gift Trust is acting as the fiscal sponsor for #Masks4AllMalawi, receiving and distributing the funds as needed, as a local charity could not be set up in time. Some of The Gift Trust donors are supporting the project but most of the funds are coming from international donors.

Also on the international front, a coalition of fourteen New Zealand-based aid agencies, including Oxfam and World Vision, have petitioned Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Foreign Minister Winston Peters to join an urgent humanitarian effort. Ian McInnes, Council for International Development chair and chief of signatory Tearfund, said New Zealand was enjoying a moment of global strength and should use it.

Whilst Government is assessing approaches to gain access to a vaccine when it becomes available and what vaccine research to support, some research foundations and organisations have kick started research on a Covid-19 vaccine. Wellington’s Malaghan Institute is preparing to start pre-clinical testing. Auckland Medical Research Foundation has also announced that it has provided nearly $100,000 to a University of Auckland researcher who is "joining the global race for a coronavirus vaccine".

This week a further $100,000 was distributed from the Western Bay of Plenty COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund. Waikato Community Funders have now paid out $1.5 million in total in their region from their approximately $3.3 million fund.

A number of Canterbury funders are focusing on information sharing. They meet regularly to receive updates from regional government agencies and to discuss the needs of communities and charities and help information flow to and from Civil Defence. It is likely that a bigger group of community funders will also meet in due course to focus on the recovery phase. Most Canterbury community funders are operating grant rounds as normal instead of establishing emergency response funds and individual funders are contacting partners or grantees to adapt arrangements if needed. Canterbury funders have established relationships from their collaborative responses to the earthquakes and the terrorist shootings.

In acknowledgement of the burden of paying rent as a result of COVID-19, Hamilton City Council under their 12 point recovery plan is offering relief for community (and commercial) tenants that can demonstrate hardship. It is currently taking applications to provide rent relief for three months.

United Way have launched a new public appeal called #Unite20 using a platform developed in partnership with tech firm Catalyser - https://unitedwaynz.catalyser.com/. It asks New Zealanders who can, to donate $20 to help frontline charities meet the surge in demand resulting from Covid-19. This initiative is in response to research which found small to medium frontline charities expect demand for their services to increase for the next three to six months at a time when they have reduced avenues for fundraising.

Monitoring the moving landscape

Philanthropy New Zealand is encouraging open access to data to support cross sector collaboration and decision making. We know that considerable information is being gathered that would be useful to a range of parties. Dashboards are being developed to show snapshots of the current situation and map trends.

Treasury has the Government lead on the economic response and is producing weekly dashboards and economic briefings published on a Friday: https://treasury.govt.nz/information-and-services/new-zealand-economy/covid-19-economic-response/commentary

Stats NZ is experimenting with the building of a data portal bringing together a range of economic, social and health indicators in one place: https://www.stats.govt.nz/experimental/covid-19-data-portal

Up to date economic and housing data and analysis for Auckland is here: https://knowledgeauckland.org.nz/publications/

Philanthropy New Zealand will be surveying its funder members next week to get a clearer picture of changes in philanthropic funding available and approaches to responding to the pandemic and it’s implications.

Philanthropy New Zealand, HuiE! Aotearoa, Volunteering New Zealand and the Centre for Social Impact are developing a survey of community organisations. The purpose of the survey is to identify the impact of the pandemic on community organisations and highlight their needs over the coming months. We will use this to inform decision making by multiple audiences, including the sector, Government, business and philanthropy. We expect it will be in the field this month.

Government packages this week

The Government has made a pre-budget announcement that it will spend more than $100 million on housing the homeless until it can put them up in more long-term housing. This includes funding 1600 motel units and more than $30 million of the new funding will be put towards a wraparound service to support those people's needs.

An online recruitment tool called “Keep New Zealand Working” has been launched. It connects job seekers directly to the employer with the aim of making it quicker and easier for people to find work. It also provides online training courses. Other forms of support for job seekers have also been made available including 35 new employment centres.

A new free helpline service for New Zealand businesses has also been made available it offers:

• specific advice and access to Government-funded business support

• advice on what Alert Level 3 means for your business

• general business advice and access to online resources and webinars

• connections to business advisory services

• HR, employee relations, and health and safety advice.

A reminder that Government Budget Day is looming on 14 May. Government officials have been undertaking last minute rework of previously prepared bids for funding to reorient packages in light of the pandemic. Another example of our public servants working long and hard to support our country’s response.

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