ASB Community Trust announces grants budget

ASB Community Trust announces grants budget

ASB Community Trust has announced a grants budget of $23.7m for the 2010 financial year.

Announcing the budget at a public meeting at Auckland’s Orakei Marae yesterday (3 August), Trust Chair Kevin Prime said the previous financial year had been the most difficult period in his eight years as a Trustee.

By the end of the last financial year, on March 31, 2009, the global financial crisis had seen the Trust’s funds reduced by 18%, to $789.5 million. In response, the Trustees decided to postpone grant making for the first half of the 2010 financial year while the investment fund recovered.

“It has been a difficult year,” Mr Prime said. “We know that our communities are hurting as funding from traditional sources has been restricted. However, our Trust Fund has recovered to the point where, at the end of May 2009, it exceeded Trust Capital.”

“Some branches may have been broken off, but the trunk remains sound. As confidence returns to the markets, green shoots have begun to grow and in the first three months of the new financial year, our investments have returned 9.2%.”

He told the meeting, that in addressing the financial challenges, the Trustees determined that their greatest obligation is to preserve the Trust’s capital for the benefit of both current and future generations.

Since then, the markets have rallied and the Trust will resume making grants to community organisations in September.

Mr Prime reminded the meeting that ASB Community Trust has been serving the communities of Northland and Auckland for 20 years and, in that time almost $700m worth of grants had been invested in community organisations.

“In this last financial year, despite the significant negative return from the Trust’s investments, we were able to commit new grants of $33 million and maintain our commitment to prior year grantees by paying out grants of $42 million.”

Assets have not been sold, as this would have crystallised the decline in values, and the Trust has continued to inflation-proof its capital base, ensuring that the real value of its assets is protected, Mr Prime said.

ENDS

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