philanthropy nz magazine 49 winter 2009

8/14/2019 Philanthropy NZ Magazine 49 Winter 2009

1/7

Vol.3 No.49

Winter 2009

ISSN 11759151

The magazine o Philanthropy New Zealand

Supporting peoplewhen times are

tough


2/7

Philanthropy New Zealand Toputanga Tuku Aroha o Aotearoa2

From the desk of the Executive Director

In this issue

Page 4: Regional Funders Forums 2009

Pages 5: Tindall Foundations Scope report

Page 6: International conerences

Page 7: New ideas that workPage 8: Building bridges, breaking down barriers

Page 11: Community Foundations

Page 14: Budgeting Services and AMP help

Page 15: The 2008 Global Financial Crisis

Page 18: The Eective Foundation

Tena koutou katoa

Nobody oresaw the magnitude o the economic crisis or the rapidity with which it occurred...

This is a time, both in our country and around the world, o increasing need. When the economy is

this weak, there is huge need or philanthropic resources. There is also enormous opportunity to make

progress This is an amazing opportunity or Americans. We cant aford to squander it, because its a

once-in-a-generation opportunity. (Judith Rodin Head o Rockeeller Foundation US May magazine article)

As we go to print, I am travelling the country with the Regional

Funders Forums. We have ocused this series on maximising impact

in challenging times, as the Rockeeller Foundation says, A crisis is a

terrible thing to waste. The recession is having a signicant impact onthe work o grantmakers around the globe and it is orcing them into

new ways o thinking and acting. Forum acilitator Jenny Blagdon has

spent time reviewing the international horizon. Shes discovered that

although there are dierences in how countries are aected, there is

a common theme coming through: it is time to look beyond individual

interests and the resources o our own organisations and ask, How can

we solve problems in combination with others?

The present challenges or the philanthropic sector is to meet new

immediate needs (and they are oten pressing) and to be creative and

to work more eectively with our partners in the not-or-prot sector,

business and government to maximise long term impact as well as meet

short term demands. When nancial resources become more scarce,

our role to be the venture capital o social change means that even

more consideration o how we undertake our work is imperative. Its

been most heartening to be out with you in the regions where those

challenges are being met head on.

I elt a commitment to understand community needs, but also see

a strong need or us to work with partners to maximise impact, especially

when organisations have diminished resources. Heres a taste o the

eedback rom our orum sessions:

What youre looking to achieve:

Networkingandgettingnewideasabouthowtocopewiththe

impact o the recession on trusts was crucial. It was also great to

hear what to look or in und seekers.

Iwanttosharepracticalideasaroundareasorcollaborative

initiatives.

Itwasespeciallyinterestingtoreceiveupdatesabouthowthe

rest o the world is working... in particular the way others are

working together to maximise their resources. Ienjoyedhearingandseeingthepassionsootherpeople.It

makes you want to bring all that you learned back to your

organisation and makes you realise what you need to do to make

moreoadiferencetothelivesoothers.

Keyplayersattendedtheorumsandthisenabledmetogetsome

useul contextual inormation.

Cover image: Acorn Foundation helps und Bay o Plenty CanTeens Summer Camp


3/7

3

Naku noa na

Robyn Scott

Executive Director

Philanthropy New Zealand

I recently listened to an insightul address on the Internet rom

the President o the Monitor Institute, Katherine Fulton. Katherine

is a uturist, strategist, author, teacher and speaker working or social

change1. She talked about the uture o philanthropy and the uture o

all o us in philanthropy; what she reerred to as the democratisation

o philanthropy. Acting our way into a new way o thinking rather

than whats oten done which is, thinking our way into acting. She says

whats happening around us is propelling strong citizen action, and she

talked o new tools and new pressures driving philanthropy in a dierent

direction. She discussed the emergence o trends such as:

Peertopeerphilanthropyexempliedbymasscollaboration

engaging lots o people around an issue and a goal thats stated

Aggregatedgiving

Socialinnovation(extensivelycoveredinthisissueoPhilanthropy

News)

Onlinephilanthropymarketplaces,and

Competitionsandsocialinvesting.

www.givealittle.co.nz, which uses an online giving marketplace to

engage lots o people and crystallise giving, is a New Zealand example

o what Katherine is speaking about.Katherine also reminds us that philanthropy is about giving o

time and talent, not just money. We have lived in this world where

little things are done or love and big things or money. Now we have

Wikipedia. Suddenly big things can be done or love.

It is worth your time listening to Katherines address, its about 15

minutes long and the web address or it is at the bottom o the page. We

also have a copy o her book The Future o Philanthropy available rom

our oce or members to borrow.

FromCrisistoOpportunity,thiseconomiccrisishas ramications

or us all, and or all we seek to support. We may need to do more with

less and its time to think careully about the opportunities showing theirhand right now and the ones we have to dig a little deeper or those

hiding in the gorse bushes.

1. Katherine Fultons speech can be ound at:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/katherine_ulton_you_are_the_uture_o_philanthropy.html


4/7

7

Social Innovation

New ideas that work is one simple denition o socialinnovation, says vivian Hutchinson, Executive Ofcero the Social Innovation Investment Group and theNew Zealand Social Entrepreneur Fellowship (NZSEF).

Speaking at the Philanthropy New Zealand Conerence earlier

this year, vivian said that, the ideas dont even have to be new; social

innovations may simply be combinations o existing ideas that havent

been used together beore. Whatever the denition, the consensus

seems to be that social innovators arent generally that interested

in tweaking; incremental changes arent really what they are about.

Rather, social innovators want to undamentally transorm the way thingsare done or, as vivian says, to permanently alter the perceptions,

behaviours and structures that are creating the tough problems they are

trying to solve.

Moreover, vivian believes social innovators and entrepreneurs

dont just want to organise problems, they want to heal them. In

doing so, they oten create new organisations, programmes or schemes,

or a culture change in existing organisations.

Theyexploreinnovationsandrolemodelsthatmovebeyond

just reacting to and managing the problems, towards being

pro-activeandtransormingthem.

Viv Maidaborn knows a bit about transorming problems. As Chie

Executive o CCS Disability Action, Viv was determined to make

New Zealand houses more accessible and useable or people across the

ages and stages o lie.

That pretty much started with my board saying to me how do we

stop organising the problem o young disabled people not being able

toleavehomebecausetheresnoaccessiblehousing,andreverting

back to institutional solutions, [and start] creating something

undamentally diferent? We decided something undamentallydiferent was changing New Zealands housing stock.

TheinnovativeLietimeDesignstrategywasborn.Itisnowoverseen

by a oundation and, with a certied trademark, is being successully

marketed to the housing sector. To achieve the Liemark stamp o

approval, a design must pass a strict independent review to ensure it

meetsLieStandardsousability,adaptability,accessibility, inclusion

and lietime value. These standards ensure that a building can be used

at that moment as well as being easily adapted later as occupants

needs change.

Were beginning to educate the New Zealand public about what it

would mean to have a house designed so that i you broke your leg you

could still use the toilet, says Viv.

Prettybasicstuf,butourpuremarketmodelhasntdelivered

us houses that are designed or people, and were going to do

something about it.

Viv is also a member o the New Zealand Social Entrepreneur

Fellowship, a peer learning community o New Zealand changemakers

who meet six-monthly to share their experience in creating and

supporting social innovation. For her, social innovation means stepping

outside o what she calls the doing and ocusing instead on what the

opportunities are.

I theres been one breakthrough in my thinking over my time with the New Zealand Social Entrepreneur Fellowship, its been getting

to grips with what the core competencies that a particular group has,

or that accrue around a particular passion, and how can you work with

those competencies.

Its kind o like starting with what is the resource, what is the

wealth?, rather than whats the scarcity and whats the problem? It

taught me quite a dierent way o approaching issues, says Viv.

Small experiments

Geo Mulgan, British social innovator and Director o the Young

Foundation believes that unding social entrepreneurs to carry out smallexperiments is the way to eect real social change.

Geo, who is a ormer advisor to Tony Blair, was brought to New

Zealand in April 2009 or the launch o the Centre or Social Innovation.

He met with public sector chie executives and brieed Finance Minister

Bill English. Speaking at the launch, he said he believes the current

slump is going to transorm capitalism.

Financial markets have become more detached rom the real

economy the world o making things, practical stu and science.

I think were going to see capitalism reconnect with the real

economy and also reconnect with social goals. Theres a burgeoning

eld o social investment or example about 10 percent o all

investments in the US.

Social Entrepreneurs Ngahau Davis, Kim Workman and vivian

Hutchinson at the NZSEF retreat.

article continued on the ollowing page

New ideas that work


5/7


Social Innovation

Geo told Radio New Zealand Nationals Kathryn Ryan that ageing

western societies are going to have to get used to spending much less.

He says capitalism will have to accommodate social needs just as it didin the Great Depression with social welare and employment security

and, this time round, it will also need to adapt to the ecological crisis.

The smartest people in business recognise this quite clearly,

but some are hoping that with a ew short, sharp measures well get

back to where we were beore. I think arsighted people realise this

is a once-in-a-lietime change.

Geo says one o the keys to coping with this once-in-a-lietime

change is allowing social innovators and entrepreneurs to experiment

with their ideas.

At the moment we oten have very competent departments

highly competent people, trying to x things or whole countries at

once. Whereas the more creative, imaginative way, is to spawn many,

many small innovations, small experiments, and watch what works and

then grow the ones which work. Thats exactly how we do science;

its how we do medicine: all o modern medicine is ounded on this

principle.

Geo says the Young Foundation, operates in this way.

Mostoourprojectsstartofvery,verysmall,maybea ew

dozen, a ew hundred people and [then you] nd out what

works. And i things work, then you take them up to a scale o a ew

million people.

Their initiatives have ranged rom Neighbourhood Taskorces a pilot

community development programme aimed at tackling neighbourhood

confict in housing estates and bringing warring residents together to

work on a problem to Studio Schools, an alternative school model or

teenagers alienated rom mainstream education.

The Studio Schools project, which began as a one-class pilot or 23

teenagers in late 2007, has just received the go-ahead rom the British

Government to open seven 300-pupil schools across England.

Young people are provided with qualications and skills that alignwith the national curriculum, but with a much stronger emphasis on

practical work and entrepreneurialism. Students will work in, and run,

businesses and social enterprises directly serving customers. Every

student will have a personal coach; there will be mixed age teams; and

the schools will have many o the eatures o a workplace.

Weve persuaded government to back these with money because

the trials we ran showed these to be much more successul at engaging

precisely the teenagers who were dropping out o school, getting

them better qualications, better skills, and [making them] more

employable and thereore saving money or government in the long

run, says Geo.

Changemakers

I allowing social entrepreneurs to experiment is the way orward

or tackling the toughest social problems, then bringing socialentrepreneurs rom around the world together to collaborate on those

same problems is an even more powerul tool.

Changemakers, an initiative o the Ashoka global social entrepreneur

network, sets up online thematic collaborative competitions where

groups and individuals rom around the world can present their ideas or

change in a particular complex social area.

The competitions are sponsored by organisations and individuals

who have an interest in addressing the issues involved and entries

are posted online at www.changemakers.net or anyone to view and

comment on.

A panel o key decision-makers and philanthropic investors assesses

the applications and picks the 10-12 nalists, then the online community

votes or its top three nalists who are brought together to collaborate

on an overall plan.

Recent competitions have included themes as diverse as how to

provide clean water to people in developing nations, aordable housing,

how to reduce domestic violence and market-based solutions or low-

income communities.

The three winners each receive US$5,000, although there are

occasionally much larger prize pools. For example, US$25,000 was

oered as seed unding this year to the two best new ideas or inspiringa better world through media and technology.

Most importantly, the competitions introduce social entrepreneurs

to each other: they see how their work and concerns overlap and

they inspire each other. They also create new partnerships that

might otherwise never have been thought o. Past competitions have

succeeded in teaming up Indias largest bank with one o Indias largest

rural womens programmes, thousands o rural armers with low-cost

health care providers and a Thai aordable housing solution with the

worlds largest cement manuacturer.

As the Changemakers website points out, these are just three

examples o the strength inherent in a change-making community andthey signal the way an entire sector can broaden its ocus and integrate a

powerul set o solutions and stakeholders bent on change.

articlecontinuedromthepreviouspage


6/7

9

Philanthropy in Action

article continued on the ollowing page

When a Hutt Valley high school started losing the ght against gang activity and violence they took aninnovative approach to creating solutions that hadgang members playing a crucial role.

In late 2006, Board members and sta at the Hutt Valley college

were growing concerned about the increasing violence, drug use and

recruitment o students into gangs; about 15 percent o their student

population had connections with a gang.

Kim Workman (Ngati Kahungunu, Rangitaane), Director o the

Rethinking Crime and Punishment project (and ormer National Director

o Prison Fellowship) was a member o the schools Board o Trustees.

He says, There was a cycle developing where men coming out o prison

were asking Prison Fellowship to help them with their children who were

getting into trouble at school.

And we said we have no expertise and they said yeah, but we

trust you.

Kim says, We started to think about taking a strengths-based

approach, asking the parents o these students whom we wanted to be

involved in the school, how do we get you there?.

In February 2007, Kim, the principal, representatives rom theBoard, sta and the whanau o school pupils met at a community

meeting. They agreed that Kerry, a member o the whanau community

and at the time a voluntary part-time community worker, would be

appointed as a co-ordinator o the school marae and act as a liaison

between the school and whanau.

WecouldseethatKerryhadpotential,saysKim.

And she was known and accepted by the whanau, which

was crucial. The amilies in the community were rightened o the

bureaucracy and the hierarchy at the school; it was beyond their

comprehension so they wouldnt enter the grounds.

Kerry became someonewho couldanswer theirquestions;

whos the dean? or what does it mean when you get a

yellowcard?.

Kim and Prison Fellowship developed a restorative integration

model, aimed at getting gang-linked whanau involved in socially

proactive ways o school lie. Government department Te Puni Kokiri

(TPK) unded the initiative as an action research project, aimed at

increasing Maori participation in the school.

And so began a gradual process or the College. The rst initiative

was getting gang members to help out on the barbecue at a school sports

day. It was a sae thing or them to do, because they were separate but

in a group and was a step towards getting them helping with undraising

and sports coaching.

Kim says Kerry was pivotal to the success o the initiative because

she was a go-between. She mediated between the kids and the sta,

and she helped the sta to understand the dynamics at home or their

students.

From there, Roopu Ahwina, a group that meets monthly was set up

as an opportunity or amilies to spill their guts about what was wrong

with the school. A restorative justice programme was introduced as analternative to suspension or expulsion and other agencies later came

on board too, including Barnardos, who invited the men to help with a

community garden. Respected kaumatua and kuia were also introduced

to the whanau.

Three years on, the school has managed to eliminate grati and

signicantly reduce drug use. The Kapa Haka group has grown ourold,

and suspensions have dropped rom 38 in 2007 to 10 in 2008. And

Kim reports that there is no longer evidence o gang prospecting within

the school.

Kimsays,Alotootherthingshappenedtookidsstoppedwearingtheir[gang]colours,morechildrenarestayingatschool

in Year 11 and 12 and the whanau are now relaxed participants in

school lie and attend school unctions more requently.

The wider whanau are now the schools most successul undraisers,

bringing in around $1600 a month or the school rom their hangi sales,

which buys Kapa Haka uniorms, and helps pays or annual trips to marae

in places like Ruatoria or Matataa.

Building bridges, breaking

down barriers


7/7


Philanthropy in Action

articlecontinuedromthepreviouspage

While Kim is quick to acknowledge there are other programmes

that have no doubt contributed to the improvements, he believes thekey to the turnaround in the schools gang community has been simply

engaging with that community.

Ithinkitsimportantthatpeoplemoveawayromtheidea

that youre dealing with ofenders and gang associates, to the idea

that youre dealing with parents who, more than anything, want to

beacceptedascontributingmembersothecommunity,saysKim.

He also points out that working to engage gang amilies is the

opposite o what most schools do generally they work hard at keeping

gangs out. And he acknowledges there are still many challenges acing

the school.

TPKs unding nished at the end o June, and Kim is currently

looking or a new under. He says that sadly, ideas like this oten dont

hold great appeal or grantmakers.

Oneothedifcultieswehaveinthisworkisthatundersare

looking or particular outcomes that theyve identied, which might be

around education or community development.

But my experience has been that the programmes that are really

innovative and dierent and have a bit o cutting edge to them, oten

relatetomorethanoneoutcomeandotenacrosssectors.Otenyou

start o doing something like this and get improvements in a lot oother areas.

Three gang associates are currently studying or Diplomas in Social

Work and Community Work, while another 20 work as unpaid volunteers

in a whole range o activities; it starts to challenge the stereotypes

around gangs, says Kim.

This kind o capacity building o leaders is where real

change occurs.

I you can identiy leaders in a group and develop their

expertise, they can then become mentors and role models

to the larger group. That is the most efective way o getting

transormational change.

philanthropy nz magazine 49 winter 2009

Documents