CEO's Report

In a year of immense uncertainty we have emerged with a stronger understanding of the power and resilience in our communities and their ability to drive community-led solutions in the face of the pandemic. The philanthrophic and specifically the community trust sector can also take pride at how we came together as whānau to support each other so we could in turn support our communities.

It is often said there is nothing so powerful as common purpose and New Zealand was galvanised by the challenges that presented. We all pivoted to a greater or lesser degree around that common purpose to make sure we all stayed safe.

One of the first things Foundation North undertook, in collaboration with the Centre for Social Impact (CSI), was a scan of the communities and what they needed via a National COVID-19 Impact Survey in partnership with Hui E! Community Aotearoa, Philanthropy New Zealand, and Volunteering New Zealand. I would like to acknowledge the contribution of our partners and the Centre’s staff and associates in activating this work as it provided a pathway for further community support.

At a governance level, our Trustees were nimble in empowering us to respond to our communities’ urgent and emergent needs during national and regional lockdowns. We were able to streamline processes and adopt flexible approaches to the reallocation and distribution of funds under COVID-19. This was highly valued by community groups.

The Foundation North staff and whānau have also shown amazing resilience. We were able to action our Business Continuity Plan and work seamlessly through all Alert Levels, staying open for funding requests, and taking a flexible and responsive approach. We established an Emergency/COVID-19 Response Team reviewing impacts on staff, applicants and grantees, and communicating proactively with our Trustees, community and staff.

During this reporting period we also established a dedicated Engagement Team. The team has been assigned to geographical areas within our rohe, improving the accessibility and understanding of our flexible funding approaches, and strengthening our connection to communities, spaces, places and people. My personal thanks and awhi to the entire Foundation North team for their patience, dedication, and ongoing commitment to our impactful mahi.

We also made changes to our investment structures during the year appointing JANA as our new asset consultant. The volatility in financial markets tested our investment approach and I am pleased to say the portfolio performed as designed during this time. We were able to weather the fluctuations and, in the end, record an outstanding financial result.

We are excited to have expanded our asset allocation to now also include an impact investments portion to the portfolio and look forward to working with our newly established impact investment fund to enhance the social, environmental and economic impact across our rohe.

Discovering and embedding a new set of organisational values has been an important step for the Foundation this year. As well as holding us accountable to those we work with and to each other, the values have given us a solid platform from which to re-position our brand, ‘Hāpai Pūtea Oranga – Funding To Enhance Lives’.

Ngā mihi nui to all our staff, Trustees and to everyone we have engaged and worked with through this unique and tough year. Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini | My success is not mine alone, it is the success of the collective – No one gets there alone.