Stephen Tindall helped launch New Zealand’s newest Community Foundation – Momentum Foundation – last week in Hamilton. Momentum has been set up so people in the Waikato community can contribute to their region and invest in building a better future for their children and grandchildren.
Momentum is part of a growing movement of Community Foundations that seek to pool resources and reinvest them directly back in to the communities they came from. The Foundation’s priority is to build up capital funds that will be prudently invested. The aim is to build a $300m fund over 30 years, by promoting and encouraging philanthropy in the community.
Momentum plans to fund projects of significance that provide multi-generational benefit for the people of Waikato.
Read Stephen’s address he delivered at the launch:
- Thank you for inviting me to speak at the launch of the Momentum Foundation. This is the 12th such launch I’ve attended over the past dozen years.
- I’m pleased to say you’re joining a very exciting and committed new movement in NZ, which together has achieved outstanding results.
- I’d like to acknowledge WEL Energy Trust for their role in helping Momentum Foundation to get to this point. It’s a very innovative investment in the future.
- One of our Tindall Foundation’s 6 areas of focus is ‘Promoting Generosity and Giving”. We aim to weave generosity even more into the fabric of NZ society.
- 12 years ago we saw a gap in the NZ giving scene for ‘place-based giving’ – ways people can give to a place they value, rather than direct to a specific organisation, project or cause.
- We heard about the Community Foundation movement overseas which provided trusted local links between donors and their communities. We offered funding and support for communities that were interested in establishing a foundation in their region.
- We did not dictate how this should be done, but linked funding to achievement of a set of negotiated best practice “Milestones”.
- We also provided support for national gatherings, learning exchanges, capacity-building and offered speakers (including myself) at local events.
- The result has definitely been catalytic. One Community Foundation now has over $100 million under management or promised to it by local donors. In total, over $130 million has been promised to the 12 Community Foundations we have engaged with.
- This represents one of the greatest systemic changes in giving in NZ over the past decade, and supports our focus on helping communities to be more self-sufficient.
- And if you want Return on Investment, even without the permanent social benefits of the change in giving, a ratio of $2.5m invested to $150m return is pretty good in venture capital terms.
- Like me, you’re now in the generosity business and it’s one of the most fulfilling and gratifying I’ve been associated with.
- Even when you have money to work with – in Momentum’s case through the most generous support from WEL Energy Trust – it’s not easy to get a Community Foundation up and running. But it does do so much good for your donors, your communities and your hearts.
- Giving is one of the most basic human values. Momentum offers a new way for people in Waikato to give to the places they are passionate about.
- I encourage everyone to support Momentum to help you do good for this place that has been so good to you.