The Sunrise Foundation (TSF) is a community foundation promoting generosity and giving back to the community. It provides an opportunity for people to set up endowments and leave a donation for local charitable causes in the Tairāwhiti (Gisborne) region.
The Sunrise Foundation became a Local Donation Manager for The Tindall Foundation (TTF) in 2017, having previously worked with us as a Local Allocation Committee. TSF distributes up to $24,000 a year on behalf of TTF under the Family focus area.
Gisborne Volunteer Centre is one recipient in the region that fits with TTF’s priority of grassroots funding. The centre has an experienced team engaged in promoting volunteering to organisations and individuals — providing training, peer support, advice and information.
“They do an awesome job promoting volunteering. We see that being given an opportunity to volunteer can make a huge difference to wellbeing and is transformative for our community,” says Glenda Stokes, Executive Officer of The Sunrise Foundation
Glenda says Gisborne is a city with urgent social needs: “Sitting in my seat as a relatively new fund with limited resources, I’ve been overwhelmed by the number of funding applications we receive.”
TSF works with a wide variety of not-for-profit groups, most of them dependent on the regular use of volunteers, so the engagement of Gisborne Volunteer Centre is pivotal. Funding the centre aligns with the goals and priorities of TTF for projects with a long-term and far-reaching impact.
“TTF is all about a hand up not a hand out and we feel that the volunteer centre is a good example of this. I’m especially excited to see a really strong interest in youth volunteering which is helping to build a habit of people giving their time from a very young age,” Glenda concludes.
Photo caption
Volunteer Centre Chair Fleur Paenga and Gisborne Mayor Meng Foon present a certificate to Melissa Kingsbeer on International Volunteer Day. Melissa registered with the Volunteer Centre in May 2016 and was referred to the Tairawhiti Environment Centre, where she has been volunteering ever since.