Momentum Waikato – Cool name, but what is it you do?

Making Waikato the most generous region on the planet!   

Pretty big job? 

Yep!

As a kid growing up in rural Manawatu, I wanted to be a fire man. 

Getting out there. 

Putting out fires. 

Making a difference. 

Today, with increasing rates of domestic violence, the loss of housing affordability, the advent of the working poor, the increasing rates of transitory families, of truancy, homelessness, demands on food banks, disconnected youth and growing numbers of young people not in education, employment or training, river quality degradation, plastics in waterways and loss of biodiversity… the social fires seem to be ever increasing.

I don’t want to be a fireman any more.  

But do I want to be part of catching the arsonist. 

I still want to make a difference within our region

And so do many of us.  

We see that the traditional systems are under strain. Local and central government is struggling to fund and provide services that meet the four wellbeings (social, environmental, cultural and economic) when faced with growth, re-investment in assets, climate change impact on infrastructure, and in the face of a NZ public whose appetite for increased taxes, rates and public debt is decreasing given the stagnant nature of wage growth.

Yet parts of Aotearoa we are doing well. Capital values in housing have increased dramatically since 2013, the NZ economy has been described as a rockstar. Waikato continues to be innovative and we are witnessing Maori and Pacifica Business networks grow along with the strength of the Waikato’s regional economy.  Waikato continues to be a known hub for logistics, education, innovation, health care, IT and job growth and tourism product development is advancing at great rates.

The above are the characteristics of any region to a greater or lesser extent. Regions all face challenges with issues to address and with sectors of its community doing well.

The Waikato's greatest opportunity is to leverage and coordinate its many strengths - the economy, environment, its strong Iwi and hapu and most importantly, its people. Enabling this opportunity requires a brokering and alignment of those strengths to address areas of need. 

The opportunity that a generous region, like the mighty Waikato brings for truly disruptive change through philanthropy and the Momentum Waikato Community Foundation is before us. 

Philanthropy fills the gap that government agency support simply can’t meet.  The traditional model hopes to put out the fire, where Momentum Waikato seek to arrest the arsonist.  

We want to disrupt the traditional model with our communities.  For it is the gap government in provision that provides the opportunity that stops the fires being lit in the first place.

There is great wealth and great need in this region.  As an adopted Waikatoian, I have found the people of this region are willing to provide assistance, contacts, and funds to support a great idea to solve a problem.   

Momentum Waikato is positioned to play this role, co-ordinating generous donors with transformative projects to build a better Waikato for everyone: Forever.

Our core focus is building a Long-Term Endowment - The Waikato Future Fund such that the fund generates returns that can be granted to change agents within our communities in perpetuity. We aim to have a growth fund of $25 million by 2020 - we are $14 million in the bank so far.

Secondly, we link generous donors to issues and subjects that matter to them and in doing so leverage other donors who have the same interests for greater results.

Thirdly we want to drive and support transformational projects and programmes - our current project being the Waikato Regional Theatre.  Future identification of regional transformational projects will form a pipeline of opportunities to leverage partner funding.

We see philanthropy as thoughtful giving – the philosophy being that we seek to make significant investments to change agents who will make disruptive change and positive impact to issues that are important to our region.  Key to this is the linking of donor centric interests to the evidence based Vital Signs findings.

Waikato Vital Signs is a tool that can mobilise the power of community knowledge for greater local impact. It comes from the internationally recognised Vital Signs programme and measures social, environmental, cultural and economic trends in the Waikato, and our attitude towards those trends. 

The Vital Signs report showed our region greatest needs are in:

• Working collectively to improve community connectedness
• Develop better education and development pathways for youth
• Solve problems with affordability, availability and quality of housing

Our Vital Impact Grants have begun to deliver long term grants and change to address some of these issues with recipients include Ka Pai Kai school lunches in Tokoroa, Puniu River Care in Te Awamutu, Thrive Taumarunui and the Zeal Youth Street Work programme in Hamilton’s CBD.

We act like a magnifying glass that focus the contributions, of any amount, big or small, of all people, across the region to causes that matter to you and identified through evidence-based methodology to be of greatest concern and therefore greatest impact when resolved.

Via donations, bequests, pay role giving and corporate gifting and leveraging projects, skills, assets and partnerships, Momentum believe we can break the cycle and find not just a circuit breaker, but the two, three or four circuit breakers needed to arrest the arsonist.

We look forward to sharing the journey with you and working alongside you to guide your gifting aspirations so that Waikato becomes the most generous region on the planet.