Community funding policy review

Current situation

The Grants and Partnerships Policy and Eligibility Criteria was last reviewed and adopted in 2021. At this time we intended to check back in on how the policy was working and to identify opportunities for improvement every three years, as part of future Long- term Plans.

We met with our Elected Members throughout 2023 and early 2024 to discuss our approach to community funding. During this time we talked about how it had become clear that the economic environment and needs of communities have significantly changed over the past few years.

As a result, we needed to do some thinking about how public money is invested, to ensure we were providing a hand up and supporting communities to build capability and capacity and allocating funding efficently.

We now have an opportunity to evolve how we provide funding to the community through these suggested changes:

• Changing the types of funds available to the community and their purpose – to make sure we’re providing the right support to the right places.
• Reviewing our policy and changing its name – to allow for a change of funds and provide an opportunity to think more holistically about the support Council provides to communities.
• Reviewing our eligibility and criteria – to ensure all requests for funding continue to be considered in an open, consistent, transparent, efficient way.
• Aligning our investment priorities to Council’s strategic goals – to ensure funding is directed towards areas of greatest impact and priority for the community and Council as an organisation.

Proposed policy changes and goals

The key changes in the proposed policy include:

• A contestable, multi-year fund accessed by community groups or organisations who deliver a service that supports Council to achieve core strategic outcomes. These organisations operate district wide and have a primary focus under each of the community wellbeing (social, environmental, cultural, and economic).
• A contestable, multi-year fund that can be accessed by eligible organisations to support community aspirations and contribute to community wellbeing. Agreements under this fund are for three years and the organisation cannot reapply under this fund.
• A one – off community grant fund to support community events, projects or initiatives that strengthen the community sector and meet local needs. These funds would focus on location-based communities. Creative, sport and social service agencies who have previously applied to sector-based funds would apply to one of these location-based funds under the proposed structure.
• Community Grant funds (one off funds) are open once per year. Previously, some one-off funds have opened multiple times per year.
• A limit on the amount of funding granted to applicants under each fund.
• Amendments to the accountability and reporting requirements – to be outlined in agreements with Council.
• A link to the proposed eligibility and assessment framework which outlines our priorities, how we will consider requests and how funds will be allocated.
• Council officers assess requests and make recommendations on funding allocation to decision makers. Decision makers decide on the amount of funding to be allocated.
• Replacing Grants and Partnerships Policy (2021) with the Community Funding Policy (2024).
• Replacing the Eligibility and Assessment Criteria (2021) with the Communtiy Funding Eligibility and Assessment Framework (2024).

We want to achieve the following:

• A more consistent approach across our community funding streams
• Create a system that enables us to have greater oversight on how our range of funding (which in future may include in-kind support, and community leases and licenses) is being distributed to benefit the community.
• Improved understanding of how funding requests and applications are considered and allocated.
• Grow awareness of what TDC funding opportunities are available to communities and the purpose of these.
• Funding is distributed in a way that does not create a reliance on Council over a long period of time.
• Funding benefits as many people as possible in the community.
• Funding for community – led initatives helps us to achieve our shared vision for the Taupō District – to be a district of connected communities who thrive and embrace opportunities.