Grassroots Fund

This fund is where you apply for your operational support, events, programmes, capability and capacity building, and small repairs and maintenance. Applying for this fund follows a simple application process, with a bit of reporting at the other end.

Funding Outputs

The Grassroots Fund has four outputs under which organisations can apply for funding: Participation, Services, Development and Education. The only instance where individuals can apply for funding is for capacity development under Development.

Participation  – This is designed to fund a range of sports, art, culture, recreation, events, activities, and environmental opportunities. It will support community participation for groups who may otherwise face barriers to participation and celebrate cultural diversity and cross-cultural inclusion.
Activities could include:

  • Operating costs
  • Programme costs
  • Coaching
  • Events
  • Equipment
  • Small assets (like vehicles)
  • Repairs and maintenance (like kitchen or bathroom refurbishment)
  • Grassroots, regional, or local activities

It does not include:

  • Affiliation or membership fees
  • Property that doesn’t belong to the organisation
  • Events that offer prize money
  • National-level or elite activities
  • Training and capacity development
  • Funding for individuals

Apply for this fund if you are: a sports club, an arts, cultural or environmental organisation, or if you are organising an event that will enhance community participation.

If you’re not sure which is the right output for your application, please call us free on:-
0800 878 720

Community Services Output – This funds the delivery of community services, extend the delivery and capability of services to meet community need, and support early intervention to address need.  Activities could include:-

  • Operating costs
  • Programme Costs
  • Events
  • Equipment
  • Small assets (like vehicles)
  • Repairs and maintenance
  • Grassroots, regional, or local activities

It does not include:

  • Affiliation or membership fees
  • Property that doesn’t belong to the organisation
  • Training
  • Unincorporated groups
  • Activities funded by Government
  • Funding for individuals

Apply for this if you provide social services, counselling, information or community support – this includes food banks.

If you’re not sure which outcome is right for your application, please call us free on: 0800 878 720.

Development Outcome – The Development outcome is designed to fund assistance with community-led consultation and planning, community-based partnerships between communities and other stakeholders, and support community leadership and capacity development. Ideally, these will be project-based activities.

This is specifically for development projects. It can support:

  1. Community-Led Development activities – for organisations or a community network that use a community-led development (CLD) approach in their work or want to undertake a specific community-led project.
  2. Organisation Development activities – for organisations that want to undertake activities that will strengthen themselves as an organisation in one of these seven areas: Leadership, Mission and Vision, Strategy and Planning, Programme Delivery, Financial Management and Fund Development, Communications and Technology, Strategic Relationships.

Activities could include:

  • Projects focused on youth, community, Māori, or economic development that use a development approach for continued improvement and learning
  • Projects that are possibilities-based and use local leadership approaches
  • Neighbourhood connection projects
  • Training and development projects that increases capacity for individuals and organisations, or has demonstrable wider community benefit
  • Support to get people and communities volunteer-ready, or enable participation in activities that will benefit community capacity in the longer term
  • Workshops
  • Organisational development
  • Research and evaluation

It does not include:

  • Operating expenses
  • Overseas conferences or exchange programmes
  • Core training

Organisations applying for project-based funding under Development may also apply for operating funding for their normal work under the participation or service outcomes. For more information about making a Development Application click here.

Talk to us on: 0800 878 720 before applying for Development funding, to ensure it’s the right fit.

Education Outcome – This is designed to enhance, support or improve education opportunities, and reduce barriers to participating in education. This is contestable, which means all applications in each round will be considered at the same time.

Applications must be from a formal education institution, or educational organisations that are ERO or NZQA-audited, or from groups that support education by providing services to education providers, or work in partnership with them to enable delivery of quality education programmes. Schools must make applications through their Board of Trustees, and the resolution must be signed by two adult voting members of the Board of Trustees.

For formal education institutions or organisations, this may fund the following activities:

It does not include:

  • Operating costs
  • Salaries
  • Professional development
  • Funding for individuals
  • Transport to and from school
  • Projects that would reasonably be considered to be the responsibility of central or local government

For non-formal education providers, this may fund the following activities:

  • Operating costs
  • Equipment
  • Small assets (like vehicles)
  • Events
  • Collaborative projects

It does not include:

  • Salaries
  • Funding for individuals
  • Transport to and from school

The following activities may be considered on a case-by-case basis:

  • Capital projects
  • Repairs and maintenance activities that are not covered under the 5 Year Agreement (5YA) funding with the Ministry of Education
  • Professional development

Apply if you are an ERO-reviewed early childhood centre or kohunga reo, school, or NZQA-audited educational organisation; or if your organisation provides services to education providers, or works in partnership with them to enable delivery of quality education programmes.

If you have any questions about whether your application is the right fit, please call us on: 0800 878 720.

Documents required

You will need to provide the following documents with your application:

  • Your latest Annual Accounts.
  • Confirmation of your bank account – this can be a pre-printed deposit slip or a verified confirmation from your bank.
  • A signed resolution with two signatures from office bearers, addressed to ECCT, confirming the amount requested and project name/details.
  • Any relevant quotes

 

How long will it take?

There are no closing dates so applications can be made year round. Eastern & Central Community Trust aims to provide a decision within three months of receiving a completed application. Organisations can only receive one Grassroots grant in any financial year (April-March).

Ideally, organisations should have spent any previous grants and completed an accountability form before applying again for funding.

Reporting back to us – also known as an accountability or audit report

At the moment, we don’t have the accountability report loaded in Fluxx. We’ll let you know when it’s up and running.

We’re keen to find out if our funding made a difference, but we don’t want it to be too difficult to report back on how you’ve done. For our accountability report, we have some simple questions for you on how you did with your project, and we need to have that submitted before you can apply for your next grant. We don’t have it loaded here on our website – when this report is due to be completed, it will appear in your Fluxx portal.