Because we are a very small, voluntary family charitable trust, we don’t have funding rounds or cut-off dates, however you are welcome to contact us if you are involved in an initiative that is a strong fit to one of our key goals:
- Te Ao Māori is strong and vibrant
- The central place of Te Ao Māori in Aotearoa is understood and supported by all
- We all feel confident and respected in our own cultures and heritage
We mainly support initiatives located in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington region) and the eastern side of Te Ika a Māui (North Island) i.e. Wairarapa, Te Matau-a-Māui (Hawkes Bay) and Te Tairāwhiti (East Coast). This is because we are unable to meet the demand for funding, so we are concentrating on the areas where we have strongest connections. We also fund some national initiatives, for example, Te Tiriti and anti-racism work.
In practice, most of our grants contribute to either:
- systems change that helps to build an equitable, Tiriti-based Aotearoa
- collective flaxroots initiatives that are Māori-led and are located in the regions mentioned above.
We are happy to chat on the phone and can generally quickly give you a steer on whether we might be able to help.
After this initial conversation we may invite you to provide more information – this could be an email or letter or a movie in either English or te Reo Māori which provides a summary of who you are and what you are looking for. Or it could be an application made to another funder – or whatever is easy, clear and simple for both you and for our trustees. Our trustees then discuss the request, and we often talk to others about your idea to get a variety of perspectives and to check that the idea has good support from your community.
We do not ask for formal reports but we love receiving photos and hearing how things go.
Because we are a very small trust we are only able to give a small number of grants each year. Our grant budget for 2026 – 27 is approximately $100,000 and our grants generally range from $1,000 to $15,000.