Manukau community supported by grass-roots giving

Auckland Communities Foundation has donated over $112,000 to worthy community projects in its role as Manukau Regional Funding manager for The Tindall Foundation.

A total of thirteen organisations have been awarded funding to deliver projects in 2012 that will support children, youth, families and communities.

Initiatives receiving support include an affordable home-maintenance programme by Habitat for Humanity and an outreach programme for migrant/refugee youth delivered by Shakti Legal Advocacy & Family Social Services.

Auckland Communities Foundation (ACF) is appointed by The Tindall Foundation to award funding annually to projects that best meet community need in the Manukau area.

ACF is well-placed to understand the needs of the Manukau community, having distributed over $1.5m in grants to local organisations there since 2000. In 2011, ACF published an in-depth research report MacroAuckland, which is also used to inform decision-making.

“Our history of philanthropic support in the Manukau area has given us a good understanding of local community need. We are able to build on this knowledge further by using our MacroAuckland research to really highlight Manukau’s key concerns - and make sure the projects that we support are well placed to have a positive impact on these issues,” explains ACF Chief Executive Mark Bentley.

“We were really pleased with the quality of applications this year, and are excited to award funding to a good balance of projects. We’ve been able to provide grants to well-proven schemes like Big Buddy - who provide life-long mentors to fatherless boys – as well as exciting new initiatives like Relationship Aotearoa’s support programme for at-risk young couples.”

The successful projects share a number of common characteristics – they reach the community at a grass-roots level and draw on volunteer support. The overall focus is on empowering communities to take action, whilst assisting community organisations to develop their capacity for achieving successful outcomes.

ENDS

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