ASB Community Trust becomes Foundation North

ASB Community Trust, which provides grants to not-for-profit organisations across Auckland and Northland, has been renamed Foundation North.

“When the decision was made to sell the Auckland Savings Bank (ASB) in 1988, the Trust was set up to hold the assets ‘in trust’ for the communities of Auckland and Northland,” Trust Chief Executive Jennifer Gill says. “As ASB was progressively sold to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia the proceeds were returned to the Trust.

“The Trust’s endowment now stands at over a billion dollars. In the 2014 year, this generated an income of $81.6 million. Of this, $34.9 million in grants were made to support a whole range of great things happening across the Auckland and Northland regions, and the rest was reinvested to maintain the value of the endowment for future generations.”

The Trust’s grants support participation in sports, environmental, cultural, and arts activities; help conserve, preserve and develop the regions’ natural and physical environment, and cultural heritage; and fund education and youth programmes to get positive outcomes for children, young people and their families, and high need communities.

“If there is something exciting, worthwhile, or innovative happening in our Auckland and Northland communities, there is a good chance we have supported this with a grant.”

Ms Gill said apart from the name change, it was business as usual.

“Foundation North will continue to operate just as the ASB Community Trust has operated. We’re here to support our communities as we always have – and will for generations to come.”

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Addendum 1: Background

Who owns Foundation North?
• Foundation North is ‘owned’ by the communities of Auckland and Northland. The assets are held in trust to support not-for-profit organisations and community events and facilities. Foundation North is one of a number of community trusts established when most of the community-owned trust banks were sold from the late 1980s.

How much do you distribute each year?
• The amount distributed depends on the income earned from our endowment, which currently stands at over a billion dollars. In 2014, our income was $81.6 million. Of this, $34.9 million in grants were made to support a whole range of great things happening across the Auckland and Northland regions, and the rest was reinvested to maintain the value of the endowment for future generations of Aucklanders.
• The Trust’s Investment Committee is advised by Cambridge Associates, an international investment advisor to foundations and endowments including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the universities of Harvard, Princeton and Stanford.

What do you support?
• Each year the Foundation provides grants from $1000 to $100,000 to hundreds of Auckland and Northland community organisations, sports clubs, play-centres and schools.
• Substantial grants are also made to key community partners. These provide essential support to a variety of major regional organisations and initiatives, from the Coastguard to major environmental projects such as the restoration of Motutapu Island.
• Multi-year, multi-million dollar investments are made into major regional projects and facilities, from a $6 million grant to the redevelopment of the Auckland Art Gallery, to a $17 million investment since 2006 to insulate 17,000 homes for low income families, to a $20 million investment over five years to support pioneering approaches to lifting Maori and Pacific education achievement.
• The Foundation is now also leading the development of ‘venture philanthropy’ for New Zealand; high-engagement grant-making which uses venture capital as its model to combine long-term funding with organisational support. The Trust’s venture philanthropy is focused on social entrepreneurs tackling some of the most challenging issues in the region. This is work that is attracting international interest.
• The Foundation in 2014 launched the Centre for Social Impact to support both its own venture philanthropy, and to support major initiatives by other philanthropic trusts and government and corporate funders. www.centreforsocialimpact.org.nz

A further insight into our work is available in our 2014 highlights report http://www.asbcommunitytrust.org.nz/sites/default/files/ASBCT_Highlights_2014_web.pdf and our 2014 annual report http://www.asbcommunitytrust.org.nz/sites/default/files/ASBCT_Summary_Report_2014_web.pdf

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