Special Community Funding Round Open for Wakatipu Basin Community Groups

For Immediate Release Thursday 15 June 2017

Wakatipu Basin community groups are invited to apply for funding grants from The Southern Trust.

The Trust has opened a special funding round for Wakatipu Basin community groups. Non-profit organisations active in Frankton and the Queenstown area operating in the areas of community, education, arts and culture or amateur sport are invited to apply for the funding.

One of the country’s top gaming trusts, The Southern Trust, is licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs under the Gambling Act 2003 to return gaming machine proceeds to the community. The Trust provides funding for amateur sport, education, community purposes, welfare organisations and arts and culture.

Announcing the Wakatipu funding round, The Southern Trust CEO and Trustee Karen Shea said
“We are pleased that our partnership with The Frankton Arm Tavern means that we have funds to assist Wakatipu Basin community organisations.”

Recent grants to Wakatipu Basin community groups include:
• $5,000 for Wakatipu Yacht Club to put toward building a storage shed for its safety craft and training dinghies.
• $3,000 for the Wakatipu Senior Citizens Association Inc to put towards the purchase of a mini bus to transport members. The grant is subject to them raising the balance required.

The broad areas able to apply for funding are stated in the Gambling Act 2003 and may include travel, sports playing uniforms, grounds maintenance, equipment, coaching and trophies, support for non-profit museums and art galleries, amateur Maori cultural groups; non-profit community cultural or arts festivals. In some cases wages and salaries may be eligible depending on the circumstances. All the required information is contained in the Trust’s Grants Policy http://www.southerntrust.org.nz/index.php?policies.

Ms Shea says if community organisations are considering applying the first step is to call The Southern Trust funding team on 0800 4 CHARITY (0800 42 42 74). “Our team can easily advise on application criteria, which can save organisations a lot of time.”

Organisations from the Wakatipu Basin are encouraged to apply for funding by the end of July 2017. However The Southern Trust continually reviews applications with most processed within 20 working days. Requests larger than $30,000 are reviewed at the monthly Board of Trustees meetings.

ENDS.

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