10 Years of CFANZ

By Eleanor Cater
14 September 2026
As presented at the CFANZ sector conference in Kirikiriroa, Hamilton

10 years of CFNZ – the network actually goes back way further than that, a collective of independent CFs had been gathering for quite a number of years – we managed to find a couple of photos - not that they would win any photography awards! This one I think from around 2010.

But the community foundations story in New Zealand goes back even further, it starts in 1991 when a group of community minded Wellingtonians came together to discuss how we could do philanthropy better, having noticed the work of community foundations overseas. The Wellington Community Foundation was set up to build an endowment fund for the region, initially chaired by Sir Michael Fowler. Today that foundation is called Nikau Foundation, and we have many of their team here today.

Then, in the 2000s, community foundations the States were also noticed by a group of people in Tauranga, including Bill Holland who had a chat to his old friend from college days, Stephen Tindall. A gathering of interested parties was held in Tauranga and Stephen agreed to put together a pot of money - $2m at the time I believe – for CFs to be established across New Zealand. Trevor Gray, who was the new manager at The Tindall Foundation at the time, said that suddenly ‘every man and his mate down the pub wanted to start a community foundation in New Zealand’! The milestone programme was developed for new community foundations and The Tindall Foundation, by default, started running essentially.the role of a peak body for a time.

Bill Holland went to a conference in the States to find out more about community foundations there and the Acorn Foundation was established in 2003 with Bill taking on the establishment Chairs role. That same year The Ashburton Charitable Foundation, today known as Advance Ashburton Community Foundation, was launched, with Neil Sinclair as the Chair. The first donation of $100 was made by mayor Murray Anderson, I believe.

To the best of my knowledge the timeline and launch of community foundations in New Zealand looked a bit like this….with 8 further foundations establishing up until 2013.

The decision was made to start CFNZ at a 2013 at a workshop in Wellington. It was run by a volunteer board for 3 years and in 2016 the decision was made to fund the national organisation – this is the 10 year part - a decision that was not without controversy, I understand.

As it turns out – and this is entirely coincidental - it was 10 years to this very day that a workshop was held in Wellington with 13 independent community foundations and a ‘strategy for growth’ was presented and the decision was made to fund the national organisation. Here’s the workshop format which we found in our archives and you’ll note that the workshop fee was a little cheaper back then! At the time, Sunrise Foundation and Te Karaka Foundation (now Taranaki) were the newly launched fledglings of the bunch.

The strategy for growth was passed unanimously and it included funding from two strategic partners – The Tindall Foundation and Craigs Investment Partners to employ a staff member and pay operating costs to get the national organisation going. The role of Executive Officer was advertised in November. I was working at the Fundraising Institute at the time and I thought it looked like a really interesting job that I could fit in part time in between the needs of 3 growing girls! Initially the role was 20 hours, I applied, got the job and started in February 2017.

Starting meant meeting Chair Stacey Scott at Nikau Foundation in Wellington when they were on Victoria Street, being given a folder which I recall contained mostly financial information, asked to bring my own chair, use my own devices and start a membership organisation for this thing called community foundations, something which I knew very little about.

And for anyone that’s started a community foundation, that probably sounds a bit familiar -the national organisation started the same way.

Back then we looked like this and membership as you see on the map. There were only 3 community foundations in the South Island, today there are seven with discussions underway around an eighth in Dunedin – we’ve got some of their team here Robbie Lauren and Phil - and I think one of our greatest achievements over the past 10 years has been to support the growth of community foundations in the South Island.

The first photo I have from the early days is this one – a regional hui in May 2017 – here in Kirikiriroa as it happens. Many of those people will be familiar to some of you. They were and you all continue to be the energy that makes this work happen across the country. In person gatherings, then and now, are I think vital progressing this work, human connection and energy for change, learning and development and networking with each other, we’ve never lost that as a core part of our DNA.

In 2021 Arron Perriam joined CFNZ as Executive Director and Ellen Miles followed in 2023 as marketing and brand lead. Arron now works alongside us for our national partner Craigs investment Partners which is rather awesome - having him working adjacent to us and continuing to help progress this kaupapa – and Jess Reiher joined us last year as membership and operations coordinator.

We’ve had four board Chairs over the years – two from the North Island and two from the South - Bill Holland, Stacey Scott, Raymond Key and now Lori Luke for this past year.

The easy to measure stuff: collectively in 2016 the network had $55m in managed funds and $250m in anticipated funds. Distributions that year were $2.6m. Compared with today - only part of the story sure but an important indicator of growth over 10 years. And look at those anticipated funds – $1.3b - if you add those numbers up we are well on our way to doubling total community funds in the decades ahead.

We’ve had a few logos – the bright burst came in 2018 and emulated some of the logos from peer networks in Canada and UK (in true CF style copy and steal everything, right?) Before we created our own distinct brand and identity in 2019 ‘the circle and the purple’ – which was added to over the years – in 2020 with the te reo byline - hei whakakaha I nga hapori o Aotearoa and then Aotearoa added to our name in 2023 reflecting our commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi which remains resolute, and we acknowledge we have a long way to go in that regard. We’ve stopped fiddling with the logo for a few years, but our brand has really taken off with the added expertise of design guru Ellen on our team, who is also rather wonderful!

I don’t want to talk for long, only to say that I’m really proud of the collaboration and collective drive of this network and the true partnerships that we are in, together, to grow community philanthropy and connectivity across the nation. Here’s some of the work CFANZ is leading in 2026 and it’s expanding at pace. The potential of community foundations, connecting the resources of communities with their needs and aspirations, is so great, particularly at this moment in time. Across NZ communities are faced with targeted misinformation, rising polarisation, and deepening inequalities. And more and more we are recognising the value of local, community-led and bottom-up approaches to today’s challenges. This creates a window of opportunity to position community foundations as vital partners that bring local knowledge, long-term commitment and relationships, and both the connecting, social and financial capital needed to support lasting change.

As a peak body, last year we asked ourselves this question –as well as our members what does Aotearoa NZ need us to be? As a result of this question we’ve purposefully stepped up our government advocacy, influencing the influencers, research and public campaign work to grow generosity across the nation – in part because no other peak body has been leading this.

Looking ahead for the next 10 years I’d ask our members to ask the same question - what do your communities need you to be? Given the scale of the challenges we have is it enough to be facilitators of well-meaning generosity? Or should we be purposefully building cohesive communities and really getting to work on shifting the entrenched local challenges on our doorstep.

Should we be connecting up our efforts more across the nation – we have more than 550 people already in giving circles across NZ, imagine what they can achieve together.

Should we purposefully and knowledgeably stepping into authentic partnerships with mana whenua enabling Māori aspirations to thrive. Should we be committing a percentage of our distributions for this purpose?

Leading the giving culture of whole communities and advancing equity and justice across Aotearoa NZ.

I’ll leave you with those thoughts ngā mihi nui, ngā manaakitanga.