After the vote, the long view matters

Eleanor Cater
CEO
9 November 2026

Like many New Zealanders, I stayed up later than I meant to on Saturday night, watching the preliminary election results come in. With a sizeable share of special votes still to be counted and final results not due from the Electoral Commission until 27 November, we don’t yet know the shape of the next government, and coalition conversations will likely take some weeks after that.

Much of the focus throughout the election campaign much was on the cost of living. Community foundations hear about these immense pressures regularly from the groups they support, many of which are being asked to do more with less while their own volunteers and supporters are also feeling the squeeze. In 2026 the charity sector is being slammed from all directions, yet its work is too important for the future of this country - JBWere's recent report estimates it adds $25.8 billion to the economy* - providing that crucial social and environmental safety net that markets and government leave behind.

Here at CFANZ we will continue to advocate for the charity sector portfolio to be made a major focus for the new coalition government, and for the long-term view to shape government policy. Central government, whoever leads it, often works in three-year cycles and has to make difficult trade-offs across the whole country, and the needs and aspirations of a particular town, city or region will not always sit at the top of a national agenda. Policy settings change too, sometimes in ways that affect giving itself, as we have seen this year with the cap on donation tax credits at $100k.

Communities that hold some enduring resources of their own, and have their own ways of deciding how to use them, are better placed to weather those shifts and to take action on what matters locally.

This is where the community foundation model offers something distinctive. Our 18 member foundations hold endowed funds that are invested for the long term and distribute year after year, guided by local people who know their places well. They act as kaitiaki, or guardians, of local generosity, an anchor of the philanthropic intent of a region.

The opportunity in front of us makes this work more pressing. New Zealand is at the start of an intergenerational transfer of wealth of around $1.6 trillion over the coming decades. Even a modest share of that wealth directed to local, permanent funds could change what is possible for communities and enable local community self-determination.

That will not happen by default, though. It depends on people understanding the potential of local community foundations, on public policy that enables rather then constrains local giving, on professional advisors understanding their crucial roles in opening up conversations about giving and on community foundations having capacity and capability to steward these gifts well for the benefit of communities.

Community foundations can do a great deal, but they cannot create the conditions for local giving on their own - that is in large part a responsibility of government. It shows up in tax settings that encourage rather than dampen generosity, in charities regulation that is stable and fit for purpose, in recognising and creating positive narratives around the crucial work of the charity sector and working in genuine partnership to create enabling conditions for generosity to thrive.

The work of building well-resourced, resilient communities has never mattered more than it does right now, community foundations are in it for the long term and our hope for the next term of government is that they commit to doing the same.

* JBWere 2026 The Economic Value of the Sector