Energy for community-led change - welcome Kura Tāwhiti

Eleanor Cater
CEO
28 November 2025

This week I was really honoured to join the team in Christchurch for their relaunch as Kura Tāwhiti – Canterbury Community Foundation (previously known as The Christchurch Foundation). There is deep significance in the name (explained so well on their website here) and also in the intent of this foundation.

As I said at the launch event, they are really at the start of a 500-year plan building something extraordinary for their region. Community Foundations complete the piece of a community jigsaw, enabling the resources of a place to connect with the needs and aspirations of the region. They sit alongside other funders and enable people to be a part of building their community, together.

Kura Tāwhiti is one of 18 Community Foundations in New Zealand. Where I live in Wellington, our Community Foundation is Nikau Foundation, representing the abundance of Nikau palm trees in the region. In 1991 Nikau Foundation began its life with the simple name of Wellington Community Foundation and changed this in 2008 to encompass a wider region and a strong local metaphor of resilience, long lifespan, and ability to adapt to its environment.

Community Foundations are living systems, and they are evolving in New Zealand, shifting and changing according to community priorities. In recent years we’ve seen other Community Foundations which have matured in their outlook and expanded in their reach: Wakatipu Community Foundation recently changed their identity to 45South, reflecting the latitude and the wider region it encompasses. Te Karaka Foundation became Taranaki Foundation, maturing to an identity that is proudly local and regional wide.

These growing Community Foundations - 18 across the motu - are kaitiaki for the people and the place. They become the home for structured giving into a wide region, and they are community informed, helping to guide giving into hard to reach places and helping local giving to remain relevant as the community’s needs shift and change over time.

It’s easy to focus on the dollars (you can do that here, if you want to), however Community Foundations are also more than financial warehouses. They help local people discover how to give well into communities to tackle issues that are specific to the region. It's taken me years say this succinctly in fewer than 10 words, but I think this captures our collective kaupapa well: 'they are leaders of purpose and builders of community'.

It’s great to see Kura Tāwhiti already working alongside other Community Foundations in Mid and South Canterbury, namely Advance Ashburton Community Foundation and Aoraki Foundation. Communities can only be built by the people who live and work in them, and Kura Tāwhiti, Advance Ashburton and Aoraki Foundation provide the structures for Canterbury locals to do this, together.

Congratulations Canterbury, together you are building enormous energy for community-led change!