Meeting the moment: the political will for community-led change

Eleanor Cater
CEO
21 May 2026

In Melbourne this week community foundations from across Australia gathered for their National Forum. As well as the determination and joy that resonates when people who care about community purpose come together, political will was also in the room as government minister Hon. Andrew Leigh reflected: "No organisations in Australia have a more important role to play right now than community foundations".

Leigh's entire speech (you can read it here) should, I think, be read by every community leader and policymaker on both sides of the Tasman. In it, he painted a picture of what a country of connected community foundations look like: not only builders of local assets, but also builders of community. In an environment where volunteering is down, participation in social, civic and community groups has declined and trust has fallen (with only half of Australians now agreeing that most people can be trusted), Leigh concluded that what we need are institutions that rebuild social capital. We need places where people gather around shared purpose, structures that help local generosity become durable and ways for people to act and move forward together without waiting for permission from government or other outside institutions.

What makes Leigh's speech so good is that it did this rare thing that we don't see often (particularly from politicians), recognising that the potential of community foundations that stretches way beyond financial capital. He acknowledged that they are builders of human and social capital - the relationships, the trust, the local knowledge and the shared identity that no government programme can manufacture from the top down. Leigh described them as vehicles for 'preferred destinies', close enough to understand the problems and durable enough to stick with the solutions, able to keep local memory when people change, and hold a long horizon when politics and funding cycles shift in the shorter term.

Across the world community foundations are not just grant makers, they are conveners, storytellers, trust-builders, and they are leaders of purpose. They are places where local people discover they can do something extraordinary, whether they be individuals, families or local businesses. While community foundations are mostly young and still somewhat emerging in both Australia and New Zealand, their potential is yet to be fully realised (particularly here in New Zealand, where their purpose is often confused with our nation's 12 legislative community trusts).

The Australian government has backed their understanding of the potential of community foundations with action. They have created a new community charity deductible gift recipient category, declared dozens of additional community foundations eligible and, through the recent Budget, moved to remove the ministerial declaration requirement, simplifying the pathway for community foundations to attract tax-deductible support.

For us here in New Zealand we need a similar commitment from our political leaders. Can we remove the friction* that exists within our own tax credit system to encourage more local giving? Can we incentivise bequests so that intergenerational wealth can be stewarded into lasting charity and community funds? Can we recognise that strengthening the infrastructure for community philanthropy is an investment in social cohesion, not a cost?

Community foundations provide the infrastructure needed for communities to thrive - belonging, agency, connection, and the belief that local people can shape their own futures. May this be the decade, on both sides of the Tasman, when that work is truly recognised for what it can be - hei whakakaha, i ngā hāpori o Aotearoa, strengthening communities from within.

* Read our earlier blog post about the New Zealand's tax credit problem >>