J R McKenzie Trust is a small philanthropic trust that provides approximately $4m of funding each year. Our primary focus is to fund community organisations and initiatives whose purpose and goals are aligned with our vision of “a socially just and inclusive Aotearoa New Zealand”, and which aim to advance equity through transformational, systemic change. You can find examples of organisations we have funded on our stories page.

Our funding is allocated via partnerships and collaboration with community organisations. We may also fund organisations that have been referred to us by other funders. While most of our funding is allocated this way, our contestable Innovation Fund can provide up to $30K in seed funding for organisations whose mahi strongly aligns with our funding strategy. You can find out more about this fund at the end of this page.

Our Funding Strategy

Our funding strategy, Te Anga Rautaki, helps make sure the limited putea available is used in the most effective way. On this page you’ll find a brief summary of our strategy, but if you are interested, you can learn more by reading our strategy booklet that goes into greater detail.

Our Strategic Priority

The Trust’s strategic priority is working and investing in ways that advance equity through transformational change and systems focused solutions.

What does that mean?

• Advancing equity means tackling the causes of inequity and exclusion, for example, the impacts of colonisation, racism and discrimination, and exclusion from participation and decision-making. All of these prevent people from fulfilling their potential. Click the picture to see how equity and equality are different.

• Transformational change is a major positive shift or change that makes a big difference to people’s quality of life.

• Systems often work better for some groups in society than others, making things harder for those who already face the biggest challenges. Systems focused solutions are designed to positively change the mechanisms and structures that hold inequity in place. The strategies and principles used to address this are usually referred to as “systems change”.

We provide funding for mahi that has a focus on one or more of the following communities.

• Children, young people, and whānau | Pou Whānau

We want to fund programmes and initiatives that aim to achieve intergenerational outcomes for children, young people, and their whānau.

• Māori | Te Pou Māori

We want to fund Māori-led programmes and initiatives that support tino rangatiratanga and achieve positive outcomes for Māori.

• Pacific Peoples | Poutū Pasefika

We want to fund Pacific-led programmes and initiatives that aim to achieve positive outcomes for Pacific Peoples.

• Communities that experience exclusion | Pou CaRE

We want to fund programmes and initiatives that support the inclusion and wellbeing of communities that experience exclusion.

We are hoping to see the following positive impacts.

• More connected communities. See example - Share Kai

• More inclusive decision-making. See example - Mana Tāhuna Charitable Trust

• Increased capacity for transformational change. See example - ActionStation

• More public policies are equitable. See example - Gender Justice Collective

• More equitable access to resources. See example - Pathway Trust

Our Innovation Fund is primarily focused on providing seed funding for new initiatives. This is funding that will support your group to implement a new idea or initiative that will take your mahi to a new level, or support building your capacity and capability as an organisation.

Grants up to $30K can be made under our Innovation Fund. If your organisation's mahi strongly aligns with our Funding Strategy, please click the button below to access our Expression of Interest (EOI) form.

The fund is open for applications all the time. After receiving your application, we will endeavour to get back to you within 4 weeks.