So I’ve been pretty quiet of late. Things have been busy.
But I have managed to find some time to have a look at NZCT. This is one of New Zealand’s largest gaming trusts, giving away over $40m in the last financial year. Their Authorised Purpose is:
Any charitable, philanthropic to the extend it is charitable, cultural, amateur sport or any other purpose that is beneficial to the community or any section of it. This includes, but is not limited to:
But I have managed to find some time to have a look at NZCT. This is one of New Zealand’s largest gaming trusts, giving away over $40m in the last financial year. Their Authorised Purpose is:
Any charitable, philanthropic to the extend it is charitable, cultural, amateur sport or any other purpose that is beneficial to the community or any section of it. This includes, but is not limited to:
- The provision, or assistance in the provision, of facilities, equipment and/or playing / training uniforms for sporting clubs and amateur sporting teams playing in recognised, published leagues or competitions and or:
- Grants for charitable purposes including the relief of poverty or welfare assistance through donations to recognised social service or welfare agencies and / or:
- Grants to educational or training organisations through the provision of scholarships or equipment which is administered by the recipient educational organisation, and/or:
- Grants for recognised cultural or philanthropic to the extent it is charitable activities and groups within the local community.
There are some other interesting observations about this chart.
Firstly there has been a drop off in grants between 2014 and now. This is driven by the number of machines that they have in Canterbury. If we look at the DIA’s numbers on gaming machines (because why wouldn’t you) we can see that in 2013 there were 320 NZCT machines in the region: in 2020 this has dropped to 176. This drop is due both to closure of venues and the Council’s sinking lid policy, and other trusts coming in and taking over venues.
Secondly the effect of COVID in the calendar year 2020 is pretty obvious. Under the previous alert levels venues were closed for a fair while. This had a clear effect on grants given in 2020, but it seems to have picked up in 2021. That said there are some large capital projects which were approved in 2021, which could well have offset the money raised from the machines.
So sport did get a fair bit of money, and a reasonable amount of capital looking at the purposes. Which sports were supported in the past few years?
Cricket is the biggest recipient of NZCTs support over the past 8 years. That code has received $3.5m, or 8.5% of NZCTs total grants given since 2013. Rugby was a strong second, getting over $3.2m over the eight years under review. Interestingly though the amounts given to rugby have reduced over the years: rugby made up 10% of grants in 2013, dropping to 4% in 2021. I’m not surprised: rugby has its own gaming trust through Mainland, so quite frankly it seems fair to focus on other sports. Football seems to have been a beneficiary of the reduction in rugby, getting around level $3m over the eight years. Netball was the fourth biggest winner from NZCT, getting around $2.6m over those eight years. I’ve never written a sentence like that: usually female dominant sports languish a little further back. The football and netball position is driven a bit by a huge $750k given to the new Netsal centre in 2021, and which I allocated evenly to both codes.
The next million dollar sports are:
Firstly there has been a drop off in grants between 2014 and now. This is driven by the number of machines that they have in Canterbury. If we look at the DIA’s numbers on gaming machines (because why wouldn’t you) we can see that in 2013 there were 320 NZCT machines in the region: in 2020 this has dropped to 176. This drop is due both to closure of venues and the Council’s sinking lid policy, and other trusts coming in and taking over venues.
Secondly the effect of COVID in the calendar year 2020 is pretty obvious. Under the previous alert levels venues were closed for a fair while. This had a clear effect on grants given in 2020, but it seems to have picked up in 2021. That said there are some large capital projects which were approved in 2021, which could well have offset the money raised from the machines.
So sport did get a fair bit of money, and a reasonable amount of capital looking at the purposes. Which sports were supported in the past few years?
Cricket is the biggest recipient of NZCTs support over the past 8 years. That code has received $3.5m, or 8.5% of NZCTs total grants given since 2013. Rugby was a strong second, getting over $3.2m over the eight years under review. Interestingly though the amounts given to rugby have reduced over the years: rugby made up 10% of grants in 2013, dropping to 4% in 2021. I’m not surprised: rugby has its own gaming trust through Mainland, so quite frankly it seems fair to focus on other sports. Football seems to have been a beneficiary of the reduction in rugby, getting around level $3m over the eight years. Netball was the fourth biggest winner from NZCT, getting around $2.6m over those eight years. I’ve never written a sentence like that: usually female dominant sports languish a little further back. The football and netball position is driven a bit by a huge $750k given to the new Netsal centre in 2021, and which I allocated evenly to both codes.
The next million dollar sports are:
- Tennis $2.0m
- Hockey $1.8m
- Organiser (such as Sport Canterbury) $1.7m
- League $1.6m
- Basketball $1.6m
- Softball $1.5m
- Life Saving $1.4m
- Rowing $1.0m
So yes, salaries make up an awful lot of the grants that are going into Canterbury. There are a lot of mouths to feed within the sports ecosystem. There’s some money going into assets in the ground but paying people to run / coach / supply sport is a big money pit where these grants go. Those fancy gazebos, coaches and sport kit don’t generally come out of club subs.
Of course, amateur sport is only one beneficiary of NZCT. Education gets a decent dollop: although mostly for the provision of sport within schools. In 2021, some 23 educational organisations got money from NZCT. Four social service organisations did, and 8 arts and heritage organisations.
I haven’t done any analysis of declines: they do show who is declined, but not the reason. I’ve probably also understated the contribution that they make to Canterbury. There are a number of grants they tag as National which could have a portion allocated to this province, or are definitely within the Canterbury area: indeed I just looked and the first grant was $1m given late last year to Maia Health Foundation. That’s very definitely in Canterbury, but for the benefit of primarily the South Island – and should be in the scope of our tax payer funded health system but I digress.
If I were applying for grants, I’d give these guys a go. While funding goes largely to sporting organisations, they do give grants to others. Systems and processes with gaming trusts tend to be nice and transactional, and answers come quickly.
I write about this stuff as believe that as need to understand where funding comes from, where it goes, and how it gets there. As a citizenry we allow both those supplying money and those asking for money to operate, and as a community we need to ensure we have oversight over the organisations they choose to fund. Love to talk with you if you think this is at all interesting, and if you want to dive into the data a bit more than happy to do so. Check out my website http://www.delfi.co.nz/
Of course, amateur sport is only one beneficiary of NZCT. Education gets a decent dollop: although mostly for the provision of sport within schools. In 2021, some 23 educational organisations got money from NZCT. Four social service organisations did, and 8 arts and heritage organisations.
I haven’t done any analysis of declines: they do show who is declined, but not the reason. I’ve probably also understated the contribution that they make to Canterbury. There are a number of grants they tag as National which could have a portion allocated to this province, or are definitely within the Canterbury area: indeed I just looked and the first grant was $1m given late last year to Maia Health Foundation. That’s very definitely in Canterbury, but for the benefit of primarily the South Island – and should be in the scope of our tax payer funded health system but I digress.
If I were applying for grants, I’d give these guys a go. While funding goes largely to sporting organisations, they do give grants to others. Systems and processes with gaming trusts tend to be nice and transactional, and answers come quickly.
I write about this stuff as believe that as need to understand where funding comes from, where it goes, and how it gets there. As a citizenry we allow both those supplying money and those asking for money to operate, and as a community we need to ensure we have oversight over the organisations they choose to fund. Love to talk with you if you think this is at all interesting, and if you want to dive into the data a bit more than happy to do so. Check out my website http://www.delfi.co.nz/
RSS Feed