• Home
  • Reports
  • Blog Directory
  • Blog
  • Media
  • Contact

Some musings on things

One Foundation Update

4/3/2020

2 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
I thought it might be a good idea to update on this gaming trust.  I included these guys in the work I did earlier for my TedX CHC talk when they were called First Sovereign, but of late they have struck me as a bit hard: namely due to the fact they seem to have moved away from identifying where their grants were made and it’s not quite the simple copy paste job it used to be. 

But I have time on my hands so started afresh with 5,046 lines of five years of grants data.  Some two months later, much gnashing of teeth and questioning my life choices, here you have it.

They have venues throughout the country, with a particular historical strength in Rotorua.  Indeed, the men who made the decisions on where the money goes are mostly based in Rotorua.

Looking at the past five years of data we can see a lot of growth in Wellington, and a bit in Manawatu Wanganui.  It makes me wonder: Why the drop off in 2019?  And what’s the grant growth in Wellington.

To answer the first question.  I am pretty sure that incorrect data has been published.  Sadly there are no financial statements published for One Foundation since 2017, so I can’t check this, but given the number of gaming machines under their management actually INCREASED by 12 in the nine months from 31 December 2018 to 30 September 2019 (the last time numbers were published by the Department of Internal Affairs on this) I’m guessing that’s the situation.  I have a query in with DIA about publication of grants as I’m too lazy to read the legislation, but I suspect, given these organisations tend to be very transparent with their grant making, that this is an error. 

The second question is pretty interesting.  I have looked at DIA data for venues over the past five years.  Wellington region’s machines have grown from 8 machines at 31 December 2014 to an astonishing 205 at 30 September 2019.  They picked up nine venues it seems in 2015, all from Infinity Foundation.  I’d love to know the story behind that!  I did try to see if that affected the grant decisions, but unfortunately Infinity Foundation only have their most recent financial year grants available on their website (again, really?) so I can’t dig.  One Foundation’s numbers have held in other parts of the country, although they are now out of Queenstown, and numbers have halved in the Tauranga region.  Auckland numbers also rose from 24 machines up to 78 in 2017, only to drop off again to 36.  

Then we can look at where the money goes.  I’m only going to look at years where I have full data: 2015 – 2018.  Money goes to all sorts of community organisations, with sport getting around half, and community and economic development, and education taking around 15% of the total given.  They give an average of around $9,000 per grant, in 2018 made around 1,500 grants to 964 different organisations across the country.

Picture
Picture
What’s quite interesting is the regional split.  For example, Bay of Plenty sports clubs get 43% of the Foundation’s total spend into the region, Canterbury’s get 59% while Wellington’s sports bodies receive some 73% of total grants into the region. 

Sport?  Well it’s a bit predictable: below is a wee table showing the top 11 codes over 2015 – 2018 financial year.  Organiser is those organisations who run things (like Sport Canterbury) and Club is those clubs where several codes are offered under one entity.
​


Now, one thing I just don’t get is multiple applications in any one year.  We see this often with “For purpose” gaming trusts, such as Mainland Foundation or Air Rescue, where their bodies they are established to support receive support usually once a month.  One Foundation has a fairly general authorised purpose.

There are a bunch of groups that have received multiple grants in any one financial year.  Below is a table showing the top number of grant writers and their successful applications.  
Picture
There seems to be a mix of many small grants and many large grants.  Who received the most in 2018?  Wellington Rugby Union on $309k followed by Ole Academy with a whopping $280k in grants from this one grant maker.  Now, I had a wee gander at Ole Academy last time when I wrote about the Air Rescue Trust.  In fact that review sparked this decent look at One Foundation.  Stuff had a look at Ole Academy at the start of this year.  A cursory glance at what they do and their website suggests it the polar opposite of what Sport NZ is trying to achieve with its programmes to keep young people in sport.  To me, it’s another indicator that parent organisations need to understand where the money is coming from, and look to use some sticks to bring grass roots organisations working against the strategy into line.

One Foundation put around $14m into our communities through the operation of their gaming venues.  Their processes are simple, they fund a lot of different organisations, but their disclosure leaves a bit to be desired.  I’m a little uncomfortable too with those sitting around the table making decisions to fund specific organisations, and I can’t help wonder why all those Wellington venues came over to this organisation in 2015 and why they are so supportive of football in the capital.   I also have not looked at who made up the $8.7m declined grants (2018).  I have the data but I don’t find it quite as interesting.  Let me know if you do!

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/

2 Comments

Selwyn Funding Ecosystem

2/3/2020

1 Comment

 
Picture
Picture
Something popped up on my Facebook telling me that there is a session on Thursday for those in Selwyn District for those groups looking for funding, with SDC, Rata and Lotteries.

So I thought I would have a wee look at my database and see what is happening over there.


So what does this show?  It shows that Gaming Trusts are the most important funder into the region.  Lotteries gave it a nudge in 2016 with a $500k grant for presumably capital (to SDC).  And you could cry foul: there is nothing here from the local government. That’s because when I did this work a few years ago, I decided the amounts they gave were rounding: the discretionary fund for this year is around $84k.  The only local government I have included is CCC, who of course doesn’t fund SDC organisations (and let’s not think about the Christchurch City Third Sector organisations which are utilised by residents of Selwyn… we live our lives beyond municipal boundaries!).
​
Where does the money go?   I was surprised by this.  Groups in Community and Economic Development in Selwyn get a greater share than when I have looked at this at a macro level.  I suspect this is driven by the fact Selwyn is growing very fast.  Groups in other third sector buckets, such as Health, Social Services and Arts, tend also to operate on a provincial level, so its not surprising there is little to those groups.

Picture
I have then cut 2017 data to see where money for specific sorts of groups is coming from, as below.  No real surprises here of course.
Picture
Which sports got the money in 2017?  2017 Rugby received $130k, golf $104k, Selwyn Sports Trust $85k, and hockey $62k. 

Gaming Trusts are responsible for the lion’s share of grants going into the region, and the average amount given to each group is smaller than those other grant makers looked at.  They are pretty good at funding schools too.

So I’m not sure what will be presented on Thursday at the funders forum, but if anyone wants to better understand the ecosystem for those getting and giving grants, then a little data can be useful. You’re welcome.

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/

1 Comment

    Archives

    March 2025
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    March 2023
    January 2023
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    February 2021
    November 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly