edit: see this piece for more around this.
A healthy dose of media and too much time on my hands has sparked up this interest again in grant money: where it comes from, where it goes to have how it gets there. I was having a wee surf the other day while I wait for some grant makers I am keen to look at to publish, and remembered these guys. I first stumbled across them when I was looking at Rano.
Akarana is a pretty small pokie: as at the end of 2023 they had six venues, mostly in Auckland, and at last publication accounted for nearly $4m in grants in the year to 31 March 2024. They are fairly exclusive on the grant making front, handing out grants to just over 250 organisations in those eight years at an average of around $18k - although a median of around $5k. This means they give a lot to a few, which pulls up the average.
Their venues have not changed much in the past few years, although they have lost one venue this current financial year to yet another pokie start up: New Horizon Community Trust (yes I will look at them, no they haven't made any grant publications yet). Their venues all have 18 machines: if you do the maths they generate the below grants off 108 machines. Looking at 2024 numbers, that is $36k per machine or a strong $665k per venue.
On paper they have a fairly wide remit. From their website: Akarana may make grants for:
Akarana Community Trust don't have any guidelines around groups applying several times in a year. What was immediately apparent is the sheer number and value of grants and going to specific groups. Below is a chart looking at the make up of the grant making portfolio. I have isolated the top 10 organisations in the last five years and am showing here the amount given in total, and the number of grants. Note the growth in total grants will be driven by the COVID effect.
A healthy dose of media and too much time on my hands has sparked up this interest again in grant money: where it comes from, where it goes to have how it gets there. I was having a wee surf the other day while I wait for some grant makers I am keen to look at to publish, and remembered these guys. I first stumbled across them when I was looking at Rano.
Akarana is a pretty small pokie: as at the end of 2023 they had six venues, mostly in Auckland, and at last publication accounted for nearly $4m in grants in the year to 31 March 2024. They are fairly exclusive on the grant making front, handing out grants to just over 250 organisations in those eight years at an average of around $18k - although a median of around $5k. This means they give a lot to a few, which pulls up the average.
Their venues have not changed much in the past few years, although they have lost one venue this current financial year to yet another pokie start up: New Horizon Community Trust (yes I will look at them, no they haven't made any grant publications yet). Their venues all have 18 machines: if you do the maths they generate the below grants off 108 machines. Looking at 2024 numbers, that is $36k per machine or a strong $665k per venue.
On paper they have a fairly wide remit. From their website: Akarana may make grants for:
- any charitable purpose;
- any non-commercial purpose that is beneficial to the whole or a section of the community; and
- promoting, controlling, and conducting race meetings under the Racing Act 2003, including the payment of stakes.
Akarana Community Trust don't have any guidelines around groups applying several times in a year. What was immediately apparent is the sheer number and value of grants and going to specific groups. Below is a chart looking at the make up of the grant making portfolio. I have isolated the top 10 organisations in the last five years and am showing here the amount given in total, and the number of grants. Note the growth in total grants will be driven by the COVID effect.
|
|
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
Grand Total |
|
|
|
$ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
# |
|
Bay of Plenty Sikh Society NZ Trust |
25,000 |
350,398 |
234,032 |
609,430 |
16 |
||
|
Chinese Senior Citizen Help Foundation |
199,975 |
202,885 |
85,220 |
20,574 |
64,469 |
573,124 |
25 |
|
Indo Kiwi United Trust |
17,088 |
90,349 |
70,455 |
120,529 |
7,500 |
305,922 |
19 |
|
New Zealand Sports & Community Development Trust |
312,497 |
312,497 |
4 |
||||
|
Roopa Aur Aap Charitable Trust |
165,395 |
134,541 |
96,544 |
200,336 |
164,679 |
761,495 |
38 |
|
Sikh Heritage School |
60,327 |
196,269 |
256,596 |
8 |
|||
|
Supreme Sikh Society of New Zealand |
1,226,088 |
1,114,548 |
1,111,546 |
1,744,496 |
1,479,000 |
6,675,678 |
166 |
|
Surf Life Saving Northern Region |
89,154 |
61,478 |
68,995 |
138,711 |
147,064 |
505,402 |
33 |
|
United North Piha Lifeguard Service Inc |
210,000 |
50,000 |
260,000 |
4 |
|||
|
Woman Care Trust |
210,007 |
289,256 |
275,360 |
459,592 |
394,181 |
1,628,395 |
60 |
|
Other |
854,338 |
435,823 |
318,899 |
808,929 |
1,117,803 |
3,535,791 |
418 |
|
Grand Total |
2,762,046 |
2,353,880 |
2,377,418 |
3,997,526 |
3,933,462 |
15,424,332 |
791 |
We can see that Supreme Sikh received 43% of the available grant money from Akarana in the past five years, in 166 successful grants. I find it wild that every year Akarana makes around 3 grants per month to this organisation. Now grant making like this is not unknown: rugby unions have similar arrangements with other pokies: a practice I think is a little curious but hey seems ok by the regulator. The amount of paperwork required to fulfill the accountability requirements must be confusing.
We can also see a few regular favourites: Woman Care Trust gets a grant a month from this operator, and Roopa Aur Aap Charitable Trust gets a regular amount too. However there is a new favourite for 2024, and one, if I were the regulator, I would have a look at: New Zealand Sports & Community Development Trust. This charity was registered with the Charities Office just under a year ago, on 23 September 2023. Since then they have received $312k from Akarana in four grants, $40k from Four Winds (which I wrote about here) and $476k from Blue Sky, $26k Dragon, $30k Grassroots and $197k from Rano in a grand total of 41 grants.
You can see the Trust deed for this organisation on the Charities office. Suffice to say it is a very broad charitable purpose: from a wrestling gym, to supporting cultural festivals, to providing care and support to dementia patients. We can also see a copy of the accounts to 31 March 2024. This shows income of $634k, expenses of $300k (made up of $192k wages, $91k rent and other opex, and $57k in admin and other overheads. According to the accounts the gym officially opened April 2024. Forward commitments include rent on two buildings, at an annual cost of $222k. Now, not saying that anything is off here: it could be that Akarana and the other pokies are helping an organisation to start up, but if I were in charge I would have hard look at this. What set this organisation apart of the multitude of others to get such support in start up phase? And why a charity for a gym? How does this sit against commercial enterprises?
Another issue that Akarana should be considering is their social license to operate. Hauraki District Council has recently done a wee review of their pokie ecosystem and concluded that they are not receiving their fair proportion of gaming proceeds generated in the district, with their community groups missing out on just over $1m. Akarana operates one of the seven venues in Hauraki. According to Granted in 2023 Akarana gave just over $100k to organisations in Hauraki. If you refer back to above, I figured out that Akarana generates around $655k per venue. So the Council's concern does seem valid. Maybe Councils could consider my rejig of the industry.
I write about this stuff as believe that as need to understand where funding comes from, where it goes, and how it gets there. No one else seems all that interested. 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/
We can also see a few regular favourites: Woman Care Trust gets a grant a month from this operator, and Roopa Aur Aap Charitable Trust gets a regular amount too. However there is a new favourite for 2024, and one, if I were the regulator, I would have a look at: New Zealand Sports & Community Development Trust. This charity was registered with the Charities Office just under a year ago, on 23 September 2023. Since then they have received $312k from Akarana in four grants, $40k from Four Winds (which I wrote about here) and $476k from Blue Sky, $26k Dragon, $30k Grassroots and $197k from Rano in a grand total of 41 grants.
You can see the Trust deed for this organisation on the Charities office. Suffice to say it is a very broad charitable purpose: from a wrestling gym, to supporting cultural festivals, to providing care and support to dementia patients. We can also see a copy of the accounts to 31 March 2024. This shows income of $634k, expenses of $300k (made up of $192k wages, $91k rent and other opex, and $57k in admin and other overheads. According to the accounts the gym officially opened April 2024. Forward commitments include rent on two buildings, at an annual cost of $222k. Now, not saying that anything is off here: it could be that Akarana and the other pokies are helping an organisation to start up, but if I were in charge I would have hard look at this. What set this organisation apart of the multitude of others to get such support in start up phase? And why a charity for a gym? How does this sit against commercial enterprises?
Another issue that Akarana should be considering is their social license to operate. Hauraki District Council has recently done a wee review of their pokie ecosystem and concluded that they are not receiving their fair proportion of gaming proceeds generated in the district, with their community groups missing out on just over $1m. Akarana operates one of the seven venues in Hauraki. According to Granted in 2023 Akarana gave just over $100k to organisations in Hauraki. If you refer back to above, I figured out that Akarana generates around $655k per venue. So the Council's concern does seem valid. Maybe Councils could consider my rejig of the industry.
I write about this stuff as believe that as need to understand where funding comes from, where it goes, and how it gets there. No one else seems all that interested. 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/
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