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The other day I was reviewing an old blog Akarana Community Trust where I had noted a new player: New Horizons. I thought it might be worth having a further look now that they were established and we had some data on them.
New Horizons was registered as a company in July 2022 with three directors and two shareholders: one at 90%. They are now providing services to Auckland two venues (as at 31 December 2025): Counties Inn and Tuis Clubrooms, both owned by the same chap.
New Horizon's authorised purposes are copied below from their website:
The authorised purposes of New Horizon Community Trust encompass a broad range of initiatives aimed at enhancing community well-being and support.
New Horizon Community Trust supports a wide array of community initiatives. We fund local amateur sports, especially minority sports, youth programs, elderly support services, and public health projects.
Additionally, we provide grants for cultural and arts festivals, environmental conservation, climate change initiatives, and projects promoting Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles. Our funding also assists the Rainbow community, recent immigrants, and organizations fostering community cultural education and cohesion. Through these diverse funding areas, we aim to enhance community well-being and inclusivity.
Note some pokies do have restrictions on the frequency that organisations can come back to the pokie for further funding. This entity doesn’t seem to have that restriction.
They are getting the money out the door – which is really the job. In the 18 months that grant distributions have been published they have given away just over $2m. There were no declarations of interest made by the Net Proceeds Committee.
In 2025 they:
But, as regular readers know, I like to poke around a little. Below is a pivot showing the top ten recipients of grants from this pokie. Over 80% of the grant funds have gone to the below organisations.
New Horizons was registered as a company in July 2022 with three directors and two shareholders: one at 90%. They are now providing services to Auckland two venues (as at 31 December 2025): Counties Inn and Tuis Clubrooms, both owned by the same chap.
New Horizon's authorised purposes are copied below from their website:
The authorised purposes of New Horizon Community Trust encompass a broad range of initiatives aimed at enhancing community well-being and support.
New Horizon Community Trust supports a wide array of community initiatives. We fund local amateur sports, especially minority sports, youth programs, elderly support services, and public health projects.
Additionally, we provide grants for cultural and arts festivals, environmental conservation, climate change initiatives, and projects promoting Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles. Our funding also assists the Rainbow community, recent immigrants, and organizations fostering community cultural education and cohesion. Through these diverse funding areas, we aim to enhance community well-being and inclusivity.
Note some pokies do have restrictions on the frequency that organisations can come back to the pokie for further funding. This entity doesn’t seem to have that restriction.
They are getting the money out the door – which is really the job. In the 18 months that grant distributions have been published they have given away just over $2m. There were no declarations of interest made by the Net Proceeds Committee.
In 2025 they:
- gave away $1.172m in 55 grants
- declined 18 grants
- Gave away $852k in 49 grants
- Declined 14 grants
But, as regular readers know, I like to poke around a little. Below is a pivot showing the top ten recipients of grants from this pokie. Over 80% of the grant funds have gone to the below organisations.
A few numbers stand out here. The Institute of Sikh Studies was registered as a charity on 6 May 2024. And my word they’ve been most successful in attracting funding from this organisation. They already received $364k of grant funding in a total of 12 grant applications in these 18 months of pokie disclosure. If we look at the latest published accounts (31 March 2025) of this charity we have $49k in salaries, and a $15k in consulting and accounting. Granted.govt.nz hasn’t got the 2025 data in yet: but in 2024 New Horizons were the only pokie to fund this organisation. Now, not saying that anything is off here: it could be that these this pokie is helping organisations to start up, but if I were in charge I would have hard look at this. What set this entity apart of the multitude of others to get such support in start up phase?
We can also see $423k going to Sikh Heritage School in14 applications, and $218k to the Supreme Sikh Society in 10 applications.
Interestingly, although it hasn’t made the top 10, I did note a grant of $15k made to Waikato Women’s Advancement on 3 June 2025. It struck me as odd given, I am guessing based on the clue in the name, that its Waikato based. More interesting as its now been deregistered (March 2026) and has filed a zero return for the past three years. This charity was well funded by Blue Sky and Dragon late last decade (my database suggests to the tune of $333k) but they fell of the funders' dance card in 2019 and 2020 with a bunch of declined applications. So I’m unsure what that’s about.
If anyone is interested in having a look at the database I’ve pulled together please let me know. Its all publicly available data, but just assembled in a manner that makes it easier to interrogate.
I write about this stuff as I believe that we need to understand where funding comes from, where it goes, and how it gets there. In the greater scheme of things its rounding, but for many organisations surviving and doing great mahi it’s a lot of money. 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 $423k going to Sikh Heritage School in14 applications, and $218k to the Supreme Sikh Society in 10 applications.
Interestingly, although it hasn’t made the top 10, I did note a grant of $15k made to Waikato Women’s Advancement on 3 June 2025. It struck me as odd given, I am guessing based on the clue in the name, that its Waikato based. More interesting as its now been deregistered (March 2026) and has filed a zero return for the past three years. This charity was well funded by Blue Sky and Dragon late last decade (my database suggests to the tune of $333k) but they fell of the funders' dance card in 2019 and 2020 with a bunch of declined applications. So I’m unsure what that’s about.
If anyone is interested in having a look at the database I’ve pulled together please let me know. Its all publicly available data, but just assembled in a manner that makes it easier to interrogate.
I write about this stuff as I believe that we need to understand where funding comes from, where it goes, and how it gets there. In the greater scheme of things its rounding, but for many organisations surviving and doing great mahi it’s a lot of money. 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/