Rātā Foundation has given out $573,070 to community organisations in its first round of 2017 funding.
The foundation grants funding to organisations which align with its four focus areas: Learn, Support, Connect and Participate.
This year the foundation looked at organisations which collaborated to make bigger community projects and services possible.
Chief Executive of Rātā Foundation, Louise Edwards says collaboration can be a relatively quick, though not always easy, way of bringing impactful solutions to more people.
“Whether two or more small organisations collaborate to help them reach more people, or a large organisation collaborates with a small one because it recognises the special value the smaller organisation brings to clients, it is the partnership which allows them to make the greatest impact,” says Louise.
One collaborative project which stood out was the Nelson Environment Centre (NEC) Kai Rescue service, administered by NEC on behalf of a range of Nelson community organisations.
Louise says Kai Rescue has both environmental and social outcomes, with the service helping to reduce organic waste to landfill and alleviating food poverty in local Nelson communities.
The service will act as a ‘logistics hub’ collecting food for donor food retailers and producers and redistributing it to charities.
“Kai Rescue is about rescuing food which is good enough to eat, but not good enough to sell and redistributing it to those groups who work with our most vulnerable and in need.”
The intended outcomes for this project align with Rātā Foundation’s intent to “enable groups and sectors to work together to bring about positive change in their communities”.
Through its Connect Focus area, Rātā Foundation is looking to provide funding to organisations who are able to create opportunities for people to develop skills and connections to support entrepreneurship, amongst other things.
