New Zealand Charity, NGO, Community, NFP Sector Response to Covid-19

This page is a compilation of all the emails and also the videos since the start of the crisis sent out to a group of leaders from NGOs, Charities, NFPs, Social Enterprises and Community Sector groups. There is a lot of great data and ideas here so compiling it in one place will make it easier to find.

If you would like to join the group, drop me a line stevenmoe@parryfield.com … we tend to meet at noon on Fridays by zoom. There are now around 200 on the email list. We usually have 20 to 40 on the calls with many reading the content or watching the videos afterwards as well. First half of the meeting has sector updates, second half has break out room connecting and brainstorming.

Index of content on this page

Letter sent to the Prime Minister
Email on 22 June re Meeting #12 + Video
Email on 8 June re Meeting #11 + Video
Email on 29 May re Meeting #10 + Video
Email on 22 May re Meeting #9 + Video
Email on 16 May re Meeting #8 + Video
Email on 10 May re Meeting #7 + Video
Email on 4 May re Meeting #6 + Video
Email on 23 April re Meeting #5 + Video
Email on 17 April re Meeting #4 + Video
Email on 9 April re Meeting #3
Email on 3 April re Meeting #2 + Video
Email on 27 March re Meeting #1 + Video

Letter sent to the Prime Minister

This is the text of letter sent to the Prime Minister and Ministers Williams, Robertson, Sepuloni and Martin on 9 April 2020.

Email on 22 June 2020 summarizing Meeting #12

Kia ora all,

Video of June 19th meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXru3C8YxCA&t=2s

00:00: Welcome and intro from Steven
01:54: Mele Wendt describing Community Governance initiative – see powerpoint attached.
14:38: Rochelle Stewart-Allen From Hui-E! updating on a call with 6 politicians on community sector held recently (video here)
21:16: Steven update on paper “Charting the Future: A Framework for thinking about Change” here
22:33: Question from Dennis Parker – has anyone had any application experience re new 2020 Budget initiatives? He would like to hear from you: dennisfparker@gmail.com
24:08: James Lord from Be Collective, update on volunteering and what they are seeing and upcoming volunteering week
29:53: Anne Rodda update on paper “Tomorrow’s Board Diversity: The Role of Creatives” released last week – it is here
35:23: Steven reflections on the creatives and governance paper
37:07: Liz Davies with an update from Social Link on social sector drive post Covid-19 action plan for the social sector in the western Bay of Plenty – plan just completed https://socialink.org.nz/reimagine-us/.
38:06: Intro to break out rooms
39:44: Ros Rice summary of Breakout Room (see below for these)
42:11: Monica Briggs summary of Breakout Room
44:40: Anne Edgar summary of Breakout Room
47:04: Final thoughts
47:47: End

Slack Channel for collaborating: https://join.slack.com/t/newworkspace-mcr9937/shared_invite/zt-e16nas3r-W0LijuM14SO6j3zHzfjYaA

Video link for Friday 3 July (will send a meeting invite closer to the date): https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85038614972?pwd=TUxhRkhJbkxMY09PazZJQUZqMFVBUT09

Creatives and Boards: This paper is mentioned in the video above – Anne Rodda and I put it together https://www.parryfield.com/tomorrows-board-diversity-the-role-of-creatives/

Ros Rice Summary of Group discussion

Discussed Disability Connect: This is their website https://disabilityconnect.org.nz/
• Auckland based group particularly focused on helping parents of children with disabilities.
• Also work with different ethnic communities.
• Want to connect with other organisations in the sector.
• The disability voice should not be an afterthought.
• Many other organisations encounter clients with disabilities. Disability Connect would love to help if issues or help is needed.
• Disability Connect is interested in partnering in projects where they can bring a disability lens.
• The disability voice is not just about physical disability but also about issues like autism, and foetal alcohol syndrome.

TAUPO Council of Social Services.
• Taupo COSS has been working with community during the lockdown.
• There are serious issues regarding housing in Taupo.
• Government too often relies on high level statistics in areas that appear to be primarily high income. This hides areas of severe deprivation and the issues for those in poverty are often invisible in these places.
Eg: Queenstown, Taupo, Tauranga.

Monica Briggs Summary of Group Discussion

• Results of survey will be coming soon – likely out in July with bigger report at end of July. More than 1,000 community organisations responded.
• Rochelle commented that data will be available for others to use as well
• Because it is a large data set and there are qualitative responses will be useful for framing policy

Anne Edgar Summary of Group Discussion

• Discussed various tax points as Stewart Donaldson from IRD was on the call
• Why only 200 charity / NGOs applied for small business loan scheme?
• Why few people had applied for tax credits?

As always this email and content can be forwarded and shared with others – if you received this from some forwarding on and want to join in, drop me a line.
Thanks all, have a great week!
Steven

Email on 7 June 2020 summarising Meeting #11

Kia ora all,

Video of meeting held at noon on Friday June 5th: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vll7UUoO24&t=1s

NOTE: We will switch to every two weeks for the calls so next one will be on Friday 19th June.

Summary:

00:00: Welcome and intro from Steven
01:58: Steven and Craig Fisher an update on paper “Charting the Future: A framework for thinking about change for Charities, NFPs, NGOs and Community Organisations” to be released soon (cover below)
05:16: Tessa Vincent and Sarah Doherty on an event next Wednesday with politicians “Educating political parties to help the community sector“ (see link below) as well as survey underway (link below)
08:44: Lisa Foster on Rare Disorders perspective and what next steps might be for the charity/community sector. Info on a “Fair for Rare” campaign https://raredisorders.org.nz/fair-for-rare-nz/fair-for-rare/
10:24: Dennis Parker with an update from Trade Aid and what he is seeing, in particular this is a summary of part (rephrased but the essence): In the midst of uncertainty, people are re-evaluating what they support, so it is a chance to look at the messaging and how to convey why you exist. This is a time to have stronger communication to the public around what you do, and why. Is this an opportunity to reimagine how we fulfil our purpose in order to be successful?
17:49: Craig Fisher update on XRB guidance on website, likely delay of service performance reporting, and NFP governance for 16th June with IOD, links below.
21:35: Intro to breakout rooms time
25:06: Report back on Group 1 by Ros Rice [Summaries below]
29:02: Report back on Group 2 by Tessa Vincent, including thoughts from Sarah Doherty on creation of advocacy groups and need to continue with existing ones not new ones
33:57: Report back on Group 3 by Dennis Parker
36:24: Future of group being every two weeks and other thoughts.
37:29: Anne Edgar with thoughts on lobbying
41:15: End

Survey: on impact on community groups … https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SNXLXM3

Slack Channel for collaborating: https://join.slack.com/t/newworkspace-mcr9937/shared_invite/zt-e16nas3r-W0LijuM14SO6j3zHzfjYaA

WEBINAR: Educating political parties to help the community sector
Wednesday 10 June, 2020
4pm-5.30pm
Register: https://events.humanitix.com/election-webinar
• Confirmed participants are Poto Williams (Labour), Jan Logie (Greens), Tracey Martin (NZ First), Alfred Ngaro (National), Brooke van Velden (Act) and Geoff Simmons (TOP)
• This event is co-hosted by Hui E! Community Aotearoa, ComVoices, Sue Barker Charities Law, and Trust Democracy
• With warm thanks to Todd Foundation for supporting this event.

SURVEY: Community Sector COVID-19 Impact Survey
Closes 5pm, Friday 12 June https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SNXLXM3
• This national survey is collecting data on how COVID-19 has impacted community organisations to identify where you’re at now and expect to be in 12 months’ time
• Results expected early July 2020
• The results will also be shared as an open dataset to allow other organisations, government and philanthropy to re-use the results
• The survey is a partnership between Hui E! Community Aotearoa, Volunteering New Zealand, Philanthropy New Zealand and Centre for Social Impact
• With warm thanks to Foundation North for supporting this survey.

Resources and upcoming events:

• XRB resources link: https://www.xrb.govt.nz/information-hub/information-in-response-to-covid-19/

• Craig Fisher and I are co-writing a “white paper” now which is called: “Charting the Future: A framework for thinking about change for Charities, NFPs, NGOs and Community Organisations” and we will release it soon to offer a few challenges and thoughts. Be watching out for it… and will share to this group.

Video link for Friday 19 June (will send a meeting invite closer to the date).

Group summary from Ros Rice:

Broad based discussion
• Issues with NGOs and Govt depts. being both being risk adverse.
o The power of cross sector groups speaking on behalf of everyone.
o The issue of Government threatening funding . ie gagging clauses.
• We need to protect civil society freedom. To do this we need to network, story tell, and talk together.
• We are in a good place to try and move understanding between business and NGOs.

• Re this zoom group. We think we should move to fortnightly for a while, then monthly.
We really like updates but if we go straight to monthly the group will become like a spoken newsletter.
We need to put more energy into how we network.

Group summary from Tessa Vincent:

Lisa Foster: Rare Disorders NZ – 300,000 in NZ classed as having a rare disease. “Fair for Rare” NZ. 140 support groups.
Karen Summerhays: Aspirational community led development. Te Puki centre runs the post office in Te Puki as a social enterprise.
Anne: Tax advisor
Mark Allen: Community Waitakere Executive Officer.

Lisa spoke about Rare Disorders NZ: www.raredisorders.org.nz Introductions (above)
Comments from Mark: Auckland Council is facing a half billion loss and it is exacerbated by the fact that Auckland charged a high user-charge regime. Auckland is doing an emergency budget over the next two weeks. There are proposed cuts to the local boards. The decision-making process means that funding will actually be distributed in October but there is a campaign at the moment to change that process. Like Karen, believes that central government has a significant role to play.
Advisory body: generally supportive. Representational model can sometimes miss the small guys. The umbrellas aren’t often connected to the small charities that are doing the innovation.

Group summary from Dennis Parker

We did discuss the two identified issues, the response to the two sector updates with prospective next steps and the value and frequency of these meetings.

The discussion threads from the sector updates were around organisation and action. Comments were made on the need to show appreciation and recognise value of the people providing organisational capacity. It was suggested that working on such capacity building will be an important component for the next steps. An alternate view (but not necessarily an opposing view) was that focussing on actions and in some cases advocacy was important for the next steps. The discussion in effect was around focus and how best to achieve sector change and recognition from government: on the internal and how we organise vs the external and how we act.

All appreciated the value of the group with comments on how valuable it was to hear from others in the sector on the different and similar issues, and for making some important connections. All agreed with the notion of having these sessions less frequently than weekly, but to continue.

Darren Ward posted this comment in the slack channel

Hi all I participated in a European conference last week with the larger international NGO’s. The pressures they are facing are much the same as we are seeing in domestic NGO’s here – reduced income, focus n COVID related issues, having to rationalise and restructure. It seems some of the changes they are making are ones that were in planning pre-COVID but the scale and need for change has been ramped up significantly by COVID. An example is Oxfam who will be closing 18 country offices and reducing staff by 1500. This was part of a 10 year strategy but has been brought forward to the coming year.
There is also the start of a shift from dealing with the immediate issues to thinking longer term. COVID has fundamentally shifted strategies and these are being reviewed for the new environment. This is a crucial step and will ensure that decisions are made with longer term outcomes in mind. Up to now they have been very reactive and short-term focused. I sense the same is the case in NZ.
The final area is on funding. With traditional revenue streams such as public donations and government funding hit hard for many (although philanthropic seems to be standing up so far) they are facing shortfalls on budget. The push has been for increased Government support, but with increased pressure on Government funding there has been little in the way of commitment from Governments. The sector will need to look at alternative ways of cutting costs and raising revenue which could include mergers, shared services and looking at alternative business and funding models. This is a real challenge for any organisation to face up to as it really goes to the core of mission and purpose.
If anyone wants to talk over any of this I am happy to chat on Zoom. Unfortunately I can’t make this Friday’s call due to another commitment. Feel free to reach out via Slack, Kia Kaha

• Article in Stuff last week https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/300022484/charities-are-essential-yet-often-forgotten

• Ākina have released this paper on Building New Zealand’s Impact Economy.

• Key legal issues from Covid-19 handbook here.

As always this email and content can be forwarded and shared with others – if you received this from some forwarding on and want to join in, drop me a line.

Thanks all, have a great week!
Steven

Email on 29 May 2019 summarising Meeting #10

Kia ora all,

Getting this out ahead of the long weekend! Video of meeting held at noon on Friday 29th May: https://youtu.be/3_ZrzRHVcao

We often have talked about lack of visibility in mainstream media so wrote this short opinion for Stuff that you and others you know may appreciate https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/300022484/charities-are-essential-yet-often-forgotten “We see them every day, we know people who work for them, we give to them. They help our most vulnerable and yet are vulnerable themselves. There is a largely silent group who are just getting on with things and yet are being deeply impacted by the crisis… “

Summary (18 people joined):

00:00: Intro from Steven
01:27: Liz from Social Link on their survey results, wage subsidy differences (due to Covid vs previously on job seeker) and concerns on this
08:39: Andrew Phillips from Charities Services with an update
12:56: Steven update including about article published in Stuff today
14:20: Explanation of break outs
16:45: Paul Gilberd from Community Finance report on group 1
19:17: Dennis Parker from Trade Aid (among other roles) report on group 2
21:06: Kayt Bronnimann from Charities Services report on group 3
21:55: Anne Rodda comment about wage subsidy and entities returning it
23:36: Next was a wide ranging discussion about various topics including community funding and how to build social infrastructure, creating fences at top of cliffs not just funding ambulances, webinars coming up on funding for community groups, discussions with Civil Defence and local Government, what aspirational community development is, the creative edge in the third sector and focus, the role of community workers and what they do, the forms of funding and how we report, keeping hope alive and the creative edge, funding but allowing space (not service provision response) and the real value of language. This resource was referred to by Katherine Peet documenting the value of language among other things: http://onevoicetereokotahi.blogspot.com/2020/01/report-from-ovtrk-forum-with-hon-p.html
34:06: Some discussion about this group and inviting eg environmental focussed reps and multicultural reps and immigrant reps along
38:36: END

I know many of you cannot make the meetings themselves but appreciate these email summaries and ability to watch after, so will keep preparing them (there are 190+ of you on the list now).

Survey: Please help get this survey of impact on community groups widely spread – and completing and share it too… https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SNXLXM3

Wage subsidy: Liz Davies liz@socialink.org.nz is interested in hearing from anyone who wants to write to Government (or take some other action) about the two tier system introduced with job losses due to Covid receiving higher amounts (see video for more on that).

Slack Channel for collaborating: Could we collaborate even more in a cross sector way? Almost 50 of you have joined the Slack channel: https://join.slack.com/t/newworkspace-mcr9937/shared_invite/zt-e16nas3r-W0LijuM14SO6j3zHzfjYaA

Resources and upcoming events:

• Article in Stuff mentioned above on charities impact https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/300022484/charities-are-essential-yet-often-forgotten

• Ākina have released this paper on Building New Zealand’s Impact Economy.

• JBWere have put out a summary of resources and analysis of status of funding for Charities/NFP/Community sector here: https://jbwere.co.nz/media/lrrk00d4/jbwere-nz-for-purpose-covid-19-bulletin.pdf

• Key legal issues from Covid-19 handbook here.

• What should be here but isn’t? Let me know and can add in to the next updates.

Video link for Friday 5 June (will send a meeting invite later in the week): https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86759514289?pwd=cEhrT0ZacksrYmNnUEV5QkdrWmlUZz09

Group summary from Dennis Parker:

Our small group was rather constrained for conversation as two of our members were from Charities Services and another was listening in from the hairdressers. One of the advantages of remote communication is the ability to listen in live while doing other important activities.

We were not able to discuss upcoming government initiatives referred to by Andrew in the main discussion update until they have been fully announced.

Two of us had attended the IOD webinar ‘Focus on not-for-profit’ earlier this week, one issues raised was on the ethics around funding sources. At last week’s Sector Response meeting the paper on ‘Ending community sector dependence on pokie funding’ was referred to and forwarded to attendees. This question was raised at the webinar with two of the presenters being comfortable with accepting all funding from legal companies, but the the other presenter stating ’two many brown people suffer from pokie machines’ with this funding source inappropriate.

We talked about the opportunity to reframe how funding gets done, but acknowledged that turning off funding now would be very difficult.

The rest of the breakout session became a Q&A on Trade Aid for understanding the similarities and differences between a social enterprise trading organisation and funded organisation. It was recognised that both were pursuing a mission, with the main difference being on the income / funding source.

Volunteerism was a discussed issue, not just about with the vulnerable older volunteers, but also with the many younger more vulnerable and in some case disabled volunteers.

Group summary from Paul Gilberd:

We discussed the theme of post Covid 19 arts and the re emerging levels of creativity, the strong value of arts as an expression of where we are and as a critical conscience and reflection of our varied experiences.
The arts sector continues to grapple with challenges in terms of how it can recreate safe audience and visitor experiences in our new world.

We discussed unemployment and benefit levels in relation to the new Covid allowance and views were wide and varied. In general there was agreement that the new level set by the Covid benefit seems a much more realistic and liveable income to survive on than normal benefit levels and that perhaps this is a significant and wonderful catchup opportunity for the Government to get it right (by bringing others up to that same level). The current arrangements were broadly described as ‘grossly unfair” and inequitable. An example of how this unfairness or simple lack of reality in the way people live was the linking of benefits to people’s relationship status and how that actually plays out in the real world. It would work better if the Government dealt with people as individuals rather than making a whole range of assumptions that more often than not are not true (re people’s relationships and how that intersects with their allocation of their income).

The group identified a wide set of significant and reputable work that has been published to support such changes with specific reference to the Child Poverty Action Group and also the Welfare Experts Advisory Group (WEAG) report. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel we could simply take the advice we have asked for and implement it.

We see a significant opportunity arising in these new circumstances to design and implement a system that is far more fit for purpose. Let’s not waste a crisis.

As always this email and content can be forwarded and shared with others – if you received this from some forwarding on and want to join in, drop me a line.

Thanks all, have a great week!
Steven

Email sent on 25 May re Meeting #9

Kia ora all,

Video of meeting on 22nd May: https://youtu.be/Fgv2gDSO9-8 Thanks everyone who joined and in particular those who shared sector updates which was a big focus this week.

Summary (35 people joined):

00:00: Introduction from Steven
02:14: Stewart Donaldson from IRD overview of what they are involved in currently
05:25: Rata Kamau from IRD with an overview of the Small Business Loan Scheme
20:40: Rata and Stewart answering questions
27:10: Louise Aitken on the new Ākina paper on Building New Zealand’s Impact Economy.
35:56: Sue McCabe update on PNZ / VNZ / Hui E! survey launching soon
38:49: Sarah Doherty on attached white paper on dependence on pokie funding described here
42:22: Steven summary and sending to break out rooms
45:02: Dennis Parker group 1 update [written feedback of each of these as a summary below]
47:16: Dean Harliwich, group 2 update
50:12: Guillaume Dehan, group 3 update
52:58: Final thoughts
54:11: End

I know many of you cannot make the meetings themselves but appreciate these email summaries and ability to watch after, so will keep preparing them (there are 180+ of you on the list now).

Note: there is a compilation of every email sent so far as well as all the resources, links and videos here [this page].

Next week: Would be good to highlight the release of the survey mentioned by Sue above, and get lots of people filling in. If anyone has an update to share just let me know.

Slack Channel for collaborating: Could we collaborate even more in a cross sector way? 44 of you have joined the Slack channel: https://join.slack.com/t/newworkspace-mcr9937/shared_invite/zt-e16nas3r-W0LijuM14SO6j3zHzfjYaA

Resources and upcoming events:

• Ākina have released this paper on Building New Zealand’s Impact Economy. Louise Aitken shared about it on video.

• Charities Services also want to showcase positive stories over this time -please email to info@charities.govt.nz

• Philanthropy NZ latest sector update: https://philanthropy.org.nz/philanthropic-sector-covid-19-weekly-update/

• The latest Alert Level 2 guidelines for volunteers and organisations can be found on Volunteering New Zealand’s COVID-19 response page. VNZ encourages you to get in touch if you want to share ideas and challenges during the COVID-19 response. You can contact Michelle Kitney, CE at VNZ, directly by email michelle@volunteeringnz.org.nz. Michelle would love to hear from you.

• Key legal issues from Covid-19 handbook here.

• Just spoke to Dr David Hall on topics that may interest including impact of Covid-19 on Govt policy and ‘nudge theory’ here http://seeds.libsyn.com/david-hall-on-consumer-decision-making-nudge-theory-political-philosophy-and-how-all-this-affects-government-policy.

• What should be here but isn’t? Let me know and can add in to the next updates.

Video link for Friday 29 May at noon (will send a meeting invite later in the week): https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83854777652?pwd=MTNqRWVod3lTdHJuYk9GeVEvUHNRQT09

Group summary by Dennis Parker, thanks:

Our group (Andrew Phillips, Tess Casey, Ross McTaggert, Dennis Parker) talked about post-recovery collaboration, with limited time the comments were mostly around the Akina report ‘Building New Zealand’s Impact Economy’. The need for sector organisations to collaborate and lead change was recognised as being important. The report was appreciated as a ’Statement of Intent’ but needs the sector organisations and people to take that leadership role for the post-recovery.
There have been previous sector discussions within the sector on such issues as legal structures, with Akina now being challenged to make some headway, consequently with the sector challenged to act. We asked ‘why has there not been a peak body set up in the past?’ with some of the responses being that maybe our sector defines itself too narrowly, hence our charities group representing social organisations and not environmental organisations. Maybe we should define ourselves more widely reaching out to include other organisations. Other comments also highlighted the sector historical influences that could be widened. We only briefly talked about the role of government, and of course recognised its critical importance.

We were appreciative of the work done by Akina and the report, with discussions on what a collaborative call to action would look like.

Group summary by Dean Harliwich, thanks:

Paul Brown – CEO of Child Fund (was CCF) – all work currently offshore, now looking more closely for home. Travelling ok, lucky to have a loyal, regular giving base through donation. 20% income from Government grants, about to make a bid for other funding. Things starting July 21 seem ok, not phenomenal, but ok; not a lot of clarity into the coming years. Looking to ways of merging with, collaborating with NFPs etc.

Ros Rice – Community networks aotearoa (umbrella org). Those networks have community organisations delivering to the front-lines of their communities.

Katherine Peet (Treaty educator) – Council for international development – CID’s Allocation criteria (Liz Mackey) previously existing were excellent and there’s some need to to resurrect those so to speak. Katherine’s involvement sees a lot of groups wanting to operate differently from contracting models – wanting to look at agreement models. Previously established agreement models have been really fruitful ways of receiving support from Government. Remphasized putting together the CID criteria, notions & agreements that we have which has perhaps eroded overtime. Ripe timing given the breath of survey in non-government sectors. Katherine sees positioning within an “on-the-ground” as opposed to top-down approach as particularly valuable here (Rangatiratanga).
People who have existing contracts are busy saving them – they don’t want new frameworks but this is the time for it.

Rata Kamau – Keen to have the conversation. Has been pushing since Level 4 for IRD to pivot & start considering more ways of supporting customers & allowing them to co-design, express needs etc. Thinking about things in terms of “the Maori economy”, do we need to think about this differently? Offer has gone out to a number of groups to think about this – “what additional support would you like“ but perhaps not enough context, so feedback was light.
Lots of introductory educational work available through IRD but Rata has been thinking “why do they have to come to us?” – why not embed that material in their processes.

Dean Harliwich – Timebanking groups are forming up as an informal network at the national level, looking toward further nourishing the sharing economy (ecology) & creating greater recognition & reciprocity around value-bearing activity not captured by GDP. Looking more broadly to collaborate within wider mutual aid systems as part of a toolkit, not a downright solution. Interested in being alongside for discussions with IRD to find ways businesses can contribute in the sharing economy that strengthen local interactions & exchange in ways that don’t shirk capital responsibility.

As always this email and content can be forwarded and shared with others – if you received this from some forwarding on and want to join in, drop me a line.

Thanks all, have a great week!
Steven

Email sent on 16 May re Meeting #8

Kia ora all,

Video of the meeting yesterday to rival Netflix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0cI5QXyJZE

Summary (31 people joined):

00:00: Welcome and intro by Steven
02:20: Michelle Kitney from Volunteering New Zealand on what they are seeing
13:17: Michelle answering questions from the group (including how to define ‘Volunteers’)
19:14: Ros Rice, Community Networks Aotearoa, update on ‘Network of networks’ (it has split into two, Ros is on welfare issues group)
23:30: Jeanne Rogers with more information on the welfare issues group
27:47: Ros brief reflections on the Budget
30:41: Steven explaining break out room time, Budget reflections
33:36: Aaron Davy from CID, first group 1 update [written feedback of each of these as a summary below]
36:44: Francesca Ephraim from Charities Services, group 2 update
39:55: Andrew Lilburn from Taupō Council of Social Services, group 3 update
44:41: John Godfrey from FINZ, group 4 update
48:45: Tess Casey from Neighbourhood Support NZ, group 5 update
51:05: Steven final reflections and comments from others
54:17: End

I know many of you cannot make the meetings themselves but appreciate these email summaries and ability to watch after, so will keep preparing them (there are 180+ of you on the list now).

Note: there is a compilation of every email sent so far as well as the resources, links and videos here.

Next week: Among other updates, IRD will join us to talk about the Small Business Loan Scheme. Note that the small business loan scheme has a one month window so check it out. Stewart Donaldson mentioned that they appreciate that if a NFP takes up a loan, you’re likely to want to discuss it at a board level or with your trustees beforehand to approve the application, so a one month window is not a long time (there is a possibility that the one month will be extended but we won’t know what the Cabinet decision is on that until closer to the time). Also, you can only apply via MyIR, so not-for-profits will need to make sure the appropriate people can access MyIR to make the application…

Slack Channel for collaborating: Could we collaborate even more in a cross sector way? 30 of you have joined the Slack channel here to try!: https://join.slack.com/t/newworkspace-mcr9937/shared_invite/zt-e16nas3r-W0LijuM14SO6j3zHzfjYaA

Charities Act review update: This was sent to those of us on the Charities Services Sector Group on Wednesday so sharing with you all too:

Tēnā koutou

We would like to provide the Sector User Group with an update on Modernising the Charities Act 2005.

COVID-19 has impacted the Department’s policy work programme, with new work required toward New Zealand’s response and recovery across each of the portfolios we administer. The Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector has paused work on Modernising the Charities Act for the next six months. This means no further policy work or external meetings will take place for the time being and no policy decisions will be proposed this Parliamentary term. Later in the year we will revisit how we might continue to progress this important work.

In the meantime, the Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector and the Department are considering how issues and opportunities relating to COVID-19, which have been raised by the sector and by philanthropic funders, might be incorporated into the work programme.

We wish you and those who you work with all the very best over the coming months.

Resources and upcoming events:

• Ākina are about to release this paper on Building an Impact Economy. Louise Aitken may be able to share about it next Friday.

• Charities Services also want to showcase positive stories over this time -please email to info@charities.govt.nz

• Philanthropy NZ sector update yesterday with a focus on the Budget: https://philanthropy.org.nz/philanthropic-sector-covid-19-weekly-update/

• Key legal issues from Covid-19 handbook here.

• What should be here but isn’t? Let me know and can add in to the next updates.

Video link for Friday 22 May at noon (will send a meeting invite later in the week): https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81028966276?pwd=alhMNjRITmY5QXdjdTNKZ3gvRDdKdz09

Group summary by Aaron Davy, thanks:
· Some felt underwhelmed by the budget, but it is understandable given the covid context that it was not going to be a ‘transformational’ announcement. It will be interesting to see how it translates further during the election year.
· The increase ($57 million) in the overseas development aid budget was welcomed, particularly as it supports the Pacific region, but question around whether it is more about supporting the extension of NZ infrastructure overseas. This led to a conversation about how can see work, and find the solutions more regionally, particularly through supporting engagement with the Pacific community.
· Some felt the budget was very much about the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, and not a lot of support for community development, particularly through greater funding to local government. Local government needs more resources and there is still not enough investment there.
· As a solution to the lack of investment in community led development to re-open and increase the DIA funding into the Community Led Development Programme.
· How might the budget have provided better support to the role of volunteers, including how to potentially link them to essential social infrastructure?
· How might we ‘way-find’ our way into government body discussions, and what are the implications of council budget cuts for NFP and other community groups (particularly upon environmental and educational concerns)? There was an accentuation upon on opportunities within DoC lands and conservation areas, but not on community urban spaces, particularly small towns and smaller settlements.

Group summary by John Godfrey, thanks:
• The devil is likely to be in the detail of the budget and amounts and, when looked at again, these sometimes turn out to be less because of how they have been divided or allocated to different areas.
There may also be an element of double counting
• Carmel Sepuloni has said that she will be making further announcements of funding from her Ministry at the weekend
• Nonetheless, there was some relief that for the first time this government appears to be taking notice in its budget of the for-purpose/volunteer sector
• We discussed the core expenses loan that was announced earlier in the week. There was a feeling that organisations should be wary and take advice before taking on the obligations of a loan.
• The question was, however, where might they get advice from?
• It was felt that the announcements of these forms of government finance were perhaps unclear and difficult to make sense of by grassroots and community volunteer groups,

Group summary by Andrew Lilburn, thanks:
• Participants – Penny Arthur, Dianne Armstrong, Lis Hawes and myself.
• We talked about the community and social sector ecosystem being seriously reduced as a result of previous neglect made worse by COVID.
• The Budget doesn’t appear to have anything in it that will address this for the invisible part of the ecosystem.
• We talked about how to increase the awareness of the sector especially those without government contracts.
• We struggle to get a voice at the decision making table.
• Working smarter and harder doesn’t change the income stream.

Group summary by Francesca Ephraim, thanks:
• Concerns about the volunteer workforce and the tension between keeping people safe and volunteers wanting to return to their roles
• How to keep volunteers engaged until they can get back on board
• Stats on the older workforce which has doubled in the last 30 years
• How to engage younger volunteers for essential services – for example Red Cross drivers
• Need to have conversations about the barriers to volunteering and compensating them for costs for any costs (eg like petrol when using a car for volunteering) incurred because of their volunteer role.
• More multicultural volunteers are coming forward and how to we welcome diverse communities into volunteering and governance
• State of the Sector report coming from VNZ in June and will provide a pre covid benchmark
• Budget – how can the government support funding for volunteers in the “new normal” and as the unemployment rate rises
• Need to ensure that we highlight the benefits of volunteering and the skills learnt to help transition to new roles or paid work
• There are Volunteer Centres that have had this acknowledged and are funded by Government to help people transition to work
• Many benefits to volunteering – not only for the community group and the wider community but also mana enhancing for the volunteer as well as the skills development
• Charities Services would love to showcase your stories and especially those around volunteering and collaboration (email info@charities.govt.nz)
• Charities Services held a Zoom webinar for charities this week – nearly 500 attendees and we are keen to hear your suggestions for other topics that are of interest to the sector (email francesca.ephraim@charities.govt.nz)

Group summary Tess Casey, thanks:
• Talked about the ‘invisible groups’ and how to identify them and the roles they are playing in this
• How we might assist Jeanne in her work and how to identify them
• Some of them are groups doing hard work during response often under the radar eg not funded by central government
• Some people working over capacity eg funding for 20 hours, people working vastly more – how to get funding to those people
• Productive links made between members of this small group

Other resources
From CID (Aaron): I have been getting resources up to date on the role of NGOs (but mostly in how ‘outwardly looking’ INGOs can redirect to engage domestically) during the coordination of National Emergency, particularly in the current COVID-19 state of emergency. I wanted to share these with you, as good resources to reference as needed:
· The Coordinated Incident Management System (CIMS) 2nd Edition – describes New Zealand’s coordination, command, and control system for emergency responses in NZ. (Although this will be superseded by the CIMS 3rd edition document from 1 July 2020).
· The Guide to the National CDEM Plan 2015 is a living document that operationalises the National CDEM Plan 2015 (2nd tier legislation that supports the CDEM Act 2002). It’s a useful general document to dip in/ out of, but I’d particularly refer you to:
§ Section 14. Welfare services – for understanding of the MCDEM welfare services portfolio, and the arrangements that a number of NZ-based NGOs and a few INGOs have roles and responsibilities within
§ Section 31. International assistance – CID and the Humanitarian Network are mentioned under s31.7.2 (in relation to c146(f)(v) under the National CDEM Plan 2015)
· The Welfare Services in an Emergency Director’s Guideline (DGL) provides further information on the welfare services arrangements and sub-functions.
· There is also a NCMC International Function SOP, which I am currently trying to source a working draft of this. But I understand it is still very much a work in progress for a while, and now on hold given the current response.

As always this email and content can be forwarded and shared with others – if you received this from some forwarding on and want to join in, drop me a line.

Thanks all, have a great weekend!
Steven

Email sent on 10 May re meeting #7

Kia ora all,

Video of the meeting on Friday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is3itsTZlFU [It is also below this message as an embedded video].

Summary of the call (39 people joined) discussing Charity, NGO, NFP, Community Sector response:

00:00 – Opening comments by Steven
02:36 – Anne Rodda update on current impact on Arts & Culture sector
08:59 – Kate Frykberg describing an innovative new template for Funding Relationships (more on it here)
12:25 – Andrew Phillips with Charities Services update
16:40 – Sue Crawford explaining about Slack and group we will set up on that platform to interact (now set up, see link below)
21:59 – Explanation of break out rooms, sending people to 6 groups
25:43 – Lisa Foster from Rare Disorders NZ, with group 1 feedback [Note: each group feedback summarised below.]
27:46 – Paddy and Ros Rice from Community Networks Aotearoa with group 2 feedback
29:35 – Amanda Rose from Multiple Sclerosis NZ, group 3 feedback
31:46 – Anne Rodda, strategy advisor to NFPs, group 4 feedback
34:05 – John Morrow from JB Were, group 5 feedback
36:11 – Ruth Orhoevwri from IRD, group 6 feedback
38:59 – Closing thoughts
41:52 – End

I know many of you cannot make the meetings themselves but appreciate these email summaries and ability to watch after, so will keep preparing them (there are 176 of you on the list now).

Slack Channel for collaborating

Could we collaborate even more in a cross sector way? Thanks to a suggestion from Sue Crawford (see video explanation) who has set up a slack channel to communicate for those in this group at any time about topics that will interest all of us (just for anyone who wants to join). Feel free to do so and post content there and use as a tool and way to connect with others and look for collaborations, encouragement and resources sharing.
This is a link to click and it should lead you to joining this slack channel (I have downloaded app on my laptop): https://join.slack.com/t/newworkspace-mcr9937/shared_invite/zt-e16nas3r-W0LijuM14SO6j3zHzfjYaA
For those on slack already the workspace name is this charityngonfp-iet7061.slack.com – if any issues joining drop me or Sue a line (she is copied) though I do not guarantee expertise on solving inevitable IT issues!

Resources and upcoming events:

• Kate Frykberg has been working on a simpler and easier to use funding relationship agreement described in video – check out how it developed and get a copy here

• Have helped create a free handbook summarising key legal issues from Covid-19 (like impact on charities, employment, leases, land purchases, contracts, director duties) so sharing that here.

• SociaLink has undertaken research about understanding the impact of Covid-19 on the social sector and communities in the western bay of plenty and more broadly Aotearoa. The latter report compiles the findings of a number of survey undertaken across Aotearoa. They can be accessed on https://socialink.org.nz/covid-19-and-the-social-sector/

• Aaron Davy sent a link to CID webinar re. covid, NGOs and pacific community (with Pasifika Medical Association) on Monday at 2:00pm – https://www.cid.org.nz/events/cid-webinar-talanoa-on-coordination-of-covid-public-health-messaging-in-the-pacific/date/61/2020-05-11/2020-05-11

• Lot’s of discussion on Volunteering, so Sarah Macdonald sent this on VNZ’s research update with your email of notes today. You can view ‘VNZ research – COVID-19 impact on volunteering’ here:
https://www.volunteeringnz.org.nz/vnzs-response-to-covid-19-essential-services-volunteering/

• Jane Walker sent on that Be Collective is wanting to tautoko the mental health space in Aotearoa. She says: “We feel this is the area that is going to affect everyone differently, moving forward. Whether this is more volunteer peer support opportunities, or reimagining volunteering as essential tautoko alongside delivery of services – we’re having early conversations about this. If anyone would like to kōrero about this, I’d love to hear from them.” janie.walker@becollective.com

• Youth Week 9-17 May is starting – have a look here https://arataiohi.org.nz/youthweek/ – is a nationwide festival of events organised by young New Zealanders to celebrate the talents, passion and success of local young people. This year’s theme is ‘we are speaking, are you listening’. We encourage community groups to use this week as an opportunity to awhi young people you are connected to.

• Does anyone know of any mass market high profile event(s) that have some annual Fundraising track history over the lockdown period, so as to compare to previous years and check the impact? Drop me a line if so.

• Charities Services also want to showcase positive stories over this time -please email to info@charities.govt.nz

• What should be here but isn’t? Let me know and can add in to the next updates.

Video link for Friday 15 May at noon (will send a meeting invite later in the week).

Group summary by Anne Rodda, thanks:
Stark reminder that elderly Chinese migrants are having a rough experience; isolated due to their age, plus language barriers plus technology unfamiliarity, and adding to that is experiencing racism when they do leave their home. Sad to think this is happening in NZ.
Also, awareness that the gov’t is resourcing certain sectors – business, Air NZ, education, but the NFP sector hasn’t received attention yet – despite the enormous work and value in the community.

Group summary by Ruth Orhoevwri, thanks:
Here are the notes from our breakout room:
• International charities are facing increasing demand and this is more difficult for countries with economic challenges, in this case, Argentina
• Focus at the moment is on surviving immediate challenges posed by COVID-19, not so much about future-survival
• People want change, but defining what change looks like is needed.
• The new model for operating could be a collaboration between charities to cut costs and remain in operation
• Charities Services has set up a webinar for 12th May 2020 where charities will be able to ask questions and share their thoughts.
• New Zealand is most likely to come out better than other countries and we have models that we can build on e.g. recovering from the Christchurch earthquake.

Group summary by John Morrow (and info from Katherine Peet and Jane Zintl), thanks:
• Noted a new emergent politics of generosity and goodwill. An observation made that people are ready for a new look at the Treaty, as a framework for the future, as a living document versus merely historical. Katherine Peet referred to a link on the Ministry of Culture and Heritage website – “post-covid response to understanding the Treaty”
The new link made to the website of Network Waitangi Otautahi (NWO) by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage https://nzhistory.govt.nz/classroom/conversations/network-waitangi-otautahi
For more information about NWO see www.nwo.org.nz
Please send any feedback to NWO email organisers@nwo.org.nz>
• Youth Week (9-17 May) – theme “we are speaking are you listening” Adapted to now be online to celebrate youth at this time who can provide a valuable fresh perspective at this time. https://arataiohi.org.nz/youthweek/

• Special mention of a blog spot – One Voice Te Reo Kotahi (OVTRK) Valuing TSOs Project this lists the particular paper to about the politics of generosity – viz: Stolen from future generations? – the need to move from a politics of self interest to a politics of generosity.
One Voice Te Reo Kotahi http://onevoicetereokotahi.blogspot.com/ Please send any feedback about OVTRK to this email tsovoices@gmail.com

• Noted Canterbury WEA has had a mutual relationship funder agreement since 1989.

Group summary from Amanda Rose from Multiple Sclerosis NZ, thanks:
Organisations are seeing huge increases in workloads to connect with clients whether that be through regular one on one calls, organising new services, holding webinars. The pandemic has required a big shift for many towards the use of technology, more than previously used in many cases. While technology has created many positive opportunities, there is a risk that some in the community will be excluded if there is an over reliance on this way of communicating. Also, as there is a huge amount of information currently available, it can be difficult to cut through and reach the necessary people.
The experience has highlighted the importance of volunteer training and management and processes around coordination and onboarding.
There is concern that Government are appointing their own outside providers in some projects and not harnessing the skills and knowledge of local providers.
Concern were also raised around burnout for community organisations who are addressing the needs of the community. There is an unknown around where people will go for support and information when the Civil Response network closes as they are often the initial contact for people in the community needing assistance.

Group summary from Paddy and Ros Rice from Community Networks Aotearoa, thanks:
Discussed an Australian motivation speaker who has offered to talk to us – info to follow. Perhaps a separate one off zoom meeting.
How do we bring on and treat volunteers in future? And think in terms of a manaaki initiative – the support and friendship, how do we expand and continue it?
This group sang as well “What a difference a day makes” – nice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmBxVfQTuvI

Group 6 summary from Lisa Foster, thanks:
• Next steps and how we use positives within covid response and how we use things going forward eg Christchurch – chances to make things better, did not all happen… with election etc we may lose positive things.
• Trust and flexibility in disability sector – hard to go back to red tape and siloed thinking.
• Want to support things in positive way so how do we keep forward positives and actions in next steps.

As always this content can be forwarded and shared with others – if you received this and want to join in, drop me a line.

Thanks all, have a great week!
Steven

Email sent on 4 May re meeting #6

Kia ora all,

Link to video of the call: https://youtu.be/sNCz2lQjrsY and I’ll send a meeting invite for Friday 8 May separately.

Also, all emails sent and video recorded since 27 March now here [This page…]. As many of the 163 of you on this list have joined recently you can easily get up to speed by scanning through the many ideas, thoughts and summaries since the very start (and letter to the Prime Minister is here). If you know someone who would appreciate this feel free to forward on and email me to join the list.

Summary of the call on Friday (49 minutes) with key points of video indexed:

00:00: Welcome
02:05: Steven reflections on zoom call with Minister Poto Williams on 28 April
05:59: Craig Fisher from RSM, reflections on same meeting
10:05: Ian McInnes from Tearfund and Chair of CID describing an International NGOs initiative appealing to Govt to fund offshore aid (press release here)
13:58: Jacqui Graham from the Wise Group describing the “Please Push Pause” paper (described here) to not go back to old ways of thinking particularly in Government – a two page paper, so good to see.
19:06: Ros Rice from Community Networks Aotearoa with some comment on her separate meeting on 30 April with Minister Williams and other comments from Craig to follow up those
25:36: Steven Discussion about this group, collating information and purpose emails, kaupapa, next steps for it, plans for rest of call & break outs
28:07: Andrew Phillips from Charities Services update on their activities, latest newsletter, clinics
30:36: Brief framing of next part of call, and sending to break out rooms
32:28: Group 1 report, thanks to Ros Rice (Community Networks Aotearoa)
37:40: Group 2 report, thanks to Lisa Foster (Rare Disorders NZ)
41:13: Group 3 report, thanks to Catherine Hall (Alzheimers NZ)
45:11: Group 4 report, thanks to Katherine Peet (One Voice Te Reo Kotahi) and Chris Glaudel (Community Housing Aotearoa)
46:49: Steven final thoughts + next steps to be call next Friday 8 May at noon (and at 48:41 a bit of formal Friday fun)
49:36: End

Resources are below as well as emails received with other thoughts but note the “Build Back Better” paper here, Community Net resources on Covid-19 here and in case not seen the article for IOD on the challenge for this sector here. Also just interviewed Jenny Gill here about her lessons from a lifetime working in philanthropy and the response to Covid-19 (part of a podcast project called seeds which now has 176 interviews with inspiring people).

While it is summarised in the video this is a written summary by Steven of the zoom call on Tuesday 28 April 2020 with Minister Williams: Had a zoom call with 8 representatives from other community/charity/volunteer organisations on 28 April with Minister Williams and members of her team and DIA listening in. The agenda was titled “COVID-19 community sector landscape: challenges and opportunities”. It touched on topics such as the response so far and how the government, philanthropies and community organisations could work together to support communities to recover and rebuild our social infrastructure. It was a positive discussion on where big issues are but where opportunities may be as well. It involved giving feedback from the community/voluntary/charity sector on what we are seeing on the ground and what the role of Government could/should be. Minister Williams was sympathetic to the issues raised in the letter we had written and said she viewed her role as advocating on behalf of the sector. I am not sure if a formal letter responding will also come. She said the Finance Minister was open to suggestions for how to help but needed creative ideas for how to do that. Each of the participants gave their perspective on what they are seeing and I reiterated the key points from the letter and also advocated looking overseas to see how others are responding eg UK (₤750m in funding for charity sector) and Australia (lowered wage subsidy threshold to 15%). I told her about the cross sector group and meetings we’ve been having and sent information on some of the ideas that have been coming out from that. The call lasted for two hours. There was talk about the fact that many Kiwis will have had a shock in the last 4 weeks and realise more what the concepts in the Wellbeing budget are about BUT that there will be a spike in unemployment (apparently likely peaking in middle of 2021). There were no immediate actions and steps from the call as a lot of it was high level comments and listening. She said there would be another catch up suggested in a few weeks when more is known about what will be in the budget.

During the meeting I referred to another initiative where we have open sourced 32 videos from an Impact Unconference held virtually on 24 April (4 hours with 350 attending) the first of its kind in NZ. Lots of challenging content so sharing with you all as well. We had 6 different zoom rooms. https://www.impactunconference.nz/videos

Separate to this email I will send a meeting invite for this Friday 8 May at noon. Link to that: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89817602252?pwd=ZUYwV250ZEFGZnIrRXBFY1JiNk1VZz09

It is fine to forward this on to others and if they want to be added to the list just have them send me an email.

Feedback from Group 1 (Ros Rice summarised, thanks):

Points of discussion:
• How do we transition from Crisis to recovery?
• What happens to people when food and other services cease?
• Issue of Civil Defence. Needs to have a review of processes and attitudes including racism.
• Very interested in how to preserve good things.
recovery/resilience/transformation
Questions –
• Who or where are the resources being shared kept?
• What is the call to action on Jacqui’s paper?
Statement: we hope that things will look different from both aspects of government and the community sector.

Links: Extra costs eligible for reimbursement here

Maori Everywhere document here

Feedback from Group 2 (Lisa Foster summarised, thanks)

Social Link have completed a social sector survey (Tauranga) and will compare it with others to offer themes and can share this.
Rare Disorders NZ are member of Neurological Alliance and discussed the main aspects from this group health related perspective starting with ‘Funding concerns and opportunities’. We went through how this could look or ideas around possibilities for a more collaborative and simpler approach to funding. The need for greater flexibility, trust and having an entity to represent a group of similar theme organisations to reduce duplication, costs for administration and reporting. The importance of maintaining diversity and specificity of individual organisations was made and being prepared and able to co-operate. Another part of this concern was the fact huge national bodies were not the answer as the regional strengths and independence could be lost so the question was How do we collaborate and work together for community sector without losing the benefit, knowledge and skills of our smaller specific organisations?
One possible example solution was offered of Western Bay Conservation Alliance which represented the views of multiple agencies with one direct reporting arm and shared back office services (Identities preserved same message provided)
The use of a shared national platform such as that offered in Philanthropic sector may also offer some solutions.

Overall our discussion was around need for continued conversations, collaboration and preserving the benefits/opportunities we have gained to think outside the box.

Feedback from Group 3 (Catherine Hall summarised, thanks)

As requested, here are some brief notes form the discussion in our breakout group. We:
• Discussed the concerns about the financial implications arising from the crisis and the impact on future sustainability, noting an increased reliance on government funding would change roles and relationships. Also noting the impact extends to Councils
• Reflected on the learning arising from the various Christchurch experiences and that the need for the services delivered by our sector are likely to grow
• Considered the impact on volunteering recognising many of our volunteers are in vulnerable populations and noted that many were supported the local emergency response but the crisis had placed significant expectations on some. We also wondered if the visibility of volunteers might contribute to recruitment in the short to medium term
• Noted the impact of the crisis on global trading partners and networks and the subsequent flow on impact to local networks and operations
• Reflected on the opportunity to evaluate the benefits of the new ways of working in particular what to incorporate in future operations and how. In that context, we also noted the opportunity for new and different relationships with government and the equity issues arising for those not able to connect with online services

Feedback from Group 4 (Francesca Ephraim summarised, thanks):

Environmental Sector – golden opportunity to do something different in the future looking after both people and the environment with input from Māori
ANCAD – work is broader as they look after the budgeting service, the family violence network, producing webinars for distressed organisations and are not assisting people with business closures.
Community Housing Aotearoa – huge effort to house the homeless and ongoing discussions with government about the human right to housing which hasn’t not been realised in Aotearoa
Looking at how to design community, pushing for sustainable housing and more funding for organisations working with the homeless.

Other Resources

Also received the following information from Paulien Fa’atafa the Project Manager at Platform Charitable Trust who had a couple of new/existing links to share:
• We recently received information about Knowledge Exchange Networks that MOH are wanting to set-up. Further information is here: https://www.platform.org.nz/uploads/files/Please%20Press%20Pause%202020.pdf
• The Please Press Pause paper is hosted on our website: https://www.platform.org.nz/uploads/files/Please%20Press%20Pause%202020.pdf
• PGF Services, Salvation Army and Hapai te Hauora have co-authored a paper on gambling harm (It might’ve been shared a few weeks ago): https://www.platform.org.nz/uploads/files/Covid-19%20Lockdown%20and%20the%20Impact%20on%20Community%20Funding%20April%202020.pdf
• MSD temporary changes as part of Covid-19: https://www.platform.org.nz/uploads/files/MSD%20information%2029%20April%202020.pdf

Also here is a link from Lisa Foster to the Rare Barometer Global Survey which is looking at key areas of risk and vulnerability during lockdown. A rare disease is one that affects 1 in 2000 people or less and includes 140 rare disorder support groups within our umbrella Rare Disorders NZ https://raredisorders.org.nz/ Please can you share the survey link https://bit.ly/2xCUw9l It is only open for another 2 weeks and we are keen to get engagement across the wider community of people,

Also Philanthropy NZ weekly update https://philanthropy.org.nz/philanthropic-se…19-weekly-update/ ‎.

And Charities services latest update: http://createsend.com/t/j-6FF80E91D9A1541F2540EF23F30FEDED

Thanks everyone, keep up the amazing work you all are doing!

Ngā mihi nui,
Steven

The video described above:

Email on 23 April re meeting #5

Quick update as have now had a zoom call with several others and Minister Williams today so can report back on Friday about that (addressed some of the points in letter sent to the Prime Minister). We will also have usual cross sector updates and break out discussions. Attached is a really interesting report that I suggest you look at “Press Pause” – good challenges within it from the Wise Group – Jacqui Graham will talk to us about this on Friday. And an article on “where to” for our sector here.

Kia ora all,

Great meeting yesterday – thanks to all who joined. Video is here https://youtu.be/fPaegUave6w

This is also a meeting invite for the next time we will meet on Friday 1 May at noon… I think we will have some reporting we can do back on the letter as well.

Below are the reports and summaries of the group discussions.

Kind Regards
Steven

Update from Andrew at Charities Services
• National Crisis Management Centre with Volunteering New Zealand – released two documents for voluntary organisations and volunteers, and also doing a survey for volunteers. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey here.
• Under Alert Level 4 and 3 there are very significant restrictions on the way businesses and organisations can operate. Please see the guidelines for community organisations working with volunteers here and ensure that you operate in line with these guidelines.
• General advice regarding volunteering in the COVID-19 environment is available on the main COVID-19 website here.
• Don’t hesitate to provide stories on how you are adapting, or otherwise, to info@charities.govt.nz or contacting me directly andrew.phillips@dia.govt.nz
• Planning drop in clinics next week if you, or charity you know, needs support, will include our Hāpai Hapori Community Operations group.
• Newsletter coming out next week with stories from charities, and also information about the wage subsidy. Can sign up on www.charities.govt.nz.

Update from Sarah Doherty on behalf of Hui E!

Grant writing update –
• 85 community groups applied, 44 grant writers volunteered – Hui E! is continuing to advertise
• Not all community groups are eligible and some have gone on to draft their own applications
• $5000 MSD grants have begun to be received by organisations who have applied
• Other COVID-19 grants funding opportunities are opening up
• Hui E! now has a COVID-19 funding page on our website – http://www.huie.org.nz/covid-19/funding-available/
• Hui E! will continue to match grant writers with community orgs delivering services during COVID-19 until the end of Level 3 (or sooner if we hear the MSD fund is exhausted).
Survey update – this idea is in the very early stages with a first planning meeting to be held this week with Philanthropy NZ, Volunteering NZ, Centre for Social Impact, and Hui E! to survey the community sector. Looking to coordinate and collaborate so that the sector is not over surveyed. If groups are planning surveys, feel free to be in touch with Rochelle at Hui E! to coordinate.

Update from NZ Navigator Trust
CommunityNet Aotearoa has resources focused on working remotely, and Covid-19 related resources: www.community.net.nz

From Discussion Group A from Chris Glaudel:

The group started with a question regarding where to find wellbeing advice/resources? Noted there are lot of webinars and other online promotions now, and wondering what resources had been found to be useful. Resources identified included the Ministry of Health website covid resources, the Mental Health Foundation, Platform and Te Pou websites, Vitae. (Unfortunately some link shared in the chat were lost when returned to the main room). Another example of how organisations can support is St. George’s Hospital in Christchurch that pays staff to get away from their computer for an hour each day to get outside or exercise. Found this an effective way to reduce stress for their staff.

A further discussion involved resources available to increase connectivity of underserved communities. Participants raised that it is a complex issue to resolve as there are multiple reasons including: lack of devices or ability to afford them; availability and cost of internet; technical skills to set up devices/connect; and technical skills to use devices. Noted that schools are providing devices for students, but prioritizing to older students for NCEA preparation. The group was asked if there is funding available for community organisations to engage students from the Student Volunteer Army in a social enterprise arrangement? The idea is that SVA student could work a couple of hours a week helping to connect with vulnerable whanau. Could do anything from picking up food/medication to visits, assisting to set up technology, homework, etc. Tess informed us that Neighbourhood Support is working with partners to match volunteers with organisations.

From Discussion Group B compiled by Paul Gilberd

The group is seeing significant increased demand for products and services.
Resourcing this is requiring more people
Current wage subsidy measures do not necessarily match and fill this gap accurately.
NGOs, non profits, charities, churches, social enterprises are stretched – less income more demand for services.
Many suffering from survey fatigue Govt demanding ever greater levels of information
Many burning into reserves eating their seed corn – this is not sustainable. And moreover in many cases that money was not intended for Covid expenses it was for other purposes.
Big opportunities are open for better coordination and matching of available resources with the unmet need and demand.
The rainy day we have been saving for has arrived. As a nation we can afford to borrow, we can afford to fund long term sustainable solutions as we all recover together and rebuild for a better future.
Good news for example is that by inviting and accommodating homeless people off the streets, we now have a new relationship we did not have before. And we know where to find them because we have provided them a temporary place. Now the real work begins.

Opportunities are significant for a better coordinated response – especially through enhanced communication and management of matching demand and supply.

From Discussion Group C (from Sarah Doherty):

‘What’s on top’ round table:
• With so much funding pivoted to focus on Covid-19, there is concern about funding for important projects that were underway ora bout to commence, or for ongoing services, or those that are not directly related to Covid-19.
• A great collaboration in Christchurch has seen groups meet to look at operational issues and bring in outside advice. Eg, Community Law helping to understand contract obligations and implications.
• Further concern about funding impacts for those organisations that were underfunded before the Covid-19 crisis.
• Criticism from wider community about large charities, with large reserves, that have received the wage subsidy according to the “who got the subsidy” website. Could affect trust and confidence in charities.
• Organisations are starting to think about safe ways to work with people going forward. Recognition that even when public health advice says it is safe to meet/gather people may still be reluctant to do so.
• Conversations underway, thinking about how we come out of this crisis in such a way as to not go back to BAU – NZ wasn’t ideal prior to C-19, how do we evolve in a more place-based and values-based way.
• Thinking about Alliances among the sector groups/peak bodies/lead agencies/influencers – how do we build cohesion in our sector. Clear Vision and Voice from the sector as a collective.

Video of Meeting #5

Meeting invite on 22 April

Kia ora,

This week we will have a catch up call and continue our discussions again on Thursday (tomorrow) at noon – this time sending as a meeting invite so it can go into diaries easily.

Regarding the letter to the Prime Minister, have now had this email response back, so will let you know when we hear more from Minister Williams:

Dear Steven Moe
Many thanks for your email to the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern.
I’ve passed your email to the Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, Hon Poto Williams, as this is something which falls into her area of responsibility.
Thank you for writing
Best wishes

Dinah Okeby
Office of the Prime Minister

Also, Andrew Phillips from Charities Services sent me this which he mentioned on last call – in relation to certain points raised with him.

“Wage subsidy answers:
• If the church is registered as a charity they will be listed in the database so we should be able to find them for verification.
• If they share one IR number across multiple parishes they would need to submit one application for all of them, and include all employees across the parishes in that application. They will need to manage how they pay the subsidy out to the different parishes once they receive it.
• Mitigation involves thinking about reserves, where appropriate. MSD has some guidance on this on its website.
• Important to remember its comparing one month with a month from previous year. If, for example, you have one month where you traditionally receive a large chunk of funding (e.g. large contract), but the next month you rely on fundraising to pay salaries, etc (that has dried up because of COVID-19), it can be the second month that you rely on in showing a 30% decrease in revenue.

The Government has indicated it will be changing the law in some areas to support charities with issues meeting their rule requirements, you can see the cabinet paper here.

And happy to continue to hear questions, challenges, concerns, stories to info@charities.govt.nz, we’ll be sending out a newsletter in the next few weeks with some stories of how charities have adapted to the Alert Level 4 environmen.”

Email on 17 April re meeting #4

Kia Ora,

Thanks to all who joined the call today – link to the video is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9bQB_UFFr0. As always feel free to fwd this content on. Please note extensive and really helpful summaries of discussions and group feedback is set out below too (thanks to those who typed out the reflections of each group).

Summary (Note: The video is also embedded under this text)

• 00:00 – Welcome and intro.
• 02:33 – Sector updates – first from DIA Office of Ethnic Communities (Shane Whitfield).
• 10:41 – Andrew Phillips from Charities Services update.
• 13:36 – James Lord from Be Collective with thoughts on volunteering in future. Summaries of the talks from Shane and James are below.
• 18:01 – Framing of group discussions and then feedback from each group after that – written summaries of the 5 groups are below as well.

Have not sent a list of those receiving these updates for a while so attached is latest one, about 120 of you. Also, send through any other resources of info you come across. Some I’ve seen in last few days: This from Craig Fisher on opportunity thinking is really helpful. This from John Morrow at JBWere is good too on for-purpose leadership in crisis. Hui E! are dong work here coordinating linking organisations with grant writers to access the MSD funding. I’ve compiled all legal things I’ve done here and attached is a wage subsidy worksheet I had worked up so that organisations actually document steps taken to mitigate. Also attached is Philanthropy NZs latest email update. Regarding letter to PM you can share it with local MPs as well and will update you when we get official response back.

This is typical feedback on this group: “Thanks again for organising these meetings. I learn a lot from observing and listening.” and “Thanks everyone, great opportunity to connect, see you next time” So will keep organising and will send more info out about next meeting, likely will be on Thursday at noon as I am facilitating this Virtual Impact Unconference for 300 on Friday!

Thanks all,
Steven

Update from DIA Office of Ethnic Communities (Shane Whitfield Shane.Whitfield@dia.govt.nz):

• Office of Ethnic Communities (OEC) is a business group within DIA that provides advice, connection and policy across all of government around the interests/needs of our mandated communities (Asian, Latin American, African, Continental Europe and Middle Eastern).
o Our vision is Flourishing ethnic diversity; thriving New Zealand.
o Our purpose is to ensure ethnic communities are strong and connected and the benefits of ethnic diversity for New Zealand are realised.
o Connecting people in ethnic communities to each other, wider society and government
o Increasing active citizenship of people in ethnic communities
o Valuing diverse cultures and ethnicities within communities, wider society and the nation
• Ethnic communities number approx.. 800,000 in NZ and around 16% of the population.
• Our COVID-19 response to date includes:
o Translation of key advice into a broad range of language videos – link here
o Reprioritisation of the Ethnic Communities Development Fund to support recovery activities – link here
o Input into various policy developments
o Leadership of the ethnic communities workstream within the National Welfare Coordination Group
o Contribution to several regional CDEM groups
o Connecting our community voice/perspective into government decision making

Update from Be Collective New Zealand (James Lord) james.lord@becollective.com:

The volunteer workforce system has changed under COVID-19 and will continue to change. Those in the voluntary sector have known this for a long time but what was once an inconvenience is now a critical challenge. The change imposed on us highlights:

o A need to better utilise the skills and experience (paid or unpaid) available
o The need to increase the pool of those who have traditionally volunteered – for example, how can the sport sector be engaged in this work as well?
o A new approach to not just back-fill the volunteers that charities and community groups are losing, but to also replace staff who can no longer be paid with specifically skilled volunteers.
How do we do that? How do we action collaboration across the entire economy, in a more generous, systematic and practical way?

Update from Group 1 from Liz Davies from SociaLink:

Community Waikato
• Created a website, Here to Help https://heretohelpu.nz/, to help broker people wanting help with providers in Hamilton
• Centralised kitchen providing 1000’s of frozen meals
• Issue for the future is how do we transition as alert levels drop, especially as the civil defence/emergency welfare scales down
SociaLink
• Concerns about how to replace funding many groups rely on from Gaming Trusts, could this be quantified and then discuss with government how this funding will be replaced?
• Suggest it would be useful to send the letter to the PM to everyone’s local MP”s to help get the views of the charities/NGO sector shared throughout government
• Currently surveying the social sector in the western Bay of Plenty to learn more about the impact of Covid on the delivery of services and funding, will share the findings in early May
Community Waitakere
• Working with a range of agencies around homelessness, food, Māori, Pacifica, young people etc
• CW have been mapping neighbourhood support, emergency response groups and neighbourhood houses using google maps (Mark will share this when it is available for wider distribution)
• Auckland council has been suspending contracts, withdrawing funding
• Finding it hard to show a 30% reduction in funding due to funding cycles
• Flaws in the processing of applications by MSD, is there a role for the community sector to assist NGO’s in preparing applications and alleviating pressure on MSD?
Community Network Aotearoa
• NEMA ‘network of networks’ are finding that civil defence is lacking technology e.g. no Zoom
• Finding in some areas civil defence is not communicating and are out of touch with communities e.g. Council areas that do not have a community development team
• Civil defence have been approaching budget advisory services ordering them to give all their client contact information, the Federation have been pushing back but civil defence are advising that they have the power to require such information to be provided
• Food a big issues, especially for the elderly, single parents, those with no connectivity, lack of transport etc
• NEMA establishing an advisory group on service delivery, CNA on this group
Craig Fisher
• Lots of good information but not available in one centralised place, would benefit from more coordination
• Is working with a few large charities and doing some future scenario planning, this would be useful to share
Kayt Bronniman, Charities
• Exploring increased digital engagement
• Looking to create a centralised place for resources

Update from Group 2 from Francesca Ephraim:

Arthritis NZ

Not essential service more of a secondary service in this time
No huge increase in services and 0800 line is quiet
People are parking health issues as there are more immediate needs for them
Lots of activity on facebook and social media

Social Equity and WellbeingNetwork – Chch

Lots of collaborative work over soon and sharing of info
Concerns about employees and wage subsidies
Concerns around volunteers taking paid staff roles in charities

Community Housing

Busier than ever
Being proactive and linking people up
Working closely with MSD to find housing for the homeless
Concerns about the increased amount of work and the effects on staff – eg burnout
Working on a longer plan for homelessness with the government – needs more money and more time
Looking at alternatives for when alert levels change
Rent freezes have issues for members with home mortgages

Networks are already available and we don’t need to reinvent the wheel – however some have no good understanding of the sector and don’t know who does what or who should be involved
Collaboration is crucial right now and the biggest issues looking forward will be employment, funding, staying open, increased or decreased use of services
Need to introduce volunteering to those that have not volunteered before – as many volunteers are in the vulnerable age group
Suggestion was to invite sports team into the volunteering space to help fill the gaps – this is already happening on some parts of the country

Update from Group 3 by Lisa Foster:

(Members included Janine Walker, Yvonne Powley, Letticia Minchim, Becky Abley, Katherine Peet and Lisa Foster)

Katherine explained that a sense of belonging is a key component within a truly connected and inclusive Aotearoa, The fact that our sector is broader than only welfare and the importance of this ‘Third Sector Organisations’(which focused on the non-welfare sector) requires awareness and attention. The Treaty of Waitangi can be utilised as a framework to offer the opportunity to hold the big picture together.

Issues were discussed around virtual infrastructure – the requirements for reviewing this and awareness of the limitations facing people who cannot get access so will rely on locally led support that is informal and vital. How can this be co-ordinated to be most effective? Also digital literacy would prove barriers for many people and their voices may be lost in current pictures during lockdown especially if there is no local support networks in place. So hard to quantify who is not getting help.
Many Charities who offer more specific supports in smaller pockets or areas (such as mobility) and have lost funding due to the current decline may be lost unless their value is noticed and valued.
The opportunities include having networks of connectivity and to hear all collective voices and do things differently- so lets keep the conversation going and choose a better more cohesive way forward.

Update from Group 4 by Dennis Parker:
James Lord, Valerie Williams, Andrew Phillips, Jenn Chowaniec, Dennis Parker
Our group discussed just one topic: Volunteering

James:
• Reflected on how the volunteering sector will change and the community impact of the voluntary sector no longer being there
• The older volunteer workforce will be less likely to come back
• The need for services with issues around mental health and family violence will skyrocket
• Noted that we need to work together across all sectors and within the entire economy
• Funding loss for some means that some charities will no longer be viable
• So much of the work is being done by volunteers
• Had prior to the pandemic been in a group that had asked ‘what would happen if volunteers disappeared?’ And now this may be the reality!

Dennis:
• Agreed with Jame’s comments citing experience with Trade Aid having 600 staff and volunteers with maybe 80% being volunteers and with a large portion of these being older people
• An expectation that when Trade Aid reopens their shops volunteers will be harder to find
• Also talked about the problems facing NFP sports group where such a high proportion of the work is carried out by parents and older volunteers, with other complex requirements this will be a huge challenge in the recovery

Valerie: Described building their consensus communities, on how they could recover after coming out of their isolation, but we just don’t know

Andrew:
• Described the Student Volunteer Army is a good example of volunteering coming from younger people
• However further discussed that trends for more episodic volunteering (as and when available) is not adapting to our changed world where the needs are for more permanence, and that this world has changed dramatically again

James:
• There is a need for consistent volunteering
• Busy professionals are not able to commit their time, but this needs to change
• Maybe an increase in across organisational volunteering could become a trend

Jenn: Identified volunteers into three groups:
• Young people – and not being able to be consistent
• Parents – more focussed on NFPs, with schools, sports, etc.
• Traditional – with a stereotype of being older, but being more regular

Our sector needs to be more clear on future volunteering needs, to re-establish and re-engineer how we find and enable our volunteers to be part of our organisations

Update from Group 5 by Catherine Boyer:

While everyone is pushing digital platforms, organisations—particularly churches (from our group)—need to consider how to reach those they serve who do not have digital capacity, are resistant to it, need direct human interaction. As time goes on, the need for face-to-face interaction will become greater, so how do organisations plan on delivering this in the face of decreased staff and possibly decreased volunteers?
Gaming trusts—the whole issue deserves attention. The disconnect between gaming trusts funding charities who serve those suffering from gaming addictions. What happens as those organisations run out of money because they no longer receive gaming trust grants.
Collaboration—this will be critical going forward. Identified different roles:
a. People who are good at identifying and driving the collaboration;
b. Skills expertise which can be used in a collaborative fashion to benefit the multiple organisations;
c. Identifying and using new volunteers—churches, particularly in the ethnic communities, may provide an excellent source of young volunteers.
Long term strategic planning needed which addresses decreased staffing levels, so what can realistically be delivered. Volunteers are great, but often not as consistent as paid staff.
Trusted curation of digital tools—NZ Navigator working on this

Email sent on 9 April re meeting #3

Kia ora,

Attached is the final version of the letter which has been sent to the Prime Minister. Feel free to share this email with those who you think would be interested in our response. Added in a reference to the UK Chancellor who today announced here a £750m package for charities and noted “We need the gentleness of charity in our lives.”

Thanks for updates on the call today from Leanne Campbell from DIA Hāpai Hapori (responsible for the delivery of Lottery/Crown funding and community advisory services across Aotearoa) and from Darren Ward on an International NGOs call he attended – both are summarised below.

Next meeting will be Friday 17 April at noon. The consensus is that this group (there are about 120 of you receiving this email) provides a really good cross sector platform to share stories, hear perspectives and brainstorm for proactive solutions. We are about positive impact. Join us if you can. We also want to ensure inclusion – who could you invite to be part of this?

The agenda for that meeting will be to have some sector updates, have an update on response to letter/next steps, and then consider what the crisis means for our groups – hibernate?/reinvent?, reallocation of people from groups that cannot operate at present to those who are very busy and need more good people? Also consider foundations for the future and how to resource people considering that. I think we will use breakout rooms again to allow all to speak then collate the groups thoughts.

Comments and ideas for the agenda, or any resources that would benefit all (note there are some links in email trail below) are welcome anytime. Have a good long weekend with your families (even if the days are all blurring together!).

Ngā mihi,
Steven

On the call we heard from Leanne Campbell from DIA who gave us this perspective on what she is involved in and impact so far:
• Hāpai Hapori is the Department of Internal Affairs business group responsible for the delivery of Lottery/Crown funding and community advisory services across Aotearoa.
• Our funding calendar dates remain unchanged, if there are changes, these will be posted on our Community Matters website https://www.communitymatters.govt.nz/
• We are being really flexible with current grants to enable changes of purpose and time extensions if required (as are a number of other funders)
• We have simplified our request form for our COGS fund, this opened yesterday to make it easier for groups to apply (other funders are also looking at this)
• At this stage DIA do not have funding set aside specifically for COVID however we are aware of a number of other funders that are doing this some within current budgets and some using investments or other funds held so that it does not impact future funding rounds
• We have 17 Community Led Development Programme communities which have all been supported with any essential funding to enable continued connections within communities and we were able to release funding approvals before shutdown last week, we will continue to work with these communities and provide on-going funding support
• We have a number of staff working directly with Civil Defence centres and TLA’s across the country and supporting the leadership of areas within the Welfare stream and we are looking to increase our support in this area through a directive from our Minister
• We are seeing some good things coming out of this situation including some great collaboration between funders; a number of groups looking at new delivery models; collaboration between organisations that are providing services to communities and some fantastic wraparound support within regions for vulnerable people. We are looking at ways to share these stories.

We also heard from Darren Ward as he had a very early morning call with some International NGOs who shared their experience:
• Managing / adapting BCP’s that were not developed for crises of this scale or reach is a common issue
• Virtual working capacity poor
• Funding is biggest concern – a number indicating significant drops in income from traditional sources which is expected to be protracted
o Also looking to repurpose current funding and needing to work with donors on this. Need increased donor flexibility.
• Capacity issues evident – issues with both financial and human resources as well as workable operating platforms and models.
• Large focus on meeting wellbeing needs of staff – internal focus so far.
• Strategy work has been halted – and put on the back burner. Limited level of strategic thinking on what immediate decisions mean to long-term capacity. All in response / reactive mode still.
• Influencing work hardest to get support for – but this is the biggest role they can play at the moment
• Biggest need moving forward (other than $$’s and people) is for good scenario planning / foresight and the space to plan for various potential new normal’s
• For international organisations navigating very different contexts amongst operating sites is an added challenge.
• Planning ongoing contact through chat function and further meetings – recognise that collaboration will be crucial to surviving well. This includes collaboration on what ‘new normal’ should look like and influencing change.
• Lots of alignment with what we are seeing here – and some ability to leverage lessons on how they respond. Will be especially useful in providing insight into new normal scenario planning, and it is good to see there is a recognition this needs scenario planning rather than predicting one idea and planning for that. This tail has a few twists in yet!

Email on 4 April

Kia ora,

Thanks for all the feedback in the meeting yesterday. So good to tap into the collective wisdom that way. A revised letter is attached. Now covers many points raised below and inevitably is longer, but hopefully more representative of the tone we want. The aim is to offer proactive help, but also pointing out where we need help too. I am worried it starts to get into too much detail, but trying to take on board our different perspectives. If nothing else we are collaborating through this which is great, and it is a really good chance to get us to reflect on what we as a sector will need to focus on and advocate for in the coming months (some of you will emphasise aspects over others). Feedback welcome, will then collate that, revise and resend next week with a link to the next call on Friday – let’s aim to decide to send it, or not, then.

Finally, thanks to those who sent wording or typed out comments below which really helped, and in particular Joli for paragraph 5 of the letter, Louise for some of the wording on suggested actions and Dennis for thoughts on how we express offering support as well as Ros for the ‘real life’ example from Southland (of course, open to suggestions if you have another – good to collate them anyway) and also [insert your name here!].

Kind Regards,
Steven

PS: After sending below email also had this feedback from the final group, thanks team:
• are we on the radar as a sector and as such what impact will the letter have (this is not to say we shouldn’t send it)
• uniting and kindness are at the core of the COVID-19 response
• it would be useful to describe the impact of our sector (rather than describing the size of it), that we are the backbone or our communities with caring, kindness and collaboration at the heart
• the cost of the sector (or a significantly reduced sector) not being there in the future is huge
• Jacinda has been an inspiration nationally and internationally and we hope she can continue to lead the way by inviting our nation (to maintain?) to be outward focused

Email on Friday 3 April

Kia ora,

Video of the call is up here: https://youtu.be/3HYr_YLbDgM (your teams or others in the sector may be interested to see this update, it can be forwarded).

In summary, around 50 were on the call and we heard from four sector voices with their perspectives to start, Sarah Doherty, Andrew Phillips, Louise Aitken and Ros Rice – summaries are below.

We then discussed the draft letter in 6 different breakout rooms, and fed back comments which we also then discussed. Summaries below. Next step is to redraft the letter based on this feedback and circulate to adjust to be: more collaborative tone, add a story of the social gap our groups fill (ideas?), talk about what we can give not just what we need and suggest proactive steps forward (among other points). I’ll have a first go!

Another meeting will be held next Friday – we will hold these while they are helpful. They seem to be. Sector collaboration and working together is important now more than ever. I won’t get you all to sign up, will just circulate agenda/zoom link info to this list and if anyone else should join, send me their email to add or contact me if this was forwarded to you.

Good weekends to all.

Nga mihi,
Steven
Summary of sector perspectives / voices at start of call (thanks Sarah Doherty for typing)

Sarah Doherty, NZ Navigator, Charities Services Sector Group Co-Chair
• Reminder about self-care as we do the work to respond and think forward into next stages
• Working well at home – holistic resource from Blue Print via Te Pou, Mental Health and Addiction Workforce Group (attached)

Andrew Phillips, Charities Services
• Charities Services continue working remotely. Have temporarily halted reminders and follow up on annual return reporting.
• After this period, will send an update to each charity on their current state of reporting/ due dates etc.
• Reminder to all charities to keep the primary contact details up to date with Charities Services and MBIE _ Incorporated Societies register
• Keen on hearing stories, challenges, adaptations so we can share where possible, feedback anything to info@charities.govt.nz.
• Winners of 2020 Reporting Awards were recently announced, congratulations to Comprehensive Care (Tier 1), Fred Hollows Foundation (Tier 2), Bellyful NZ (tier 3), Reading Revolution (tier 4).
Louise Aitken, Ākina Foundation
• Working to understand how to quickly support enterprises in immediate response
• Partnered with DIA to build a thriving Social Enterprise sector – Social Enterprise, Impact Enterprise, Community Enterprise (etc)
• Working to pivot now to support, and look to the longer-term contribution to society
• When we move to the recovery stage: THE moment to bring impact forward – providing advice and support to MBIE in building a wellbeing economy
• Support Charities Sector and those looking to other revenue streams

Ros Rice, Community Networks Aotearoa
• Just came from a meeting of the “Network of Networks” – government agency response to the crisis; bringing info and identifying gaps
• Ros, Chris Glaudell (Community Housing Aotearoa) and Tess Casey (Neighbourhood Support NZ) also joined the call
• No opportunity for sector reps to speak in that meeting today
• Covers Civil Defence, Maori needs, Pasifika needs, NGO/Community Sector, children,
• 400,000 wage subsidy applications have been paid
• Any info to feed through please send to Ros at eo@communitynetworksaotearoa.org.nz

Summary of each Group discussions about the draft letter

Group 1, summary from Andrew Phillips
• General support for the letter, noted that the Australian letter had some good structure and clear direction that could be adopted – being very clear from picking it up what was being asked for.
• Noted that we are a country with high levels of giving and volunteering, in particular Pacific and Māori communities, and that this in general is a great catalyst for coming together with a consistent voice for government (so great appreciation to you Steven on this front).
• There were quite a few comments on wage subsidy:
• How to get it, what to do with it, tricky for small businesses/small charities, how it is going to be accounted for/investigated down the line. Taking into account the financial crisis a lot of charities/businesses find themselves in – and thinly stretched advisors trying to support in this time.
• How can charities with reserves access the subsidy – getting legal charity around what mitigation means for reserves access.
• How can international NGOs access the subsidy – where most funding comes through a contract which is immediately transferred to overseas projects, and local salaries are funded by fundraising which has dropped off significantly. Some mentioned this is a broader issue for charities who rely on grants that is shifted to third parties.
• Sue Barker mentioned she was compiling resources on her Facebook to support.
• Sue Crawford mentioned she was doing some work on what extra resources were needed for low income people in debt, and would appreciate contact from interested people who would like to contribute.

Group 2, summary from Sarah Doherty
• Charities providing international aid and working internationally have specific needs and are impacted differently by the crisis.
• Send letter to PM, and also Min Williams, Sepuloni and Martin
• Consider what the sector can offer within the letter –
• Noted that the sector is starting from as trained position, Social Services Providers Aotearoa commissioned research in 2019 that showed underfunding in the social sector to the amount of $630 million
• Notes that some Govt departments have already indicated an extension of contracts to the end of the year. Many charities/service providers need more certainty than this, and a longer timeframe. Could be part of the work that a sector advisory group picked up.
• Economists commentary indicates going forward helping and serving professions will be more highly valued – charities sector very active in this space
• All agreed with the formation of a sector representative group like the Australian Crisis Cabinet (here).

Group 3, summary from Rochelle Stewart-Allen

• Raises issues, accountability
• Puts line on sand
• Sending to PM relevant rather than ministries
• New fund needs a whole of govt response
• Tempted to add more details about problems but that may complicate at this stage
• Good idea – thought of adding to letter
• Advocacy for charities funding – completely different than businesses, funding structures different
• Need for services increases as funding goes down
• Refer to distinction in charity sector between essential services and those not labelled in current essential services
• Seeing clusters of trusts in region forming together, could tip into one pot
• Lots of community orgs won’t last 2-3 months without income and already starting to tip over
• Offer rather than ask
• UK approach
Group 5, summary from Louise Aitken
• Level of cooperation between the sector –the crisis has led to a level of cooperation and cohesion like we have never seen before, and we are committed as a sector to working better, smarter and more aligned to a collective purpose. Open letter that PNZ did – best practise in action as an example to be referenced.
• Is only two recommendations enough – a group and emergency grants? There is a lot of evidence and research on what could be right for as interventions. Let’s be more strategic and collaborate on the right intervention for Aotearoa, based on recent research and insights. Work with government, philanthropy and the different and important sections of the charitable sectors
• Many organisations will need support to completely rethink their strategy, funding models, impact models, resilience support. How can professional services and capability support be immediately made available to charities at this critical time.
• Immediately think about how the Regional Business Partners Network could be opened up to more than just businesses – make it available to charities.
• We applaud the wage subsidy to be accessible to charities and support more work to be done to ensure that all charities understand how it can be accessed.

Grouyp 6, summary from Francesca Ephraim
• OSCAR subsidy has stopped which affects small nfp early childcare centres and could lead to their closure
• NFP’s are freaking out – it is hard for everyone to remain calm when there is so much uncertainty
• We need to be responding to the immediate needs now and also simultaneously looking at what future needs are going to be
• Funding uncertainty is putting a great strain on delivery and making it difficult for some to respond currently
• International delivery of programmes has got more difficult
• Global and local charities are facing similar issues
• The speed in which lockdown occurred has had consequences on the disability community – they are facing struggles with IT, equipment to work with IT, internet issues and having difficulty becoming connected by wifi
• The lack of face to face engagement is particularly hard for this group too
 Re: the letter
• Most people in our group agreed with the letter going to government
• One representative thought that as they were an essential service they would probably not sign it.
• All agreed that peak/umbrella/head office type groups should be signatories (Peak bodies mentioned were FINZ, CID, CNA)
• Some thought that individual nfp’s might want to refrain from signing if they have a funding relationship with government
• We recommended that the letter be sent as a “partnering approach” with government rather than a challenge – the idea was that the sector can mobilise and record what is happening right now. What the needs are both now and in the future and how best to respond while the government is busy dealing with COVID-19.

Video of the discussion above

Email sent on 3 April

Ahead of meeting at noon, see summary of Australian charity sector response attached. What can we learn from eg their ‘Charities Crisis Cabinet’ described in detail here “Charity leaders unite…” (what our group is laying foundations for?).

Also, see here this morning on support for sport. I love sport, but how do we advocate proactively and well so the word sport is replaced with charity/NGOs? Extract: “Robertson confirmed the government is also working on putting together a recovery package for sport … “I’ve had direct conversations with a number of sporting organisations. They are obviously concerned for … what kind of support there might be””

Finally this open letter with seven proactive suggestions for Government in Australia. All this to get us thinking ahead of meeting. Thanks.

Email sent on 1 April

Kia Ora,

As well as the chance this Friday at noon to connect again with peers facing similar issues and just talk (very valuable last week), and hearing again an update on status from different sector leaders, have been thinking a lot about what the virtual meeting represented – could this be a moment to catalyse this sector so there is just as active a voice as there is for business (now and going forward)? On Friday (or before by email) would be keen for your feedback on the attached one page draft letter to the Prime Minister setting out some thoughts that hopefully echoes our discussions and deeper concerns. The aim would be just one page followed by a (hopefully long) list of charities and groups who endorse the content as a cross sector initiative. Would your group support this? Registrations for Friday are here (it will be a different link to last week and will send that out later). Thanks for your input.

Mā te wā,
Steven

More resources seen recently: Community Networks here, Philanthropy NZ page here, Volunteering NZ page here, Ākina page here, FINZ here, legal stuff on impact on leases, contracts, property purchases here, Hui E! info here – also yesterday I interviewed Shamubeel Eaqub here and got his unique economist perspective on the crisis but also what we might build out of this for a future that has foundations on resilience, equity, fairness, love… video here.

Email on 27 March re meeting #1

Kia ora again,

Link to video of the session uploaded now so can be shared with others who could not make it: https://youtu.be/Nz2RkDp4ZRU (It has been shared on LinkedIn here and Facebook also here)

Lots of positive feedback, so this is link to sign up to next one on Friday 3rd April at noon – will let it evolve organically as a place to come together for us to exchange views and stories and support. If it doesn’t continue that’s OK too, just trying new ways of engaging using tech.

Attached is list of who attended with emails. Also a few resource links are further down below. Thanks again to Sarah, Mark, Sue and Andrew for sharing on the video – great overviews from each of you.

Here are the summaries of each of the 6 group discussions on issues and thoughts of what facing – thanks, and any additional follow up or dot joining we can see? Where can we feed these in to places that need this feedback?:

Summary from Catherine Boyer:

International vs National focus of charity
a. If International, can they/should they apply for wage subsidy?
b. How can they fundraise if international when Kiwis are under such duress?
c. Long term impact on developing nations will be far greater over the long haul than in developed nations, so how can international charities plan strategically and maybe work more closely with government on delivery requisite services.
Essential services vs opex: how to deliver on decreased budget
Fundraising challenges for charities—short term and long term impacts on fundraising which provides the bread and butter of the organisation.
Systems change vs Immediate service delivery—in our group and in yesterday’s PNZ zoom meeting there is a definite distinction between a systems change approach vs traditional charitable services delivery approach. Clearly the latter are under far greater pressure at the moment, but is there a place for the private/philanthropic/funder sector to be working with government on innovative changes to areas of need which are becoming glaringly evident at this time of crisis. Examples mentioned: supply chain delivery of protective gear and equipment; digital divide issue of those who have laptops to continue education vs those who don’t; universal minimum wage; etc
a. One thought from me: maybe in future could actually have two streams: one for systems change discussion and one for meeting immediate needs. That said, good for me (who is interested in systems change) to hear the ‘on-the-ground’ needs and gaps
As Rob Fyffe has been appointed as liaison between private business and government, is there a similar role to be filled between charitable sector and government?
Summary from Sue McCabe:
Action: Need to make sure the additional money can be accessed – it’s another chore for people. Also matching available money with those most in need.
Action: There is declining volunteering – and volunteers are older so will be slower to resume. Needs to be system level thinking around this. Some charities already doing the thinking.
Action: Can someone do policy analysis (quickly) around the community package announced yesterday and what are the gaps.
Action: There is a network of networks feeding community information into Govt. Can Govt please release this information rather than keep to itself as we are all interested in the community need so we can collaborate to address it.

Summary from Sarah Doherty:

Small charities and the disproportionate impact on them. Concern about funder requirements – projects that have had considerable resource poured into them and then halted, may or may not continue going forward
Income – impact on fundraising and donors; ability to apply for funding; service based contracts when the services can’t be delivered
Internet access – so many families don’t have access, their children wont be doing any schooling; overcrowded houses; lack of food; rising stress etc. How do organisations connect with the people who don’t have internet when we can’t gather. How do we know what they need or meet those needs?
Summary from Darren Ward:
• Challenges with balancing the immediate and making the right decisions for longer term.
• Feeling a lot of pressure to retain staff in time of financial pressure
• Managing delivery in an online word – especially when a large number of people in their client base don’t have access to online methods.
• Worried about what they are not asking / what they are missing
• Maintaining team culture – recognised as important and that leaders need to make sure this is a focus despite remote working
• Volunteer programmes scaled back / stopped – need to recognise volunteers as part of team and keep them engaged, they will be very important post-COVID19
• MSD have launched Community Awareness & Preparedness Fund – $4.8m – info on MSD website
• Some really good collaboration happening with community orgs and Councils
• Lessons are being learnt that should be captured for the future e.g.:
o Using surveys inserted of face to face stakeholder meetings – increased response rate
o Things have got easier to do – especially some Government processes where less has becomes more
o Use of technology is increasing efficiencies
• Charity Services are wanting to hear positive stories – now is the charity sectors time to shine.
From Andrew Phillips:
Thinking about after COVID – measuring impacts of charities work.
Wage subsidy: current challenges with the system (not being able to track progress, no receipt or record of what information has been provided), how government is going to enforce compliance, how the money should be staged out, the link to Thank You Payroll was exchanged.
Thinking how young people can contribute/help.
From Chris Glaudel
Volunteer Centres ready to go, but don’t know the level of demand and where the resources will come from. Need to manage the informal volunteers that step forward and ensure they are properly trained and oriented.
Need to collectively mobilise together for a common goal, which needs to be articulated by government to provide a platform for all organisations to rally behind and work toward.
How can we support the transition to the new normal that may result in a consolidation of the sector post crisis?

Resources

Thanks to Rochelle Stewart-Allen for these resources:

Hui E! has a COVID-19 page with info for charities and NGOs (we’ll continue to update it) – http://www.huie.org.nz/covid-19/
Do Good Jobs Facebook discussions – https://www.facebook.com/dogoodjobs/
Transparency International’s Pandemic Policy template – https://www.transparency.org.nz/pandemic-response-plan/
Office of Ethnic Communities’ multilingual COVID-19 videos (more languages to come): https://www.ethniccommunities.govt.nz/news/covid-19-growing-in-new-zealand/

Legal resources I’ve (Steven) been involved in creating on legal issues as a lawyer – applying for Govt wage subsidy here and this one on paying employees here and this one on issues for charities here

From Darren Ward: Here is the link to a blog we did on managing through the crisis https://www.direct-impact-group.com/covid-19-3-lessons-learnt-from-crisis-response-message-from-our-partners/

Finally, Andrew Phillips from Charities Services also asked me to pass this on: Very historical time and an important time to highlight value of the sector, would be worth collecting stories – we are going to tell some of the stories of how charities are adapting, and meeting needs – so please don’t hesitate if you’d like to contribute (get in touch at info@charities.govt.nz).

On that note of recording stories I would love to speak with some of you when this all settles down and capture some of your journeys for seeds podcast as there are 168 already up there now and I heard a lot more today that would be nice to record. Have a great weekend!

Arohanui
Steven

First Video call linked to in the email above

Index of content on this page

Letter sent to the Prime Minister

Email on 22 June 2020 summarizing Meeting #12

Email on 7 June 2020 summarising Meeting #11

Email on 29 May 2019 summarising Meeting #10

Email sent on 25 May re Meeting #9

Email sent on 16 May re Meeting #8

Email sent on 10 May re meeting #7

Summary of the call (39 people joined) discussing Charity, NGO, NFP, Community Sector response:

Slack Channel for collaborating

Resources and upcoming events:

Email sent on 4 May re meeting #6

Email on 23 April re meeting #5

Meeting invite on 22 April

Email on 17 April re meeting #4

Email sent on 9 April re meeting #3

Email on 4 April

Email on Friday 3 April

Video of the discussion above

Email sent on 3 April

Email sent on 1 April

Email on 27 March re meeting #1

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