Support for Volunteering Fund

Background

• Volunteering New Zealand (VNZ) - In 2001, the SVF supported the establishment of Volunteering New Zealand, a national association of autonomous and independently organised volunteer centres and organisations committed to volunteering. Up to $80,000 is available for VNZ. For more information on Volunteering New Zealand, visit www.volunteeringnz.org.nz.
• Regional Volunteer Centres - Regional Volunteer Centres recruit and train volunteers, promote good practice and aim to build capacity in the community and voluntary sector. Up to $242,000 is available for regional volunteer centres.
• Māori, Pacific and ethnic volunteering projects and innovative projects - The Fund supports capability-building projects in the above communities to promote and support volunteering. The SVF also funds organisations to develop innovative ways to promote and support volunteering. Up to $80,000 is available for all of these projects.

• For Māori, ‘Mahi aroha’ is the term that most closely translates to the concept of voluntary work. Mahi aroha is the unpaid activity performed out of ‘duty’ and caring for others in accordance with the principles of tikanga to maintain mana and rangatiratanga, rather than for financial or personal reward.
• Pacific people define volunteering as ‘serving one another’. A definition for volunteering for Pacific people needs to take into account spirituality, cultural responsibility and obligation as well as the protocol and value bases of each pacific group.
• Ethnic people think of volunteering as the fulfilment of family and social obligations and responsibilities. These activities revolve around helping, sharing and giving, first to their own family, closely followed by their extended families, then to their own ethnic communities and finally to the wider community.

• promote information sharing, networking and development of resources that support Māori, Pacific and ethnic volunteering (e.g. organise workshops for volunteer leaders to share their knowledge and ideas, develop resource materials for volunteers)
• respond to specific cultural values and needs (e.g. training for roles on marae such as Kaikaranga, upskill existing volunteers); or
• encourage, recognise and promote volunteers as community leaders (e.g. encourage youth volunteers to be future community leaders, organise volunteer recognition awards).

• criteria for the applicant organisation, and
• criteria for the project.

• have legal entity status;
• have appropriate governance and management structures and processes in place; and
• have the capability to successfully achieve the project outcomes proposed.

• promote and support volunteering within the community;
• build volunteering capacity and capabilities within the community; and
• contribute to strengthening volunteering within the community.

• Hine Forsyth - Te Atamira Taiwhenua (Dunedin)
• Ann Hodson - Cancer Society (Wellington Division)
• Hassan Hosseini - New Zealand Ethnic Social Services
• Uieta Kaufusi - Pacific Island Consultancy and Advisory Group and
• Tanya Winter - Hastings District Council

Further information

Contact details