Our Community Funds
Giving Circles
Giving Circles
When individuals pool their charitable dollars and focus on key issues, their impact can be far greater than individual gifts. A giving circle's relationships with specific charities create a deeper level of involvement for donors and the nonprofits they support. Create your own or join one of ours! Giving Circles are one of the fastest growing forms of philanthropy in the world.
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A Giving Circle comprises a group of at least 10 people who each make a regular monthly donation of $50 or more (or an annual donation) and who get together to decide where their money should go.
The members of the Giving Circle talk about the needs in the local community, and the Acorn team provide information about charities in our region, arrange speakers or even take a Circle to visit a charity they are interested in supporting.
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Give Together
The Wakatipu Community Foundation is about connecting people with causes that matter to them. We offer opportunities for donors to explore their common interests, pool resources and make a greater difference. Discover the power of giving together! Start your own or join in with our existing giving circles:
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Impact 100 Wakatipu
Impact 100 Wakatipu is a grassroots effort with a goal of changing the lives of women and their families. The strategy is simple: 100 women give $1,000 each to create a $100,000 grant to benefit a mutually-selected nonprofit. More than 100 women are welcome to join, however, and our impact will be that much greater! By the end of its third year, Impact100 Wakatipu will have donated nearly $500,000 to the local Wakatipu community.
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Visit the Impact 100 page for more information
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Generation Give
Students in the YPNZ Generation Give programme work through a customised 20-week curriculum plan to prepare them for a professional and philanthropic future. Students get to learn about topics such as consensus building, decision making, marketing strategy and implementation, board governance, and non-profit governance. During the time students get to spend with the charities themselves, they will get the opportunity to work with the charities. This gives the students a unique opportunity to learn about individual charities in their local area, and how they are directly contributing to the communities they serve.
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For more information, visit ypnz.org
Impact100
Generation Give
Benefits of creating or joining a Giving Circle
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It’s a great way to meet people and be part of a group that can make a tangible difference in our community.
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It’s a nice, social way to get into giving, with the support and camaraderie of like-minded people.
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Pooling financial resources with friends and colleagues means that your money can work harder - sooner.
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Seeing your contribution make a difference in the community is extremely rewarding.
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You will get 33.3% of your donations back through tax deductions.
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And importantly, most of us would like to think that, in some small way, the world might be a better place for the fact that we have been here.
How Giving Circles help our community organisations
Giving Circles are a way to harness the enthusiasm of already passionate people who want to have a meaningful way to contribute. For instance, a local community organisation could encourage their supporters to form a Giving Circle. The annual distribution of that Giving Circle could be split so that a portion could go to that community organisation and a portion to one or more different organisations in the area.
