Otago Community Trust is pleased to announce it has approved a general grants budget of $10 million for this coming year.

Otago Community Trust chair Diccon Sim highlights that the Trust’s investment goals are to return as much as possible to the Otago community through grants, while preserving the real value of the initial capital of the Trust’s fund to maintain equity between different generations of beneficiaries.

“From an investment perspective the start of the 2020-21 financial year was challenging, during this period, when the Trust usually sets its Grants budget the Trust was conscious of the need to safeguard Trust’s assets during a time of initial heightened market volatility and as a consequence the annual granting budget was reduced as a precaution”.

In making the decision to increase our annual grants budget for the 2021-22 financial year, the Board has carefully considered that while we are in a low interest environment, our strong investment governance structures and sound reserving position will help to ensure good long-term results.

“This therefore provides a level of confidence that we can increase our annual granting budget” said Mr Sim.

Otago Community Trust chief executive Barbara Bridger said the increase in funding is important as it means that the Trust is better placed to respond to the very real needs of our community, the ongoing ripple effects of COVID-19 and also have the flexibility to respond to opportunities as they arise.

“Otago Community Trust accepts applications for funding throughout the year, we are happy to discuss projects with groups and encourage members of the community to make contact with the Trust if they have any questions” said Ms Bridger.