Dunedin Prison by Melanie McAtamney
Recent OCT Grant Rounds
Otago Community Trust — April 1, 2020
While our office maybe currently closed, our staff and trustees are now all happily working from home, our grants portal remains open for grant applications and we are committed to being flexible with our granting process. Below is a quick summary of our recent grant approvals.
February Grants Summary: Otago Community Trust awarded just under $950,000 to 53 community organisations across Otago in February. The largest beneficiary in our February round was the Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust who received a $100,000 grant to help with their ambitious stage two restoration of three cell blocks.
Other grants included $41,650 to Dunstan High School for the rebuilding the school's Ropes Course; $50,000 to the Dunedin Indoor Sports Venues Trust (Edgar Centre) to assist with the cost of upgrading the More FM Arena;
Dunedin Youth Orchestra Inc received $7,780 to help with the cost of their first semester orchestra's activities.
Disc Golf Wanaka received a $4,000 grant to purchase new equipment and Filipino Waitaki Incorporated were awarded a $4,000 grant to assist with the cost of staging the Filipino Variety Concert "Encore" in June.
March Grants Summary:
Our Board Meeting scheduled for Tuesday 24th March was initially postponed as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown. The board then met virtually for the first time in its history on the 30th March. From this meeting Trustees unanimously agreed to earmark $2 million to a dedicated COVID-19 Response Fund and it approved grants totalling $97,451 to nine community organisations in March.
Our largest grant for March was a $40,000 grant to support the development of the Lawrence Skateboard Park. A $15,000 grant was awarded to the Waitaki Valley Community Society Inc which will also assist with the development of dedicated Skatepark for the Kurow community and the West Taieri Rugby Football Club were awarded a $13,000 grant to support the replacement of field lighting at Outram Domain.
A number of applications had to be withdrawn in March as a consequence of the rapidly changing environment and national COVID-19 restrictions.
February Media Release
https://www.oct.org.nz/news/dunedin-prison-receives-funding-boost-for-stage-two-restoration
March Media Release
https://www.oct.org.nz/news/trust-earmarks-2m-for-dedicated-covid-19-response-fund
Here to Help
Remember if you have any questions around funding or funding timelines, don't hesitate to call us on 0800 10 12 40 or send us an email at: info@oct.org.nz
The full list of grants can always be found on the Otago Community Trust website.
https://www.oct.org.nz/what-we-support/past-grants
