From the CE
Barbara Bridger — April 14, 2020
Welcome to our first eNewsletter for 2020. We hope that you all had an enjoyable Easter break and are adjusting to the "new norm" of staying inside your homes and keeping safe in your bubbles.
It certainly is a difficult and challenging time but I’m sure like you, we at the Trust are confident all our hard work and sacrifice will pay off and New Zealand will come out of this crisis less scathed by Covid-19 than many other countries. Our thoughts at this time are with those who have lost loved ones to the virus and to those members of the community who have had their livelihoods and lifestyles severely affected by this situation.
Otago Community Trust remains committed to supporting our communities and community organisations at this time and earlier this month we launched our dedicated $2M COVID-19 Response Fund. The COVID-19 Response Fund has been established to offer assistance to community organisations who are incurring or have incurred additional costs in delivering their services, projects or activities to members of the community most in need or who are incurring or have incurred additional costs due to an expansion of services as a result of COVID-19.
We will be working with our Board over the coming months to ensure that we are able to offer support to community organisations as best we can. The key to our communities’ recovery will be building on our strength and resilience to build a better future for all our citizens and with that will come I am sure the need to think about doing things differently, building stronger relationships and better collaborations.
Otago Community Trust went into this crisis in a relatively sound financial position with some reserves built up for a rainy day such as this. We are therefore hopeful that our regular granting activity will continue as usual through this recovery phase, albeit with us working remotely.
One of our key messages during this time is that we are open for business, our grants portal remains open for grant applications and we are committed to being flexible with our granting processes going forward.
Should you have any questions regarding funding or our new COVID-19 Response Fund or wish to discuss ways Otago Community Trust could assist our communities through the recovery phase please feel free to contact me or any member of the Trust team, we are always here to help.
Despite our scheduled March eNewsletter being derailed due to the COVID-19 crisis, we hope you find our delayed April update useful and informative.
Ngā mihi
Take care, stay safe
Barbara Bridger, CE
