Fundraising Institute of New Zealand Conference

2010 Fundraising Institute of New Zealand Conference
3 May 2010, Rutherford Hotel, Nelson; 9am
Hon Tariana Turia,
Minister of the Community and Voluntary Sector

I want to thank James Austin, the Chief Executive of FINZ, for the opportunity to speak with you today. Thank you also to your President, Johan Vos.

When you both came to talk with me in my office in August last year, I was struck by the way in which you balanced passion with pragmatism.

That you have been able to bring this conference together, while at the same time rewrite your codes of ethics and conduct is a great credit to your leadership and the capacity of this Institute to deliver on its commitments. I say to you all, well done!

It was a real boost to have the children from Victory Community here to welcome us to this conference this morning.

The Victory story is a brilliant example for this fundraising sector of making the impossible possible; of creating solutions even within the most difficult set of circumstances.

What happened at Victory community is not so much about revolution as it is about evolution.

It is a story of a school which has evolved into a community in order to be able to provide education while at the same time meet the needs of its students and families. And they have done all this at no extra cost than the funding that they always had available to them from the Government.

The transformation came from doing things differently.

Victory used to have its fair share of issues with suspension and expulsion rates; truancy; behaviour and poor educational outcomes. Something had to change.

Nowadays when Victory enrols a new student they enrol the whole family. The school gates are open between 7 in the morning and 10 at night, and in between those hours there will be a whole range of non-government organisations, members of the community, parents and of course we would hope children attending school!

The success of Victory has come about from being community minded; understanding the needs of the community and developing a spirit of interconnectedness.

The result has been that over time, behaviour problems have been all but eliminated, families are staying here longer instead of moving away, and education outcomes have improved. So what does the community hub operating at Victory have to do with fundraising, sponsorship and events in the non-profit sector? Some of you will be aware of another hub – called the Generosity Hub – which I understand includes a FINZ representative.

The Generosity Hub has also developed out of difficult circumstances. Their primary purpose is to encourage individuals and businesses to participate in their communities and local community organisations by giving time, money, in-kind donations and acts of kindness The Generosity Hub is driven by an ambition to create a generous society through sponsorship, donations, employee volunteering and collaborative arrangements.

It has arisen through a collective vision from government, corporate and philanthropic organizations about how they can work together, to support the community and voluntary sector which is clearly under strain. Like Victory School, the Generosity Hub started off with a group of people looking at their circumstances, pooling their collective talents and figuring out there must be something they could do, to create a more supportive environment for sponsorship and fundraising A key factor in the change was in developing strong relationships.

Another initiative which has grown out of collaboration between the business, non-profit, philanthropic and government sectors, is the establishment of online processing agencies like www.donatenz.com; www.fundraiseonline.co.nz and www.givealittle.co.nz, Data from Nielsen Media Research showed that in 2008, approximately 794,000 New Zealanders in paid employment had made planned, regular gifts, to a specific organisation or cause. This is a significant market for fundraisers; one which I am sure you are all aware of. But as all of you here will also know, the fundraising sector has experienced considerable upheaval in this last year. So I come back to the importance of relationships – and within that the fundamental value of trust. The very basis of fundraising is about the relationship between the people asking for support and the people who can give it.

In the past 18 months, due to the economic downturn, government, community agencies, businesses have been examining their budgets and thinking where and what the best use of their resources and money is.

There has also been a spotlight on fundraising and charities. Partly we could say this is due to the charities register making more information available. But of course, all of us know that some trust has been lost due to media coverage highlighting examples of poor fundraising practice.

I do not want to under-estimate the pressure this has brought on to the fundraising community.

As they say, however, every cloud has a silver lining.

I want to congratulate this organisation for the work you are doing to improve the transparency and public accountability of fundraisers in the charitable sector. There is nobody who is more aware of what is needed within your industry to improve practices and standards than the people in this room.

I am fully supportive of your efforts to improve the ethics of the profession and therefore the trust New Zealanders have in you.

As I understand it, 75% of fundraisers are members of this association. So FINZ has a powerful opportunity to set in place the highest of standards for the fundraising profession.

By making the charitable and fundraising sectors more transparent and accountable, the public is able to make informed decisions about where it puts its donations.

I’m sure that a key focus in this conference will be progress made in the review of your Code of Ethics and Conduct and the development of industry standards. I have been pleased to provide some funding to assist this work.

I am sure that both of these initiatives will help to restore public confidence in the way money is raised. I am hopeful also, that this work will be considered in the conclusions of the Select Committee around the Fair Trading (Soliciting on behalf of Charities) Amendment Bill.

On the broader issue of government funding I have also asked the Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector to produce a Code of Good Funding Practice to assist government agencies and community and voluntary organisations. The draft Code is currently up for consultation on the Standards New Zealand website.

I said, earlier, that in order to inspire trust and confidence in the sector we may need to do things differently.

FINZ – and the Office of the Community and Voluntary Sector are making your difference felt through these resources.

But there is another initiative which I believe could be helpful in strengthening the context of fundraising –and that is the legislative change which occurred in 2009 to make it easier for people to give and immediately receive the tax benefits for their donations

With Payroll Giving an employee can donate directly to a charity with donee status from their pay and receive a tax credit back in the same pay period.

The Government has also increased the threshold for donation tax credits up to 33% of the level of a person’s taxable income. Companies and Mäori authorities can now claim a deduction for donations they make to non-profits up to the level of their net income before taking into account the deduction.

The challenges of fundraising will always require enormous amounts of dedication; inspiration and personal involvement to ensure we make the most of the resources available, whether it is the people who volunteer or the monetary donations.

The last eighteen months have created added weight to the need to do things differently.

I have every confidence that FINZ – and indeed the greater fundraising sector – can respond to the considerable challenges you are facing. This conference is a fabulous opportunity to share best practice about precisely how you can continue to ensure the world of fundraising is in the very best shape it can be.

I wish you a great few days together and look forward to seeing the fundraising sector continue to respond to every challenge that besets you in the best way possible.

ENDS