Frequently
asked questions

To be eligible for Foundation North funding, the proposed project must demonstrate a clear charitable purpose, which means the core intention of your project is to benefit the community rather than generate private profit or commercial gain.

One of the most important things organisations with charitable intent do is provide a public benefit, but not everything that benefits the public is “charitable.” The general principles of charitable purpose are (but not limited to):

1. The benefit must be for the public or a sufficient section of the public
2. The benefit must be capable of being identified and defined
3. Illegal purposes or purposes that result in a harm to the community do not benefit the public
4. The benefit cannot be for the private profit of individuals

Applicants that are not registered as a charitable organisation, including Limited Liability Companies that do not have charitable status, must clearly describe the charitable purpose of the initiative for which funding is sought and set out clearly what is for-profit and not-for-profit activity

If your project is likely to generate revenue over and above what would reasonably cover the costs of the project, it is unlikely to be a strong fit with Foundation North’s status as a Community Trust and as such it will be ineligible.

No, individuals are not eligible to apply for one of our community funding programmes. Please check your eligibility against our criteria here.

Yes. We understand that to support some of the outcomes we want to achieve, we need to think about support for unregistered groups or to help groups become ready for applying for funding. Foundation North will continue to support unregistered groups by allowing them to apply under the umbrella of a registered organisation.

You will be able to register in your own group’s name and tell us which organisation will act as your legal umbrella/fund holder. Please note: both your group and the umbrella organisation must be registered on Foundation North’s Funding Hub. Once your registration is processed, you will be able to access the funding request forms on the Hub. Support documents will need to be provided along with your funding request by your group and the ‘umbrella’ organisation. 

Not unless services are directly delivered or directly impacting on the Auckland and Northland region. Please see our operating boundaries.

Please check your eligibility against our criteria.

Once your registration has been submitted, it may take up to three working days to process. Upon approval, you will receive an email with your unique Username and Password to access the Funding Hub.

Each person must register to the Hub to receive their own unique Username and Password. 

Yes, it is important that we have updated contact details for all Hub users. Each person must register to the Hub to receive their own unique username and password. 

Firstly, to update your profile please send an email to: onlinesupport@foundationnorth.org.nz with your first and last name, the name of the previous organisation and any updates to your own contact details. Please also tell us the name of the new organisation. Please note: the new organisation must be registered on the Hub so please provide us with the organisation details when you register so it can be linked to your profile.

No. Each person must register to the Hub to receive their own unique username and password. 

Yes, provided they are registered to the Funding Hub and have their own unique username and password. Find out more about registering to the Funding Hub below.

You can see information about your organisation, information on the people associated with your organisation, any funding request in progress, all previous funding requests, active grants, your reporting requirements, any outstanding conditions and notification of grants payments from Foundation North.

Foundation North will not consider the same request twice, so you cannot resubmit a request for something that has already been declined. You can, however, submit a request for something else. You don’t have to wait 12 months before re-applying. Prior to re-applying we recommend that you speak to a member of the funding team to see how well-aligned your request is to Foundation North’s focus areas and policies.

QRG – We aim to give a response within two months of receiving a complete funding request.

CG – We aim to give a response within five months of receiving a complete funding request.

We will send an email to the primary contact to advise that a decision letter has been uploaded to your Funding Hub.

Please log in to the Hub, and look in the grey left-hand column. If the request has been approved, you will find it under ‘Grants > Current’ If it has been declined, it will appear under ‘Requests > Declined’. The decision letters can be found within the grant or request, under the ‘Documents to Submit’ section.

The information in your decision letter may include:

• Decision of your funding request
• Notification of any conditions relating to a decision
• Payment details (if applicable)
• Any reports that may be due relating to an approved grant.

The Primary Contact question here relates to the organisation only. When you complete a funding request, the Primary or Secondary Contact names noted will be the main contact/s for the request.

Fluxx recognises individual users by their emails, so the email must be unique to one person only. Once someone has registered using a generic email, Fluxx will not allow that email to be used again. Please note: usernames will always be in the format of firstname_lastname - not an email address.

Click this link. On the log-in page, insert your ‘Username’ then click on Reset or create password.

Organisations are eligible to receive a grant once every 12 months.

No, we will only consider one request for funding from an organisation at a time. If your organisation is successful in receiving funding then you are not eligible to receive a grant again for 12 months.

Application guides are available on our website to help applicants make a complete a funding request. The guide takes applicants through:

• Things to consider before you apply
• How we assess a funding request
• Questions our funding request forms ask and the type of answers we are looking for
• Documents to submit and the assessment process

Yes. A member of the funding team is available 9am – 5pm, Monday to Friday. Call us on 0800 272 878, option 2.

Any of the following scanned documents are acceptable as digital bank account confirmation.

1. Standard bank deposit slip in the name of the applicant with bank account and bank logo clearly displayed.
2. Bank statement in the name of the applicant with bank account and bank logo clearly displayed.
3. Signed Bank Letterhead confirming details of the name of the applicant and bank account and suffix clearly displayed.
4. Stamped & dated bank branch printout with the name of the applicant and bank account and suffix clearly displayed.
5. A print screen of an on-line bank statement identifying the bank, confirming the bank account holder’s name (applicant) and expressing the bank account number. (bank web address/url must be clearly displayed)

We will, if necessary, request an alternative form of bank verification if any of the scanned documents are not clear or do not meet our requirements.

If you have been asked to provide verification of a bank account please attach it to the Digital Bank Report in Fluxx.

If you haven’t been asked to provide verification but need to update bank account details in your Organisation record, please contact us on 0800 272 878 or grant.payments@foundationnorth.org.nz so we can assist with adding/changing bank account details.

If you haven't received your payment, it may be because we are waiting on some information from you. Please check in the Funding Hub to see whether you have any outstanding conditions to be met on the grant, or unsubmitted Impact or Progress Reports.

Our grants are paid fortnightly on a Monday (or next business day if it's a Statutory Holiday).

The deadline to submit documentation via the funding hub is at midday on Wednesday prior to the Monday payment date.

There are no closing dates for Community Grants, so your request can be submitted at any time. We work around seven Board decision meetings a year and aim to give a response within five months of receiving a complete funding request. 

There are no closing dates for QRG so your request can be submitted at any time. We aim to give a response within two months of receiving a complete funding request. 

We ask for a ‘forward thinking’ budget to accompany your funding request so we can see what income your organisation is expecting to receive and what you’re budgeting to spend. How your funding request fits within the wider organisation’s spending is very helpful to know when determining things like community benefit, attendance and scale.

The budget must include the following:

• Your organisation’s name
• The months and year(s) the budget relates to, noting we do not fund retrospectively so ensure the dates are in the future
• All income sources, including the funding request to Foundation North
• If you’re applying for multi-year funding, a budget for each year is required

Not sure what a budget should look like? Check out the resources below:

• Budget Template
• Budget Guide
• Multi-year Budget Template
• Multi-year Budget Guide

Foundation North staff will receive notification that the report has been received and will review this. The primary contact/s for the grant will receive an email to advise when this happens or if we have any questions.

No. You are only required to provide invoices for building projects.

We are unable to consider future funding requests unless we have a completed impact report for your previous grant/s.

All organisations that receive funding from Foundation North are required to complete an Impact Report when the grant has been spent or the project/initiative is complete. Information is collected from the impact reports to help inform the Foundation on the impact that our funding has had and to help support the Foundation’s future strategic direction.

The impact report template will be available to you in the Funding Hub under the ‘Reports Due’ section. You need to complete and submit the impact report on or by the due date noted.

A Progress Report is a report that we ask grantees receiving their funding in instalments to complete part-way through the grant. The second or any subsequent grant payments are dependent on our receipt of a progress report. We may ask for support documents such as the latest financial statements eg: audited accounts and/or an up-to-date income & expenditure statement for the last three months.

You do not need to provide bank details at the time of submitting your request. If you are granted funding, we will ask that you provide digital confirmation of bank details at that time.

Foundation North does not require accounts to be audited, but we do require organisations to abide by their own constitution, rules, or trust deed. If your organisation’s governing document states that you must have compiled, reviewed or audited accounts, then you must provide them with your funding request.

One quote (your preferred quote) must be provided for each item/s you want to be funded. If your organisation is GST registered, any approved grant will exclude GST.

Yes – we will accept testimonials from community. However, we may still require a letter of support from another community group or organisation that you have worked alongside. A list of documents to submit for a Quick Response Grant (QRG) or Community Grant (CG) request is available on our website. Please note: a letter of support from Heritage New Zealand is required if your funding request is for a heritage project, including building restoration.

If you are a first-time applicant, or you haven't received a grant from Foundation North in the last five years, please provide us with a letter of support.

This must be on applicable letterhead, signed, dated and no more than six months old, from an organisation working with your community (either in the same location, or in the same sector) that has a good understanding of what you do and how you do it.

Please ask them to write about the reputation your organisation has, the quality of your service delivery, how you are benefiting your community, and how you work with other service providers. Please ask your letter-writer to include their name, job title and contact details.

If you have not been able to spend the funding as planned, or have spent less than the approved amount, please reach out to our team to discuss next steps.

This means that all questions in the Organisation Information and Profile sections (log-in to the Funding Hub and click on Organisations from menu on left side of screen) and the funding request are fully answered. Also, all required support documents meet our criteria and are uploaded to the request. A list of documents to submit for a Quick Response Grant (QRG) or Community Grant (CG) request is available below.

Once you have submitted your request, it will move from 'Your Drafts' to 'Submitted' in your Funding Hub. The primary contact will also receive an automated email confirmation that it has been submitted. You can also check the status bar at the top of the request.

In the Funding Hub, our terms and conditions are agreed to as part of completing a funding request before a grant is approved. You can find them under any request or grant, just below the ‘Documents to Submit’ section. 

• Submit a funding request on behalf of your organisation
• Upload support documents relating to your funding request 

Foundation North can only discuss your organisation’s funding request with person/s noted as a primary, secondary or additional ‘contact’ on the applicable request.

A moderator is the key contact for an organisation and they have special access rights to create/change the key information about your organisation in the Hub ie: information in your organisation’s Contact Information and Address sections and ensure their organisation’s People list (located in the Organisation Profile section) is up to date. Please note: an organisation can select more than one moderator to ensure cover if someone is away.

The Primary Contact will receive notifications from Foundation North via email about where to find information in the Funding Hub. The information received might include:

• Requests for more information on an application
• Decisions made on applications
• Notification of any conditions relating to a decision
• How and when payments have been actioned
• Any reports that may be due relating to payments or Impact

Multi-year funding provides funded groups with staggered grant payments made in yearly installments for large-scale or long-term projects and initiatives to reduce the need to submit multiple funding requests.

For example, an organisation receiving a multi-year grant spread over two years may receive the first installment of their grant at the time of approval and receive a second installment 12-months later (at the beginning of the second year).

We cannot fund retrospectively, and are not able to process urgent requests. To ensure you have ample time to receive a funding decision and plan your event accordingly. We recommend that you submit your funding request at least six months before the event.

Yes, all funding requests must be submitted through the Funding Hub. For guidance on how to navigate the Hub, please view our Funding Hub guide.