News

Want a hassle-free way to sort your donation rebates? And donate $5 to The Christchurch Foundation at no cost to you? Our partner, Supergenerous, makes it simple.

They’re a Kiwi social enterprise that simplifies the process for claiming and regifting donation tax rebates. No more tracking every donation you make or manually uploading receipts with the IRD. And for every new donor that signs up before the end of March, Supergenerous will also donate $5 to the Christchurch Foundation!

Erin and her team at Perinatal Wellbeing Canterbury (PWC) have had a busy couple of years since winning our Women’s Fund award in 2020. Our grant allowed PWC to set up a new peer support programme to help whanau in Canterbury who are dealing with a decline in mental wellbeing following childbirth. Through their friendly meetups like coffee groups or playgroups, they reach those who are struggling and might not make it to more formal therapy. The supporters teach parents how to connect with their children and to get through the tough times.

Our Kate Sheppard Women’s Fund aims to support fabulous changemakers and Joy Reid is no exception. Her charity, One Mother to Another, received one of our awards late last year. Since then things have been moving at such pace and we wanted to let you know how your support has contributed to the flourishing of this beautiful initiative.

Our Kate Sheppard Women’s Fund was established to amplify the work of women and girls who are making change in greater Ōtautahi Christchurch. Our aim is to seek out amazing community leaders so we can help them achieve their goals and use their stories to inspire others. With support from people like you, we can grow their impact.

We thought it timely to update you on one of our previous grant recipients, Jo Bailey and Beck Parnham who started Uniting Canterbury Women in response to the mosque terror attacks.

We are thrilled to announce Eli Matthewson as our PRIDE Ambassador.

The Christchurch Foundation a is committed to measuring our impact. Rose Challies, an independent organisational impact expert, has conducted a review to see if we are an organisation that is making positive change. She is also working to assist us in the development of a framework on which to measure our impact annually.

The 2021 Financial Year has been a productive year for the Christchurch Foundation.

Joy is the co-founder and head of One Mother to Another, a grass roots charity which provides care packages to caregivers (particularly mothers) in hospital with their sick child. Joy runs the charity and has responsibility for finding products, packaging and delivery, recruiting volunteers, and running the day-to-day activities of the charity.

Introducing Lois Hill, Project Coordinator and Course deliverer of Bike Bridge another of our Kate Sheppard Women's Fund grant recipients this year.
Many New Zealander-born kiwis take bicycle riding for granted. Bike Bridge aims to make it possible for migrant and former refugee women, who may never have had the opportunity in their home countries, to own a bike and to be able to ride it with confidence.

Introducing Heather Milne as another of our Kate Sheppard Women's Fund recipients. Heather runs Christchurch Aunties and talks about her project here:
My project provides practical donations for over 8,000 women and children who have experienced family
violence in Christchurch. I mobilize 4,700 ‘Aunties’ throughout ChCh to make this happen, I hustle to get
supplies, and I manage an awesome team of volunteers.

Introducing Emily Cormack who is the co-manager for Regenerate Christchurch, a subsidiary of Cultivate Christchurch.
Regenerate is an initiative to support local whānau, rangatahi, and communities experiencing food insecurity to access high quality produce through learning with us and through our coaching team to grow their kia own in their backyards, or to have access through participation and being able to take home what is grown on our farm.

We were thrilled to announce the grant recipients at our recent High Tea event for the Kate Sheppard Women's Fund. These projects are truly inspiring and work so hard to improve people's lives in our community:
Emily Cormack, Regenerate Christchurch
Heather Milne, Christchurch Aunties
Joy Reid, One Mother to Another and
Lois Hill, Bike Bridge
We were very fortunate this year to have a corporate sponsor Evotek Technologies, a locally run, 30 year old family business who made the fourth grant possible.