Poroporoaki, or farewell, to 2020.

July saw the beginning of a new financial year for us.

We would like to thank our generous donors, and our partners who have stood with us in this last year. Christchurch City Council, Meridian Energy, Spark, TSB New Zealand, Brannigans, Computer Concepts, KPMG, Southbase, ChristchurchNZ and Lincoln University. It has been an absolute pleasure working with you all.

It is timely that we share some highlights so far.

To those of you not in Aotearoa, please know that you are in our thoughts as the world continues to navigate its way through the pandemic.

United Kingdom Update

It is almost a year to the day that we visited London and announced our intent to set up a sister entity there. Many of you have asked how we are progressing in this area.

We now have a legal sister entity in the UK (The Christchurch Foundation-UK), bank accounts, trustees and the paperwork has been lodged for our charitable status.

Nic Coward (pictured on the left) is the chair of the UK entity and is an Englishman who holds Christchurch and New Zealand in very high regard. He is chairman, director, and adviser in a wide range of organisations and sectors, building on 20 years in senior executive roles at some of world sport’s biggest names. Nic chairs national governing body England Golf, sports tech business Sportable, and sporting and construction goods manufacturer Stuart Canvas, as well as UK-based retail motor trade and property businesses.

Our other UK based trustee Graham Dockrill (pictured on the right) is currently residing in Christchurch, after returning for family reasons. We have observed that he does not appear to be in a hurry to return to old blighty. However, he continues to work on activities remotely and is proving handy to have here on the ground.

Graham is an experienced entrepreneur within the digital and software industry, having founded and grown several companies over the past 20 years within the United Kingdom and New Zealand. His most recent start-up, Citrus Tree Consulting, which focuses on assisting Southern Hemisphere companies successfully expand into the Northern Hemisphere market, has found success globally with his clients extending to North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

NZ chair Humphry Rolleston is the third trustee of the UK entity.

The NZ office provides administration support for the UK entity, with a service level agreement in place for these services.

Due to Covid 19, plans for on the ground activity and events are currently on hold in the UK. We are however working on some exciting digital opportunities which will allow our followers from around the world to still play an active role in all that we are doing. We will be in touch.

University of Canterbury Collaboration

We are thrilled to share that we have signed a memorandum of understanding with the University of Canterbury. They join our whanau/ family of partners.

We are working with the University of Canterbury and their Foundation on several initiatives and ways to collaborate for better outcomes for our city, including our offshore activities. We are also thrilled to share that we are a charity of choice for their staff as a part of the payroll giving programme that they offer.

Our People Our City Fund

Some of you may have seen a recent article in The Press about our Independent Advisor Raf Manji and the work he has been doing to support the Victims of the March 15 terror attacks. To say his commitment to the families and the wider Muslim community has been significant is an understatement. We cannot thank him enough for his work.

As Raf indicated in the article, we are almost finished distributing the last of the funds we hold in the Our People Our City Fund. The final distributions will occur within the next few weeks.

Raf will continue to provide support for the community until November 2020 when our activity will cease in this area.

The Education Fund for over 100 children will remain in our care and will be distributed to those eligible over the next eighteen years.

Click here to read the article.

Tim Jarvis Events, Christchurch and Akaroa

We hope to run these two sell out events as soon as possible within this calendar year. Tim is a remarkable presenter and we feel that not having him in the room with us would significantly impact on the experience for those attending. Please bear with us as we wait to hear more about a trans-Tasman travel bubble.

We are now also looking at how we can offer a digital experience to those that cannot physically attend.

To get a taste of what to expect click here to hear Tim talk about his epic retracing of Shackleton (and Akaroa local Frank Worsley’s) journey of survival.

 Until the next time...