May 2026: New Kaikōkiri Announced

The J R McKenzie Trust is pleased to announce its most recent funding recipients.

360 Tautua Trust

$205K

360 Tautua Trust is a Pacific-led organisation dedicated to serving and supporting Pacific elders (Matua) and their village. Rooted in the core value of Tautua ma le Alofa – To Serve with Love – its mission is to ensure that elders are not only cared for, but honoured, celebrated, and empowered to thrive in their later years. This funding will support the Pacific Legacy Project, and specifically intergenerational storytelling initiatives, where 360 Tautua Trust transform the migration stories of elders into children’s books. These books will serve as a way to capture their invaluable experiences and pass them down to future generations, providing young Pacific children with a deeper understanding of their cultural roots, history, and identity.

Asylum Seekers Support Trust

$105K

The Asylum Seekers Support Trust (ASST) provides practical support and advocacy for people who are seeking asylum in Aotearoa New Zealand. This funding will support ASST to strengthen its high-level advocacy efforts aimed at driving system and policy change that better supports asylum seekers in Aotearoa New Zealand through appointing a person to lead and coordinate this work. This role will focus on strategic engagement with policymakers, building sector alliances, and amplifying the voices of those with lived experience to influence positive, long-term change.

Communities Against Alcohol Harm

$100K

Communities Against Alcohol Harm (CAAH) aims to minimise alcohol and gambling-related harm through advocacy, community action, fostering networks, education, and training. This funding will support CAAH to strengthen and complete the national rollout of its services, improve and deepen its relationships with institutions such as marae, schools, churches, and community organisations, and undertake more work with whānau and rangatahi.

Disabled Persons Assembly

$160K

Disabled Persons Assembly NZ (DPA) is a not-for-profit, pan-impairment disabled people’s organisation run by and for disabled people that works for the equity and inclusion of disabled people through system-wide change. This funding will support Finding Common Ground 2.0 which has an overarching goal to co-design a shared narrative and draft a declaration around disability, which will provide the grounding for a broader campaign to put disability rights/kaupapa onto the political agenda in the lead up to the 2026 General Election.

Ethnic Rainbow Alliance

$150K

Ethnic Rainbow Alliance is dedicated to empowering ethnic rainbow communities by promoting holistic wellbeing, encompassing physical, mental, and social dimensions. Its mission is to cultivate inclusive spaces where cultural diversity is celebrated, and everyone feels valued. This funding will support the Make a Mark project. This includes creating an online version of LISTEN, a hands-on workshop where community leaders and organisations design culturally grounded tools to support the prevention of violence and harm. Other aspects include creating activation calendars, establishing and supporting a Micro Advocacy response network, implementing a train-the-trainer model, and much more.

Fibre Fale

$250K

Fibre Fale is a purpose-led organisation founded to create pathways into technology for Pacific people. It exists to amplify representation of Pasefika in tech and grow the next wave of transformative industry leaders. This funding will support Fibre Fale to accelerate its social enterprise model by building intelligence consultancy, WOLFE Intelligence Studio, into a commercially self-sustaining, revenue-driving force. This will solidify WOLFE’s position as the economic engine underpinning Fibre Fale’s broader social impact mission to increase digital equity for Pacific peoples.

Hāpai Tūhono Charitable Trust

$140K

Hāpai Tūhono Charitable Trust is a Māori-led career and workforce development organisation dedicated to building pathways that connect rangatahi and whānau into sustainable, meaningful careers while strengthening employer capability across priority industries. This funding will support the delivery of Ngā Karanga Anamata, a comprehensive career development system that draws on Te Ao Māori to support Māori rangatahi, whānau, and hapori, while offering an inclusive model that benefits all communities in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Kōtare Research & Education for Social Change

$180K

Kōtare is an independent community-based organisation offering residential and online participatory adult education programmes. It aims to support and strengthen the efforts of individuals, groups, networks, and communities working for transformative social change. This funding will support the creation of a sustainable pathway for Kōtare to build individual and group capacity among the next generation of social change leaders, to make lasting system change in Aotearoa New Zealand, across all areas of economic, social, Te Tiriti, and ecological justice.

Pacific Settlement Support Service

$60K

Pacific Settlement Support Service (PSSS) strives to empower Pacific families to build stable, thriving lives in Aotearoa New Zealand while maintaining strong cultural identities and community connections. It does this by delivering a comprehensive range of free, practical, and culturally grounded settlement support services. This funding will support PSSS to continue building its capability and resilience, positioning the organisation for continued growth and impact, and ensuring a stable pathway toward long-term sustainability.

PaCIVICa Charitable Trust

$300K

PaCIVICa Charitable Trust is a Pacific-led charitable trust established to build the civic leadership capacity and capability of Pacific people in Aotearoa New Zealand. Its focus is on creating accessible, culturally grounded pathways for Pacific communities to participate confidently in civic leadership and governance – from community organisations and boards through to wider democratic participation. This funding will enable PaCIVICa to secure and retain core leadership capacity through a Chief Executive role focused on strategy, partnership-building, governance maturity, and long-term sustainability.

Tāiki ē!

$270K

Tāiki e! is a kaupapa Māori social innovation whare (Impact House) in Tūranganui-a-Kiwa (Gisborne). It grows the Aroha Economy by developing the next generation of community leaders through entrepreneurship, digital capability, and reo/tikanga-led practice. Its aim is to create safe, warm, culturally rich spaces where rangatahi learn by doing, turn ideas into real ventures and community projects, and keep leadership close to whānau. This funding will support the stabilisation and growth of Tāiki e! Next Gen, the kaupapa Māori pathway that builds rangatahi leadership through entrepreneurship, digital capability, and action-based learning.

Tapasā Navigating Futures

$70K

Tapasā Navigating Futures is a Pacific‑led organisation committed to advancing equity, cultural wellbeing, and intergenerational leadership through Indigenous knowledge systems and relational practice. This funding will support the Le Moana West Collective, a Pacific anchored ecosystem uniting community organisations, churches, youth groups, cultural practitioners, mana whenua, local government, central government, and funders across West Auckland. Funding will support Cultural Advisors responsible for embedding an indigenous Pacific lens on approaches to systems change practice across the Collective, and will also maintain the Digital Vā, the communication and storytelling infrastructure that keeps the ecosystem connected, informed, and aligned.

Tax Justice Aotearoa

$200K

Tax Justice Aotearoa (TJA) is committed to promoting tax justice both in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally. By tax justice, TJA is referring to the need to generate more revenue to address challenges such as poverty and inequality, and climate change; the need for a progressive tax system where everyone contributes according to their means; and the need for greater transparency. This funding will support TJA to conduct a strategic and professional campaign across the country, to build lasting shifts in the narrative around tax and power in communities and push for tax reform.

Te Atakura Institute for Educators Aotearoa

$89K

The aim of Te Atakura Institute for Educators Aotearoa (TAIEA) is to advance citizenship education in Aotearoa New Zealand by supporting the creation of a critical mass of well-informed, well-supported educators for teaching and learning about citizenship matters. These include Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Matike Mai Aotearoa (Constitutional Transformation), the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and other curricula specific to Indigenous rights and allyship. This funding will be dedicated to two projects: (1) the annual Haerenga ki Waitangi 2026 for 50 network members; and (2) completion of priority resources for TAIEA’s online hub, including the 'Nga Aparangi' expert video series and 'He Marau' curricula guides for the national network.

Te Tāhekeroa

$170K

Te Tāhekeroa is the national education and dialogue programme exploring the Doctrine of Discovery’s influence in Aotearoa New Zealand’s legal, political, economic, and social systems. The Doctrine is the colonial legal and theological framework that justified Indigenous dispossession and environmental desecration, globally. Te Tāhekeroa International Symposium on the Doctrine of Discovery Aotearoa 2026 will convene Indigenous leaders, legal experts, educators, faith communities, researchers and human-rights advocates to address the ongoing impacts of the Doctrine. This funding will support the coordination, administration, and delivery of this kaupapa.

Tula’i

$200K

Tula’i is a Pasifika youth development organisation that strengthens and supports Pasifika communities in West Auckland to flourish through empowering leadership. It works collaboratively and upholds the "it takes a village" approach, drawing on the strengths of its community, those who have gone before, and those who are to come. This funding will support Tula’i to design and embed a strength-based social enterprise model that leads to long-term, Pasifika-led sustainability by investing in organisational capability.

Wana Services

$220K

Wana Services is a kaupapa Māori charitable trust dedicated to supporting tāne in Aotearoa New Zealand who have lived experience of violence. It aims to empower tāne, invigorate their lives, and facilitate healing that transforms them and their whānau. This funding will support Wana to grow He Tāne Ora one-to-one and group programmes across Tāmaki Makaurau, reaching more men who need support to reconnect with themselves, their whānau and community.