Issue 10 - 7 June 2007

A National Forum involving the community and voluntary sector (the sector) and government will be held in Wellington on 20-21 June 2007.

The planning and organising of this Forum is a collaborative effort by a steering group of community and voluntary sector leaders supported by the OCVS, Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) and the Community Sector Taskforce.

The Forum has two main goals:

• to enable sector organisations to discuss ways to address cross-cutting issues affecting the sector (eg: funding mechanisms and participation in government policy processes) and share their proposals with government agencies and Ministers
• to establish an enduring process for engagement between the sector and government to improve relationships.

Day One will enable sector representatives from across a wide range of interests and sub-sectors (eg: arts and culture, education, emergency services, environment, health, housing, social services, and sport and recreation) to meet and discuss topics of common interest.

Day Two will be an opportunity for Ministers and government agency representatives to engage with sector representatives.

• See the Information Sheet on the forum
• You'll also find a brief (9-page) backgound paper on the community-government relationship since 2000
• Two reports identifying issues related to the community-government relationship are also available online.
  They are: He Waka Kotuia: Joining together on a Shared Journey (2002) and Communities and Government: Potential for Partnership
  Whakatopu Whakaaro (2001)
• Free hard copies can be requested from ocvs@msd.govt.nz

Mahi Aroha: Maori Perspectives on volunteering and cultural obligations was launched at a special function on 30 April by Hon Luamanuvao Winnie Laban, Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector. The term “mahi aroha” – work performed out of love, sympathy or caring through a sense of duty – was considered by research participants to capture the concept behind Mâori 'voluntary' work.

The research report is intended to lead to a better understanding of volunteering and unpaid work from a Maori perspective, Minister Laban said.

"An improved understanding of mahi aroha means we can better support the needs of Maori through policy, legislation and practice," said Minister Laban.

• See the Minister's media release and a photo from the event or read the Minister's speech.
• The Mahi Aroha report can be downloaded from this website.
• Free printed copies can be ordered by e-mailing your postal address to ocvs@msd.govt.nz.

The OCVS, Philanthropy New Zealand and the Department of Internal Affairs collaboratively organised eight regional funders forums in May, so staff from the three organisations were very busy planning for and travelling to the various events. The forums enabled funders to share information and good practice on grantmaking and hear from Anne Burleigh of the Northern Rock Foundation in the UK.

Private philanthropists, corporates, government grantmakers and representatives from various trusts who fund activities in certain regions attended the forums in eight locations. Funders were enthusiastic about the value of the networking opportunity and the importance of knowing what others fund and why (or why not). Discussions at the forums also explored opportunities for collaboration and future information sharing.

As part of the preparation for the forums, the OCVS published a series of regional snapshots highlighting key data from sources such as The Social Report, Funding Information Service and the NZ Census, and summarising Community Outcomes identified through various long term council planning processes. These snapshots are now publicly available free to anyone who has an interest in learning more about a specific region.

The nine regional snapshots are available online. They focus on Wellington, Upper South Island, Otago/Southland, Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Manawatu/Taranaki, Hawkes Bay, Mid/South Canterbury and Northland.

Funders forums for the Auckland region are scheduled for 5 and 6 July, while individuals in the other regions have committed to continuing their networking on an ongoing basis.

The Human Rights Commission has acknowledged OCVS Policy Analyst, Kat Paton, and her Victoria University co-researchers Shana Khan, Cedric Horner and Awad Hagos for their contribution towards positive race relations in this country through their Participatory Action Research (PAR) report Supporting Refugee-Background Students to Achieve Their Goals.

The study, undertaken as part of a Masters programme on behalf of the Changemakers Refugee Forum, identified a comprehensive list of recommendations for Victoria University and related service providers that would improve the cultural responsiveness of the institution and the effectiveness of existing support services. This is the first such study carried out in a tertiary institution in New Zealand. Victoria University is now actioning the recommendations from the report, with a view to having them implemented by 2008.

Volunteer Awareness Week will be celebrated around New Zealand from 17-23 June.

The week is also St John’s annual awareness and appeal week.

The overall theme for Volunteer Awareness Week 2007 is the diversity of volunteering – both diversity in the range of volunteering opportunities and the diversity of those who volunteer.

For example, contrary to popular belief, the current generation of young people is involved in many volunteer activities and shows concern about social issues like climate change, not unlike the generations before them. (See more on this in a media statement from the NZ Association for Adolescent Health and Development.)

Volunteering NZ, with support from the OCVS, has produced posters, balloons and fliers reflecting the theme for the week. Limited supplies are available on a first come basis, so e-mail office@volunteeringnz.org.nz if you want free VAW resources.

Volunteering NZ is compiling information on activities planned to celebrate the week, so send news of your planned events to office@volunteeringnz.org.nz

Senior Analyst Joyce-Anne Raihania and Policy Analyst Ann Walker are moving on to new challenges within the Ministry of Social Development at the end of this month. Joyce-Anne will be a Strategic Relationship Manager with Child, Youth and Family, initially focusing on working with the Salvation Army. Ann will use the knowledge she gained doing her PhD thesis and continue developing her policy skills with the Child, Family and Community Policy team within MSD.

We'll miss them both, but know they will continue to help us raise awareness of the value of, and issues facing, the community and voluntary sector - and with such closely related new roles, we know our paths will cross professionally from time to time.

This means that the OCVS is currently looking for new people to join our team. We are keen to fill at least one of these vacancies with a secondment from the government or the community and voluntary sector, so if you have an interest in the work of the OCVS and would like to be a part of it, please contact us to find out more.

Contact Brenda Ratcliff on 04 918 9564

Further updates have been made to the legal resource produced by the OCVS and NZ Federation of Voluntary Welfare Organisations.

Updates to Keeping it Legal E Ai Ki Te Ture went live in April and reflect the opening of the Charities Register, the relationship between the Charities Commission and the Inland Revenue, as well as the law relating to interest-free student loans for borrowers volunteering overseas for charitable organisations.

Keeping it Legal E Ai Ki Te Ture is a good starting point to find out more about the responsibilities related to an incorporated society.

Recent headlines about a Crown Law investigation of the Whangarei Hearing Association highlight the need for committees, officers and members to understand the laws governing incorporated societies and the disposal of assets/distribution of profits.

According to the Incorporated Societies Act, a society's rules must provide for the control and investment of the society's funds and state what happens to the society's property if the society is put into liquidation (wound up), amongst other matters.

Check out Fact Sheet # 3 on Incorporated Societies on the Keeping it Legal website to learn more.

As well as our electronic newsletter (that you are reading now), the OCVS also produces a printed newsletter throughout the year. It you're not getting the printed newsletter and would like to (or we keep addressing your printed copy to the wrong person, wrong address, etc) please e-mail your details to ocvs@msd.govt.nz.

You can view past issues of OCVS News.

If you have an event, conference or meeting related to community or voluntary issues, you are welcome to send a brief description of the event to us for inclusion in our email updates.

In the Budget 2007, the Government announced tax changes to encourage philanthropy and giving.

Key changes include:

• the $1,890 threshold for individual's cash donations to organisations with charitable donee status will be removed, and individuals will qualify for the 33% rebate up to their annual net income
• the deduction limit on charitable donations made by companies and Maori authorities will be removed
• the company deduction will be extended to unlisted, closed companies with five or fewer shareholders.

Following enactment of the taxation bill, the above changes will apply from the 2008/09 tax income year.

In addition, the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) will continue to look at a range of measures aimed at supporting charities and other non-profit organisations, including payroll giving, tax deductions for non-monetary donations, and streamlining the tax treatment of expense reimbursement and honoraria payments to volunteers.

The changes were announced after significant consultation and feedback from the community and voluntary sector.

A 70-page summary of feedback made in response to the 2006 discussion document Tax incentives for giving to charities and other non-profit organisations is now available online.

For more information on the changes, see the media release and fact sheet from the Revenue Minister or a speech he made to the NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants on 22 May.

A ministerial media statement has confirmed that charities and tax-exempt organisations with paid employees will receive the KiwiSaver employer tax credit.

This means employees of community groups and charities will be eligible to join Kiwisaver from 1 July 2007. The government kick-starts each KiwiSaver member's account with $1,000 tax-free, and a member tax credit matching the contributions made by each member (aged between 18 and the age of eligibility to withdraw their KiwiSaver funds) up to a maximum of $1,042.86 a year. This is the equivalent of up to $20 a week.

Members will also receive a 1% employer contribution from 1 April 2008, rising to 4% by 1 April 2011. The compulsory employer contribution will be phased in over time to allow employers to prepare. The KiwiSaver employer tax credit of $20 per week per employee will be offset against PAYE payments - therefore charities that are income tax-exempt will still receive the tax credit. Legislation giving effect to these changes is currently before Parliament. It is expected to be passed later this year, subject to changes at Select Committee stage.

See more details in the media release or visit www.kiwisaver.govt.nz

The report Counting Non-profit Organisations in New Zealand 2005, highlights the fact that 90% of New Zealand's 97,000 non-profit institutions (NPIs) rely entirely on volunteers to keep going! Only 10% employ any staff at all. In the report, NPIs were categorised into 12 major activity groups, with almost 45% of NPIs involved in culture, sport and recreational activities.

The report is part of the work leading up to the first release of the Non-Profit Institutions Satellite Account, which will describe the contribution of non-profits to the economy and the value of their volunteer labour. This report is due on 28 August 2007.

Development of the satellite account is part of New Zealand’s participation in an international comparative study of the non-profit sector led by JohnsHopkins University (Baltimore, USA).

For more on the Study of the NZ Non-Profit Sector project see the OCVS website, or visit the Statistics NZ website for information on the development of the NPI Satellite Account or a copy of Counting Non-profit Organisations in NZ 2005.

Philanthropy New Zealand's Giving New Zealand: Philanthropic Funding 2006 report shows that individual New Zealanders and non-government organisations gave $1.27 billion to charities and other commmunity purposes in the 2005/06 year.

    * Fifty-eight percent of this funding came from trusts and foundations (including statutory trusts, which gave five sixths of this amount).
    * Culture, sports and recreation activities received the greatest amount of funding (27%), closely followed by education and research (at 24%).

A new Community Participation Toolkit has been launched at the University of Otago's Department of Public Health. The resource for primary health organisations was written by Pat Neuwelt and published by Steele Roberts Ltd.

The Community Participation Toolkit will assist primary health organisation boards, staff, member organisations and communities to review their levels of participation and their progress over time. It is intended to be of practical use to people at all levels of the health sector and has a distinctly New Zealand flavour. The workbook style of the resource is broken into six key indicator areas including organisation stucture, Maori responsiveness, and consultation and decison-making.

Although designed for PHOs, many of the ideas in the book would be useful to any community organisation wanting to ensure it is connected to and involving of the communities it works with.

To order a copy (for $25) e-mail kerry.hurley@otago.ac.nz or visit http://steeleroberts.co.nz.

Mrs Frances Hesselbein, Fulbright New Zealand’s 2007 John F. Kennedy Fellow gave two presentations at the U.S. Embassy in Wellington in May:

• The Leadership Imperative
• Volunteerism: Management, Motivation, Recruitment, Retention

Frances Hesselbein is the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Leader-to-Leader Institute (formerly the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management). She serves on many non-profit and private sector boards, and was CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA from 1976-90. She has receive numerous awards and honorary doctoral degrees for her work with non-profit organisations.

In her presentation on leadership, Frances suggested a number of questions that people should ask before accepting a position on a board, and shared several examples where volunteers had helped make significant change in communities.

Organisations wanting to register with the Charities Commission are encouraged to do this sooner, rather than later (and not wait for their AGM, as previously suggested). Nearly 200 charities had successfully registered by the end of April and a further 500 completed applications had been received.

While registration with the Charities Commission is voluntary, charities that want to retain their income tax and gift duty exemptions will need to register before the tax laws change on 1 July 2008. Currently it takes around eight to ten weeks for the Commission to process a standard application, but this could become significantly longer if too many charities leave their applications to the last minute.

To apply to register an individual organisation, you need:

• Form 1 - Application for registration as an individual charitable entity (completed in hard copy or online at www.charities.govt.nz)
• Form 2 - Officer Certification Form - one copy for each of your officers
• A copy of your rules and all amendments.

The Charities Commission can make a representative available to speak to larger groups of people who may wish to register, so contact them if you are interested in this.

The Charities Register will help build and maintain public trust and confidence in the charitable sector by making more information about charities publicly available. It will also provide better information to government, from which it can make effective policy decisions.

Volunteering NZ’s website has a new look, and it is now easier to access information within the site when using an external URL link. The new design was done for VNZ by volunteer Steve Cochrane, who began the project while completing a design training programme through Natcoll. It has a fresh look and has been developed to enable regular changes and updating.

Two seminars in June will tell you about the types of funding available for developing community housing and how to go about it. The new seminars build on the well-received seminars held in Auckland and Wellington earlier this year. The next two seminars are:

• Christchurch: 21 June 10am – 4pm
• Tauranga: 28 June 10am – 4pm

Full programmes and costs are available from info@communityhousing.org.nz or www.communityhousing.org.nz or phone 04 385 8722.

This year’s ACE Aotearoa Conference is being held in Hamilton from 26-28 June. Well over 30 workshops are already registered, so there’s an impressive selection to choose from. Options include building sustainable networks, employment education for migrants, ACE and social cohesion, building community capacity, renewing cultural confidence through literacy, Te Tiriti-based sustainability action education, whanau community education, quality assurance, management and software packages, and lots more!

See the ACE Aotearoa website for the workshop list so far.

Get your registration form from www.aceaotearoa.org.nz, or email nrc@nrc.org.nz.

A new online service aims to help cultural groups match projects with potential funders. The easy-to-use funding guide is hosted by NZLive.com, the cultural portal that went live last September.

The funding guide was jointly developed by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Creative New Zealand, Te Papa National Services Te Paerangi, and the Funding Information Service. It was launched by the Prime Minister in April. In a press statement, the PM said the guide would be a valuable tool for helping cultural organisations and individuals search for potential sources of funding for their projects.

Community and voluntary organisations are urged to get in early and apply online for this year’s Community Organisation Grants Scheme (COGS) funding round (which opened on 1 June). Any not-for-profit organisation delivering community services or running community-based projects can apply for a COGS grant towards running costs. The average grant is $3,000.

GrantsOnline (www.cdgo.govt.nz) enables visitors to complete online applications to COGS and/or Lottery Grants Board. The site offers helpful prompts to ensure information is easily understood and applications are quickly and efficiently completed.

A Budget announcement that a range of statistics will be made available free of charge from August 2007 was welcomed by members of the community and voluntary sector. In a press statement, the Salvation Army's Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit Director, Major Campbell Roberts said "many of the statistics are currently prohibitively expensive for non-profit groups, so removing the charges will make available a wealth of information otherwise inaccessible."

For further information on what data will be made available from Statistics NZ (and when), see the related FAQs.

A new programme called Connecting Diverse Communities is being developed to strengthen relationships between New Zealand's different ethnic, cultural and religious communities. The Connecting Diverse Communities project is designed to pull together and better co-ordinate initiatives across many government agencies to promote social cohesion and stronger relationships between communities. The project is led by the Office of Ethnic Affairs and the Ministry of Social Development.

Consultation about the programme is beginning with interested groups before further initiatives are finalised. Members of the public wanting more information can go to www.ethnicaffairs.govt.nz.

The Not-for-Profit Network Awards will be presented to achievers from Australia and New Zealand at the International Not-for-Profit Convention and Exhibition in November.

The awards have a strong focus on individuals, organisations, and projects whose actions have helped their organisation to be more sustainable, more sucessful and achieve their vision. Entries must be received by Tuesday 31 July 2007.

f you wish to be added to (or removed from) the Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector distribution list for this e-newsletter and other regular communications, send an email to: ocvs@msd.govt.nz with your name and postal address.

The Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector exists to inspire co-operation and superb relationships between the government and the community and voluntary sector. You can find out more about the OCVS on our website: www.ocvs.govt.nz, by email at: ocvs@msd.govt.nz, phone: 04 918 9555, or by fax: 04 913 3080.