BayTrust Covid-19 Update #2 – 14 Apr 2020

We are now over halfway through the current NZ wide lockdown and it looks like things are tracking in the right direction which is positive news. The government is set to provide greater details on what moving down the alert levels will mean for all of us later this week, which should assist with everyone’s planning.

However, we remain very aware that the current and ongoing impacts of Covid-19 are being felt far and wide across our BOP communities and in these times,  we are endeavouring to do what we can to assist the most vulnerable in our communities and maintain our long term objectives. 

As a community funder, BayTrust is not deemed to be an essential service, and our office is currently closed until further notice.  However, all staff are working well remotely and can continue to be contacted via email and phone.  I want to assure you that the BayTrust Board and the team are committed to maintaining our business as usual services and providing appropriate and additional support throughout this period of heightened risk and uncertainty.   

What this means for Granting

-    Our normal monthly and quarterly grant rounds remain open (except for the Community Amenities funding round which will be deferred until next year), and applications will be received and processed as per our normal guidelines.

-    We will continue to honour all of our multi-year funding obligations as well any other existing commitments.

-   We will endeavour to hold to last year’s budget for our monthly and quarterly grants rounds.

Emergency Rapid Response Funding

As a number of organisations are experiencing a significant increase in demand on their services we have worked with our key regional funding partners to develop a joint rapid response application funding process to assist these groups.   Currently BayTrust has allocated $0.5m to this fund to be utilised over the next 2 months (which has been more than matched by other funders) and we have also set aside a further $1m to assist with medium and long term recovery across the BOP with the plans for this additional funding to be worked through over the coming months.

Details on the Rapid Response fund are outlined below:

-    Funding will be available for organisations that are experiencing an immediate funding shortfall and/or a significant increase in demand on their services as a result of Coronavirus (and its associated impacts) where these services have the ability to make a meaningful difference to our communities and where emergency government funding is unavailable/insufficient.
-    A single and simple one-page application led by the key local funder (please call your local funder in the first instance):
o    TECT in the Western Bay  - https://www.tect.org.nz/
o    Rotorua Trust in Rotorua -  https://rotoruatrust.org.nz/
o    BayTrust in the Eastern Bay and the Taupo/Turangi region https://www.baytrust.org.nz/
-    Fast turn around and payment.

Payments totalling over $100k from this fund have already been made by BayTrust with the focus being financial support for those groups that support the most vulnerable in our communities, particularly in relation to food, care packages, counselling/advice and IT requests to name a few.

Additional information on this fund is available on our website and Facebook page, as well being communicated by our key funding partners.

Looking forward
Looking forward we know a number of groups will be concerned around the impact on their future funding streams and their ability to deliver on their purposes with gaming trusts revenue drying up, events being cancelled and public donations declining. 

In relation to this we will be working with our Board over the next few weeks to help clarify our position on which groups we may be able to provide additional support to if required and will provide further details on this at that stage.  In the meantime, we would encourage you to focus on working through the implications on your group both in the short and long term and once you have a clearer picture then please feel free to discuss with BayTrust staff.

We also acknowledge that it can be overwhelming to determine what and  how to access additional governmental support and in the first instance we would encourage you to go to the charities website  https://charities.govt.nz/covid-19/frequently-asked-questions/
or to contact your local funder if you have further questions.

Lastly as CEO of BayTrust I know how challenging it is for everyone dealing with these uncertain times and whilst we do not know how this we will play out; we do anticipate it will have a significant impact on the BOP.  It will be working together, being innovative and not being afraid to make tough decisions that we will get us through this, and we are committed to doing all we can to help support groups over this period.

Closing thought….

The current crisis is providing a number of lessons and also provides an opportunity to help reshape the future NZ  and I believe that if all work together to make greater economic and environmental resiliency core to our recovery planning then we can look forward to a great future for ourselves and our children’s children.

 

Stay safe, and look after your whanau and neighbours and if you have any questions please contact me.

Nga mihi,

Alastair Rhodes
Chief Executive
BayTrust
E: alastair@baytrust.org.nz
P: (07) 987 2206
M: 021 921 737
W: www.BayTrust.org.nz