Council to support and grow their grants programme.
Strategic Grants has worked in partnership with Te Kaunihera o Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland Council since 2019 to deliver the GEM Local Community Group Programme. GEM Local provides community groups a calendar of grants opportunities to make it easier for them to identify suitable grant opportunities and supports each organisation with training and resources to lift capability in their grants programme.
Te Karanga Charitable Trust have been connecting young people through creativity and safe social spaces in Tāmaki Makaurau since 2004.
The Te Karanga kaupapa is about young people facing adversity knowing their worth, their potential, and having pathways to grow.
Through the delivery of free weekly social and creative programmes across Tāmaki Makaurau, Te Karanga champion youth voice, leadership, and meaningful participation in community life.
Critical to the Trust’s capacity to achieving its kaupapa is grant funding. We talked to CEO Will Mark-Brown about how GEM Local access via Auckland Council has supported Te Karanga to strengthen and grow their grants programme and achieve funding success.
The challenge #1
In 2019/2020 Covid placed significant strain on the small charity, with some key funding cut in the wake of the pandemic.
Thankfully they were eligible for GEM Local access via Auckland Council, and so in 2021 they signed on for free access to a customised grants calendar. Although with the weight of the organisation on his shoulders, Will took some time to fully rely on the system and its grant alerts, initially thinking:
“…….I’m sure it’s gonna (sic) miss something, and you know when you’re trying to turn over every rock and then actually getting eight months in and going, actually, everything has come through on this. I haven’t missed a single thing!”
As time went on, Will began to trust that each opportunity available that was relevant to Te Karanga was being shared through his GEM Local email alerts.
“I stopped needing to do that searching – which just took a huge amount of time. But then also just a lot of the templates and stuff within the (GEM Local) website was really helpful”
Will found that rather than focusing on searching for grant opportunities, he could instead use that time to strategically focus on running the organisation – a major win for a small community organisation stretched for time.
The challenge #2
In 2021 Will faced another sudden and significant challenge. Will’s co-worker, with whom he wrote funding applications, was working remotely from Tonga and his internet access was suddenly cut off because of a volcanic eruption – it remained off for 6 months! Will had to absorb full responsibility for their grants programme overnight, starting from scratch with some important funding applications, whilst simultaneously managing the organisation on the ground.
Our GEM Local Solution
Having never ‘held the pen’ on applications before, and with only one week left until deadline, Will turned to the GEM Local platform and relied on the writing resources available to craft these urgent applications.
Relief – Will received the required funding and credits the support and resources in GEM Local for giving him a massive confidence boost – he thought “oh wow, I can actually do this.”
GEM Local is now an integral part of the grants programme for Te Karanga, not only providing timely and update to date grant alerts and information, but also building their internal capabilities for grants success through resources featured within the platform.
Their Impact
Te Karanga have used GEM Local to find sustainable funding sources and have seen the size of their organisation grow by more than 400%, and then more recently sustainably plateau.
Te Karanga is a fantastic example of what can be achieved in terms of building capacity and capability with the support of GEM Local.
“Definitely for the last two to three years, I’ve saved hundreds and hundreds of hours, which is a dollar figure for our organisation”
We’ll leave the final summary to Will…
“This is why it’s worth, … a little bit of money a year to invest in this platform, it’s going to save you time”
Ngā mihi maioha to Will, TK and the team at Te Karanga for sharing their story and images with us.
About Te Karanga Charitable Trust:
Through strengths-based mentoring, alternative education, and social programs, Te Karanga nurture participants creative interests. In doing so participants develop confidence, resilience, transferrable skills, and are given a sense of belonging. Led by a culturally diverse team of youth workers, artists, and community leaders with lived experience of adversity, they champion youth voice, leadership, and meaningful participation in community life.
In 2026 Te Karanga:
- delivers 36 programmes across Tāmaki Makaurau.
- 73% of participants are Māori and Pasifika.
- 78% are under 24.
- Operates at approximately $1.1 million turnover.
- Almost 80% of staff were once participants and are now trained and registered youth development workers.