For the last 46 years, charities throughout New Zealand have applied to the Catalytic Foundation for grant funding. Through this process we have identified key stresses on organisations that can prevent or take them away from their core community work.

We are often told about the need for coaching and specialist services, such as fundraising, organisational development, IT and HR, for community organisations, so we have decided to help.

The Catalytic Foundation professional team and our skilled volunteers have set up Hearts@Work programme to provide services that can build capacity, strong foundations and networks for charities, often at no cost to the charity.

Applications are currently available for this service, please contact us today for further information

Because of a generous donation made by The Tindall Foundation, we were able to award the following Southland charities with grants for 2024:

• NZ Council of Victim Support
• Lighthouse Southland
• Kahu Youth Trust
• Southland Beneficiaries and Community Rights Centre
• YMCA of Invercargill Charitable Trust
• Flying Geese Trust

These charities all do amazing, and much-needed work in their community. We are proud to be able to support them with both a financial grant and the Catalytic Foundation's endorsed charity status.

Catalytic Ambassador, Liz Shea, kindly hosted a lunch for the recipients of the Catalytic Foundation's community grants for 2024.

The recipients of these grants were:

• NZ Council of Victim Support Groups Inc. South Canterbury
• English Language Partners Aoraki
• Geraldine Family & Youth Trust
• Citizens Advice Bureau South Canterbury Inc.
• Centrecare Counselling Waimate

Thank you to The Tindall Foundation and individual payday donors for making these grants possible!

Thank you to Cavell Leitch for hosting our Community Grant Awards event in Christchurch. It was an amazing event and we heard from each charity we support about the important work they do in Canterbury. 

Through the generosity of our donors including The Tindall Foundation, and payday donors from Christchurch businesses such as Pinnacle & Co. Ltd, we were able to award 34 charities in the Canterbury region a total of $136,277 in funding.

Thank you to our volunteer ambassadors who met and assessed the community charities that we supported. All community organisations received an endorsement from the Catalytic Foundation to help their fundraising. 

Congratulations to the recipients.

* Project Esther Trust
* Queenspark Community Trust
* Adventure Specialties Trust
* Community Development Network
* Phillipstown Community Hub
* Rowley Community Centre
* Lyttleton Community House
* Women's Centre Incorporated
* Moral Compass Trust
* Spreydon Youth Community Trust
* Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Canterbury
* The Hope Community Trust
* Pathway Trust NZ
* Compassion Trust
* Shirley Community Trust
* 24-7YouthWork
* Big Brothers Big Sisters of Christchurch
* Rachel's House Trust
* Youthline Central South Island
* Papanui Youth Development Trust - PYDT
* La Vida Youth Trust
* Waimak Open Door
* Life Education Trust - Canterbury
* The Loft Charitable Trust
* Graeme Dingle Foundation Canterbury
* Battered Women's Trust
* Victim Support NZ
* Kidz Need Dadz Christchurch
* English Language Partners Christchurch
* Strengthening Linwood Youth Trust
* Crossroads Youth With a Future Trust - Stay Real
* Birthright Canterbury
* Wainoni Avonside Community Services Trust
* PIPS Pregnancy Infancy Parenting Support

This month the Catalytic Foundation, with the help of our donors and volunteer ambassadors, we have distributed over $120,000 in donations to 19 community charities across the Manawatu, Horowhenua and Whanganui regions.

We would like to thank the Palmerston North City Council and Mayor Grant Smith for the wonderful function they put on for our community charities. It was great to hear from the hardworking and passionate charities we are supporting.

Thank you to Catalytic Foundation Payday donors from Gallagher Insurance and Palmerston North City Council.

And thank you to The Tindall Foundation for your generous contributions towards this community fund over the last 25 years!

The Community Charities we supported are:

Unlocking Your Potential this International Women’s Day 

As a way to say thank you for your support of the Catalytic Foundation, we invite women in business to join us for a special morning tea this International Women’s Day on Friday 8 March, 10-11.30am at Huami, SkyCity, Auckland.

This event will be a celebration of women in business and a morning of inspiration as we delve into the topic, “Unlocking Your Potential”.

Teresa Moore our CEO will be facilitating a lively discussion with four exceptional women over refreshments, coffee and specialty teas.  Our guest speakers are leaders of community organisations that are making an outstanding impact in their fields: 

• Michelle Blau, Fair Food General Manager (Food rescue) 
• Tamara Grant, Xabilities CEO (Neurodiversity and inclusion advocacy) 
• Barbara Williams, Kindred Family Services Executive Director (Women’s refuge and support services) 
• Cat Percy, Crescendo CEO (Supporting rangatahi through music) 

This event is our special way of saying thank you to 40 of our supporters, donors and friends, and is hosted by Catalytic Foundation and proudly supported by SkyCity. 

Please click here to RSVP by Tuesday 5 March for you and your colleagues to attend.  

The Catalytic Foundation Hearts@Work programme provides mentoring and capacity building support for community charities in specialist areas of need. 

For the last 46 years, charities throughout New Zealand have applied to us for grant funding. Through this process we have identified key stresses on community organisations that can prevent or take them away from their core community work. We are often told about the need for mentoring and specialist fundraising services, so we have decided to help through our skilled staff and Hearts@Work programme. 

We are grateful to the charities we support, who put their hearts on the line for their local communities. The collective effort of volunteering, donating and giving back time and resources is vital for our communities wellbeing. We are keen to facilitate this support. 

We are currently looking for sponsors for Hearts@Work projects in 2024.  

Please contact me for further information. 

Teresa Moore
Catalytic Foundation - CEO

Spotlight on Teresa Moore, CEO of the Catalytic Foundation

Teresa Moore has been at the helm of the Catalytic Foundation since 2018. During this time, she has used her compassionate nature, business acumen, financial savviness, and people skills to drive social change throughout Aotearoa. However, going forward, she sees the need to strengthen the connection between young people and the natural environment.

Through her work with over 200 charities nationwide, Teresa has identified that building the connection between young people and the natural environment is highly beneficial for the environment and those youths who connect with charities throughout Aotearoa because of their personal challenges. This also reflects a step toward achieving the United Nation’s sustainable development goal relating to education that focusses on ensuring inclusive and quality education for all and promoting lifelong learning.

She said, “I believe our young people can really benefit from learning in and about the natural environment. Through the charities we work with, I can see that many of our young people are struggling because they don’t feel like they have a direction or purpose in life. Once the charities we work alongside help these young people establish a sense of purpose, their lives turn around for the better. For me, I can see the dual benefit of supporting charities that encourage these young people to build a passion for the environment.”

Teresa understands the sense of responsibility and benefits a connection with the environment brings because of her foundations in marine biology and sustainability. Teresa has a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology and earned a Master of Management with her thesis on renewable energy. This passion and experience has well-equipped her to identify the benefits and challenges of supporting community projects with an environmental focus.

Teresa said, “It is my lifelong ambition to care for the environment and to pass on an appreciation for the environment to future generations. Planting the seeds of environmental awareness in the fertile minds of the young is like planting a tree. With time and nurturing, this seed grows into a steadfast force, shaping individual actions and influencing future choices. Early environmental education helps children and young people develop the roots that ground their values, the branches that reach towards sustainable choices, and the leaves that reflect green initiatives in every aspect of life. Learning about the environment at a young age is not merely an act of planting a tree; it is about growing a forest of guardians for our planet's future."

Teresa has had the opportunity to witness first-hand the benefits of getting youths involved in caring for our environment by leveraging the Catalytic Foundation work with Sustainable Coastlines (volunteering and STEM education activities) and as an umbrella charity for Within Nature. The Northland charity WithinNature helps youth face their challenges by refocusing them on whakapakari whenua (regenerating the land). The youth, who are directed to the programme through youth providers and marae, work on restoring degraded ecosystems and revitalising the land while strengthening their cultural identity, learning leadership skills, and understanding the need to care for, and not exploit, the land.  

Explaining how she fell in love with nature, Teresa said, “I was born in Whangārei and while visiting my grandfather, I would sit on the wharf at Port Albert, and listen to him talk about the ecosystem around us. I fell in love with the ocean because of its life force. That passion has helped me pursue opportunities I would never have thought possible.”

For example, Teresa went on to work as a scientist aboard deep-sea trawlers and has sailed in every major ocean around the world. She established a sailing boat charter company in NZ and Tonga and has also served as CEO for the Sir Peter Blake Marine Education Centre. She accredits the inspiration for this work to those earlier days with her grandfather, her mentor, who took the time to show her the environment around her. 

Teresa’s current work with the Catalytic Foundation sees her supporting youth charities and social based services from Northland to Invercargill. She plays an active role in obtaining and managing large donations to ensure smaller charities, who may not have the capacity or skills to access larger grants, are given financial support, mentoring, and any other help they may need.

In addition to this, as CEO of the Catalytic Foundation, Teresa works closely with companies to help them meet their sustainable development goals and attract and retain the best staff by involving them in bespoke volunteering opportunities, as part of the quarterly Catalytic community support campaigns.

Teresa believes mighty trees grow from small seeds! If you too would like to support our environment, our youth and their mentors, please consider becoming a regular donor to the Catalytic Foundation. For further details please click here.