I would like to say thank you to the team at Pitney Bowes for making me feel very welcome at my first-ever volunteering day as a member of the Catalytic Foundation team. The volunteering day, held in early July 2022, supported both our Edu2022 campaign and our Warm Winters campaign. 

The day started with the team forming a very enthusiastic assembly line to fill backpacks with school supplies like pencil cases, stationery, books, lunchboxes and drink bottles. Each bag was assembled taking into consideration what a child of that age would like and need. We assembled 40 backpacks in total. We had quite a few laughs as we passed the backpacks around and it was a lot of fun.

After a quick break for morning tea, we moved on to sorting through a massive pile of clothing donated by the NZ Olympic Committee. We ensured all clothes were in excellent condition (they already were!) before sorting them into summer and winter piles. We then neatly folded them and packed them into bags ready to donate to De Paul House.

Once we had loaded the cars we headed to De Paul House in Northcote where we were met by Lesley. Lesley told us that often families turn up to De Paul house with nothing because they have urgently had to leave a domestic violence situation or they have been displaced from their housing with little notice and no option to return to collect their belongings. For the children in these families, this means they do not have the necessary equipment to go to school. We gave all 40 backpacks to De Paul House. The Social Workers were very excited about them because they would help the kids in De Paul house settle into school and feel more secure with a daily routine. De Paul house also offers parents courses, like cooking and budgeting, during school hours so the whole family can be supported and helped towards a better life. Finally, we had a tour of the facilities in De Paul House and learnt quite a bit about the type of support they both give and need.

De Paul house was also thankful for the very warm jackets and winter clothes donated by the NZ Olympic committee. With the weather starting to turn icy, they were going to work to get them out to their community straight away.

We finished the volunteering day with a relaxing lunch at a local café, which was kindly funded by Pitney Bowes. We talked about what we had gained from the day, and more specifically, about the work of De Paul House.

The summer clothing will be kept for another campaign when the weather starts to warm up.

Pitney Bowes is an American based company that specialises in mail technology solutions, like letter folding machines and envelope printers, support and encourage their staff to be involved in giving back to the community by matching pay-day giving and giving staff paid opportunities to do volunteer work. We know that these are important factors in encouraging staff job satisfaction and retention. If you would like to know more about how the Catalytic Foundation can help your organisation establish an environment of corporate social giving, please contact us.

I am looking forward to being involved in more volunteering days like this. 

By Jacqui Barker, Communications and Administration, Catalytic Foundation

Housing and financial needs were the two priorities that came through in this year's community charities survey and research. We've made them a focus for the next quarter and have identified two main ways you can help this winter to build Healthy Communities in Aotearoa. 

1. Donating quality winter items

Many community charities that we support are working with people without housing, in transitional housing or financially can't afford to heat their house. Comfortable warm housing is very important to achieving healthy households as we move into winter time. Please consider donating quality resources such as:

• Blankets
• Curtains
• Hot water bottles
• Warm clothing

Donating these items can really make a difference to a family in hardship. The items listed above were specifically requested by community charities supporting those in need. 

Click here to Donate

2. Volunteer your time

Our community environments also need a helping hand. Do you have a volunteering day available to help in local community gardens or cleaning up beaches and waterways? We have charities in locations around Aotearoa that would like to work with you to help the local community. Please contact us for a bespoke volunteering opportunity. 

April is Autism Awareness Month, so there is no better time to experience a different way of thinking and open our eyes to Autism! 

As part of our Education and Diversity #EDU2022 Campaign, the Catalytic Foundation are supporting Xabilities to co-ordinate a special Art Exhibition, featuring the skills of many autistic artists. 

One of the biggest “strains” of being neurodiverse is other people’s perceptions, says Tamara Grant who lives with autism. “You’re put into a category of ‘you look normal, so you should act normal’,” she said.

“[Autism] can be a gift because if everyone learnt to accept autism, everyone would learn to accept anyone who walked through the door, no matter what differences, because no two people with autism are the same.”

These quotes are from an article in STUFF, about Tamara Grant, a 22-year-old artist, public speaker and founder of Xabilities, a social enterprise with a focus on advocating for neurodiverse people. 

During Autism Awareness Month, with help from Pub Charity, we are supporting Xabilities to co-ordinate a special Art Exhibition so people can experience a different and inspirational way of thinking. 

This Autistic Expression Event opens on April 4th at 4pm will run for the month of April, at the Estuary Art Centre in Orewa, Auckland. The opening of the event and featured artists can also be seen online via Xabilities and social media pages.

“I want just autistic people to know that it’s OK, and that we can have a life of independence and joy,” Tamara said.

Click here 

To support this Autistic Expression - Art Exhibition Event 

Thank you Pub Charity for your support of this very special event.

Working together to get children back to school is so important. Too many of our tamariki and mokopuna are not yet at school as more often than not, their families cannot afford back to school costs. 

Rising back to school costs are hurting our struggling and needy whānau. This is why this type of donation is so very much appreciated! Let us together help get our children back to school and give the education they both deserve and want!

The Catalytic Foundation started the EDU2022 campaign this year to help schools and families in desperate need of digital devices and school resources for their children to learn with. 

"Families are struggling to put food on the table, let alone provide stationery. Glen Taylor School are helping with providing meals for children so they can learn while at school" Johanna Wrack, Vice Principal, Glen Taylor School  

The following is a message we received from two boys whose family has been in transition due to domestic violence...

" Thank you so much we were struggling to get our school work completed on the school computer and have been held back without a devise. I just can't believe that we have one each and they are brand new. This is the best gift we have ever had. Things like this don't ever happen to us it's so incredible."

With the help of Rockwell Automation and generous individual donations, the Catalytic Foundation have distributed 80 backpacks filled with school items, including 25 stationery packs and 22 new Chromebooks for children to have at home and school. However, more Chromebooks are needed.

Thank you to our donors and businesses who have supported this campaign. If you can help please go to this link. 

 Donate to the EDU2022 campaign

The Catalytic Foundation would like to thank the team at Rockwell Automation for their donation and volunteering time putting together backpacks for our EDU2022 campaign, assisting children in need with resources to help with their education.

Each backpack contained necessary items for school including: Lunchboxes, drink bottles, pencil cases, pencils, rulers, glue sticks, erasers, and notebooks.

The backpacks were distributed to families in desperate need of these supplies via our schools and community charity network. These include:

• Glen Taylor Primary School
• Woven Earth - helping families affected by domestic violence
• Budgeting and Family Service - helping families in South Auckland (Tuakau, Otara and Manukau) 

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO EDU2022

One of the difficult questions is which charities to support? 

Annually, the Catalytic Foundation supports hundreds of hardworking community charities, providing donations, resources and volunteering where it’s needed most. 

Through the power of a nationally coordinated fundraising effort and 'Pay It Forward' campaign, the Catalytic Foundation distributes grant funding to support over 100 community partners per year, throughout Aotearoa.

The Catalytic Foundation has over 40 years of experience, so our charity assessment process is one that donors can rely on.  The 10-step assessment process includes our staff and/or volunteer ambassadors meeting with every charity who is funded. Successful charities are given a Catalytic endorsement, to recognise and acknowledge the important work and social impact they have in the community.

The charities who have received support from Catalytic in the 2022/2023 financial year are:  

Congratulations to Kerryn Thrupp, CEO of Woven Earth for the necessary work you do in the Auckland community.

As an acknowledgment of the charity and the important work they do setting up homes for families who have been affected by domestic violence, we presented Kerryn with this Accreditation Certificate from the Catalytic Foundation.

Woven Earth has met every criteria in the Catalytic Foundation charity accreditation checklist and we are very happy to endorse them as a very worthy charity to donate to, give resources to and volunteer with. 

"We furnish homes and in doing so we furnish lives. We help change the #thenwhat - one family at a time".  Kerry Thrupp, CEO at Woven Earth

Photo: Kerryn Thrupp in the Woven Earth Warehouse with the Catalytic Foundation Accreditation Certificate and backpacks we donated for families.

Donate before March 31st and get a third of the money back as tax credit from IRD.

With tax filing season coming up, many businesses will looking to finalize their plans for the end of the financial year. 

Corporate social responsibility is increasingly becoming a focus for businesses. This is encouraged by the New Zealand government with donations eligible for a 33.3% tax credit up to the amount of tax paid during the year.

We are thankful to all of our business, payday and campaign donors, which is why we are reminding you of this service by the IRD. It's great to give and even better when that giving has an added win-win benefit. 

If you'd like to claim your tax back, IRD provides two ways to file for a tax credit when you make a one-time donation or participate in regular payroll giving:

• Submit copies of your donation receipt electronically throughout the year to your myIR account and claim donation tax credits as part of your end of year income tax process.
• File tax credit claim form (IR526) for the relevant tax year from April of the following year.

The good news is that if you have missed filing tax credit forms for donations made in past years, the IRD allows you to go back up to four years, for tax years 2018 through 2021.

See more about tax credits for donations on the IRD website

Thanks again to our sponsors and we hope you will consider donating again this financial year or next. 

Through the generous giving from our online and company donors we were able to drive through the Auckland Covid border at 5am on the 15th December, to deliver 296 Christmas boxes to two very hard-working family support charities in Kaitaia.

The first stop was at Whare Timatatanga Hou Ora (Kaitaia Womens Refuge), where we were greeted by the team, ready to receive the carefully wrapped parcels for their whanau in need. The team told us that many families leave their homes in a hurry during a domestic violence situations, so they were not only thankful for the lovely gifts for each member of the family, but also the essential personal items included in the boxes.

Our second stop was to deliver Christmas boxes to Te Rarawa social services in the centre of Kaitaia, and we received the following feedback: 

Te Rarawa social services would like to take this opportunity to thank the Christmas Shoebox Appeal for the time and effort in gaining resources that our organisation could distribute to whanau in need during the Christmas period 2021. The gifts were welcomed by whanau and their children with excitement and helped relieve some of the financial stresses whanau faced during this time.  Below, I have attached some feedback received from families and workers who had the pleasure of delivering these shoeboxes.

Many, many thanks to the shoe box appeal organizers who tirelessly continue to give. The cause has not gone unnoticed or unappreciated. Again, many thanks for helping make a positive difference for our whanau in our Community.

"Whanau were very thankful and appreciative in receiving the shoe box gifts".

"Very thankful as they were unable to financially provide for the children last year due to COVID.  The uncertainty of having enough provisions.  When the gifts were given the faces on the children lit up.  Many wanting to open them up and taking guess of what could be in them".

"My whanau were very grateful and appreciative receiving their shoe boxes, as some were in a really hard place going into the holidays".

"Receiving them gave a little bit of joy as seeing their babies open a present and the happiness it brought them started their holidays off on a good note".

"Spoke with caregiver today she was very appreciative of the boxes, she said it really helped for her moko to have presents" 

"All the whanau were amazed with the boxes they were gifted and how the gifts they received in the boxes were so on point for their children".

"I had a 14 year old boy who was very humbled by the gifts he got. He never expected anything and was so overwhelmed".

"Young girls were so excited being able to explore what was inside their gift boxes".

The Catalytic Foundation would like to thank the charities involved who provide such important family services in the Far North, our donors, and our volunteers including: Luana Smith who helped drive the Ute with our CEO Teresa Moore to Kaitaia and George Makene for the use of your vehicle.  Collectively we made a difference.

Photos: Unloading at Te Rarawa Social Services

When Cheyelle Robins-Reti contacted the Catalytic Foundation about supporting the Christmas Shoebox Appeal in Tauranga we were excited. Cheyelle was in France on tour at the time, so we put the wheels in motion to ensure we could make Christmas a happy time for rangatahi in Tauranga.

Through our contacts at the Acorn Foundation we were connected with Tanya Grimstone at Te Aranui Youth Trust. 

They were very thankful thankful for the Christmas boxes. Cheyelle also provided sports gear for the young people which was amazing.  They had a great party with their rangatahi and have also been able to spread the joy with the extra gifts being distributed by Police youth workers.

"We work with vulnerable youth in the Western Bay of Plenty between the ages of 7-14.  We also support and work with the Police Youth Development Team and the Police Family Harm Team so we were delighted to be able to support these organisations to get gifts to some of our youth". 

Thank you very much for considering us. Ngā mihi nui. Tanya Grimstone