BAYTRUST has granted $4.3 million to community groups across the region in the past financial year – a 50 percent increase on last year.
Speaking at the trust’s 28th annual meeting in Tauranga yesterday, board chairman Kenneth Brown said the trust’s investments delivered a 3 percent return over the past year.
“However, as a result of building up our grant reserves in earlier years we managed to increase our granting from $2.9 million to $4.3 million.
“We have also held our expenses at a very similar level to previous years, in spite of rising cost pressures, and have managed to increase our granting by 50 percent, while still maintaining similar levels of reserves to the prior year.”
BayTrust continued to grant social loans, at low interest rates, largely to social housing providers, and had also put more resources into strengthening community groups and improving the way they operated, he said.
Mr Brown said volatility in global equity markets was expected to continue in the wake of Brexit and concerns over China’s slowing growth.
However, BayTrust believed its current diversified portfolio of $193 million would put it in a good position to protect and equitably grow the organisation’s investment capital.
“Our significant reserves should allow us to weather the current volatile economic environment and we are looking to increase our granting from $4.3 million last year to $5 million this year.”
BayTrust will financially support 11 community groups this year, each of which will receive an average of over $200,000 for a significant project.
BayTrust chief executive Alastair Rhodes said recipients of the inaugural Strategic Funding Round had been announced and $2.4 million was available to fund projects that would make a measurable and meaningful difference.
Opotiki to receive $482,000
TWO Opotiki organisations have received significant grants from BayTrust’s inaugural strategic funding round.
Opotiki District Council will receive $300,000 toward the cost of building a new multifunctional library, research and technology centre, and Rangimarie Trust will receive $182,000 to help build four new social housing units in the town.
Rangimarie Trust secretary Victoria Radley said demand for Rangimarie’s 12 existing units in Opotiki was huge and construction could now begin on a new cluster of small, affordable homes for the town’s elderly residents in King Street.
“We are looking to provide a safe, secure, healthy, accessible environment. It means our elderly can stay living within our community instead of having to move elsewhere.”