Lotteries Funding – Strengthening Our Collective Mahi

We’re really pleased to share that New Zealand Lottery Grants Board has committed to multi-year funding for Restore Rodney East (RRE). Importantly, we see this not simply as a win for RRE, but as a win for the entire network of groups we  support. Our focus is on ensuring this investment strengthens the whole ecosystem, not just our organisation.

This funding is specifically directed toward the “backbone” functions that many grassroots groups either don’t have the capacity to fund, or shouldn’t have to duplicate. By covering core operational costs, things like coordination, communications, insurance, shared systems and shared tools, we aim to reduce the burden on individual groups, not add to it.

In practical terms, that means more support across the network: maintaining shared resources and equipment, providing workshops and training opportunities, supporting volunteer wellbeing and connection, and helping enable collaborative projects and events. These are things that benefit many groups at once, and are often difficult to fund through project-based grants alone.

It also gives us the stability to keep showing up consistently, connecting groups, sharing knowledge, advocating where needed, and helping unlock further opportunities and funding for others. A more stable RRE is intended to mean stronger, better-supported groups across Rodney East. We see this as complementary to, not in competition with, the funding that individual groups seek. In fact, our role is often to help groups access their own funding, build capability, and succeed in their own right.

So while we are grateful to New Zealand Lottery Grants Board for their trust in RRE, we’re even more encouraged by what this enables for all of us collectively.

Thank you to everyone across our network who contributes to this shared mahi, this support helps strengthen the foundations that we all stand on.