Register as a Collective

A lot of groups are already using the Gift Collective in Aotearoa  in fact there are over 80 groups now! What they have in common is being collectively organised, valuing transparency, and needing to get up and running quickly without getting bogged down in paperwork and admin.

In our language, your rōpu or group is a collective. You collectively organise and have a social good purpose. You’re maybe just one person, or a group – but you all want to do something charitable. 

To be accepted into the Gift Collective whānau, your initiative must be focussed on a charitable purpose in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Gift Collective team will assess each application submitted against the criteria below. We’ll let you know if we have more questions or if your application has been successful.

Your activities must:

• Have a charitable purpose, according to New Zealand law¹ which includes:
  • the relief of poverty,
  • the advancement of education, or
  • any other purpose beneficial to the community.
• Be based in and be of benefit to New Zealand².
• Provide a public benefit, and none of your activities can have a private benefit or provide profit to any individual.
• Not provide support for political campaigns, candidates, or to support purely lobbying activity.³
• The Gift Collective will not accept recipients that it believes, in its sole discretion, are supporting or engaging in hate speech or hateful activities, whether online or offline.⁴  

1. For more information on what is considered charitable, see this info from Charities Services.
2. Expenses cannot be paid internationally, unless express advance written approval is given by the Gift Collective.
3. A limited amount of lobbying can be classed as a charitable activity; we use the Charities Services definition.
4. ‘Hateful activities’ means inciting or engaging in violence, intimidation, harassment, threats or defamation, or targeting an individual or group based on race, colour, religion, national origin, ethnicity, immigration status, gender, sexual orientation, or disability.  

Your Collective is able to take on some advocacy work as long as there is a clear charitable purpose. We follow the rules that Charities Services set.

Charities Services has a view that non-ancillary advocacy can now be charitable when it is clearly connected to the organisation’s charitable purpose. An example is advocacy for “relieving poverty by supporting an increase in the minimum wage”. This is the case even if other charities or people have competing views on the issue, or if the issue is seen as controversial (provided that it is addressed in a fair and balanced way).

Where the advocacy cannot be seen as advancing a charitable cause, then that is not a charitable activity –
for example, supporting a political party.

Finally, the manner of how the advocacy is carried out is important. Conventional advocacy (petitions,
reports, publications) is acceptable but not illegal means (i.e. protests that breach public safety laws).

See more on the Charities Services website.

No, it is not. By registering with Gift Collective, you get to sit within our charitable entity, making you eligible to apply for charitable grants. This doesn’t mean, though, that you are a charity in your own right.

It is perfectly acceptable to sign up to Gift Collective for a portion of your work only. We can only accept charitable work, and expenses related to this. Some groups may choose to keep their business separate from their charitable arm, and run their charity work through us.

Essentially three key things: 

1. A fundholder, a legal entity with a bank account, through which you can engage as a group, so you don’t need to manage your Collective’s funds personally or incorporate a new legal entity. 
2. The ability to apply for grants and funding by sitting under the Gift Collective’s umbrella.
3. A tech platform to help your Collective thrive, with features like crowdfunding, transparent budget tracking, and community engagement tools. 

It depends. Unconditional donations – where nothing specific is given in return – do not attract GST. Conditional payment – where the buyer gets something in return, like membership, a product, service, or event ticket – may attract GST. Our platform is set up for both scenarios.

We are a fundholder only, so we can’t apply for grants or shoulder tap donors for you. We can, however, provide support letters for your grant applications. We also provide a funding guide and hold webinars that cover tips and tricks for funding applications.

The good news is that by sitting under our charitable umbrella, you open yourself up to more funding options.

No, if Charities Services doesn’t think your mahi meets charitable purpose, then we won’t either. To meet our criteria your mahi must be charitable.

A diverse range of funders have given to Collectives sitting under our umbrella – individuals, community foundations, city councils, family foundations and government organisations. These include DIA Lotteries, Spark Foundation, One NZ, Tindall Foundation, J R McKenzie Trust and Wellington Community Fund.