Community Trusts
Created: February 3, 2021 at 3:22 PM | Updated: June 17, 2025 | By NZ Navigator Trust
New Zealand has an expansive regional network of community trusts. One of the roles of these Community Trusts is to provide funding support to a range of community organisations and charities.
[Read a short history of the Community Trusts here]
In addition to providing funding, many of the Trusts also organise workshops and offer valuable resources and support to community organisations in their respective regions. Explore the links below for information about each of the twelve regional Community Trusts:
Auckland and Northland:
https://www.foundationnorth.org.nz/ 
Waikato:
Taranaki:
https://www.toifoundation.org.nz/ 
Bay of Plenty:
Eastern and Central:
Whanganui:
https://www.whanganuicommunityfoundation.org.nz/ 
Wellington:
https://wellingtoncommunityfund.org.nz/ 
Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury and Chatham Islands:
https://ratafoundation.org.nz/ 
Buller, Grey, and Westland:
Mid & South Canterbury:
Otago:
Southland:
https://www.communitytrustsouth.nz 
History
Originating in Scotland in 1810, the early trustee savings banks enabled anyone, not just the rich, to open a bank account. The deposits were owned by depositors as a cooperative, with any surplus used for long-term saving schemes and community charitable purposes.
Over the next 150 years, highly regulated Trustee banks were established across New Zealand until, in 1988, the New Zealand Government deregulated the banking industry.
As a result, the current community trust’s were created with 100% ownership of the regional banks shareholding. The Trusts oversaw the bank's operations and ensured community benefit from their operations.
Following an amalgamation of a number of the regional banks resulting in Trust Bank New Zealand, most of the Trustee banks sold their bank shareholdings to Westpac in 1996, resulting in the trusts receiving significant capital to invest in their communities.
Established in perpetuity, the Trusts set their investment objectives and structure their investment portfolios to not only meet the needs of their communities today, but also to ensure support for future generations.
Each Trust is governed by a Board of Trustees appointed by the Minister of Finance.
You can read about the statutory purpose of these Community Trusts in section 12 of the Community Trusts Act. The purpose of this Act is to make provision for the continued operation of the community trusts that were established under the Trustee Banks Restructuring Act 1988.
(Much of the information in this history section is sourced from https://trustwaikato.co.nz/)
If you are looking for information about Community Foundations - local, independent and not-for-profit foundations that run a model of place-based philanthropy - you can find our resource here.