Popular fund opens to give community groups a helping hand to better our environment

Our Waitaha Action to Impact Fund is now accepting applications for its fourth funding round, and we invite community groups to apply.

The Waitaha Action to Impact Fund is a contestable fund for community organisations in Canterbury. Funding has been given out to a range of community organisations for the past three years.

The fund aims to build community engagement and action for a better environment in the region and is open from 8 July 2024, until 12 noon on Monday 2 September 2024.

For year one of a three-year planning cycle, and as agreed in the Long-Term Plan 2024-34, we have $300,000 available for community groups to take action for the environment.

Community groups can once again make multi-year applications of between $5,000 and $30,000 per year.

How to apply: To make an application,

first check your eligibility and then complete the application form.

What we’ve funded already

More than $1.1 million has been allocated over the past three years, with applications totalling more than $2.75 million having been received during that time, which demonstrates a clear need for funding of this nature.

The continuation of the Waitaha Action to Impact Fund into a new funding cycle means grassroots community groups in our region are benefiting greatly and making a real and tangible impact on our environment, Acting Chair Craig Pauling says.

In 2021/2022 we received over $800,000 in funding requests and could allocate $200,000.

Councillors could see the benefit of the fund and agreed to a one-off increase in funding available in 2022/23, meaning that we had $600,000 available that year.

We received 66 funding requests totalling more than $1.3 million. In 2023/24 we had $350,000 available (with $160,000 already allocated to multi-year projects). We received 34 new funding requests totalling more than $650,000.

The Waitaha Action to Impact Fund is just one option for community groups to receive support from us. Other funds include Zone Committee Action Plan funding which also supports community groups to deliver on-the-ground work to support Council priorities.