Lottery Community Funding

Lottery Community distributes grants through a national committee and 11 regional committees.

You must apply to the national committee if you are:

- A national organization
- An organization making a grant request for a project or service with a nationwide benefit
- If your grant request benefits two or more regions, your grant request should be made to the National Community Committee.

You must apply to a regional committee if you are:

- Delivering a project or service which will be carried out totally in one of the regions or a majority of the benefit will occur there.
- Independent branches of national organizations (ie: each branch is a separate legal entity), and are making an application for a project or service with a regional benefit.

Grants over $10,000 may only be approved to organizations with legal entity status. Legal entity status includes, but is not limited to, incorporated societies, Trusts registered under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957, companies with charitable purposes, local authorities, school boards of trustees and/or Māori trust boards in accordance with the Maori Trust Boards Act 1955.

Registration with Department of Internal Affairs Charities Services does not confer a legal status.

Grants to organizations without legal entity status are limited to a total of not more than $10,000 from all Lottery committees in any one financial year (The Lottery Grants Board’s financial year is from 1 July to 30 June).

Exception: An organization with no legal entity status may be granted more than $10,000 if:

- It is a branch of a national organization that has legal entity status, and the grant agreement and results reports are co-signed by a person from the national body with authority to sign on its behalf. The financial information requirements are those that apply to the body with the legal status.

- An organization with which it is collaborating undertakes to be responsible for the financial expenditure and benefits achieved by the project or activity by countersigning the grant agreement and results report.

Register and apply online: https://communityadviceandgrants.dia.govt.nz/user_sessions/new

If you are new to making online grant requests, refer to the guidance provided on pages 8 – 9 in the special edition of the Community Matters pdf.

Estimated Size of Grant: