Wellington Methodist Charitable and Educational Endowments Trust
About us
The Wellington Methodist Charitable and Educational Endowments Trust offers grants to support child and youth development projects in the Wellington Region. The objective of the Trust is to help maintain, educate, support and develop children and young people, with a particular focus on Maori and Pasifika cultures, and children permanently resident in Aotearoa New Zealand.
We are particularly interested in supporting projects directly benefiting children and young people. We are also interested in projects that are innovative, creative, and that help to address issues of justice and societal inequities.
What do we fund?
The Trust makes grants totalling approximately $240,000 each year. This funding is used to provide:
- funding for youth and child related initiatives undertaken by the Methodist Church and affiliated groups;
- grants to selected community partner organisations; and
- grants to mainstream and Māori language total immersion education providers, including early childhood education, schools, kohanga reo, kura kaupapa (primary composite), and other education-related organisations in the greater Wellington region.
The Trust is committed to supporting initiatives that reflect a te ao Māori (Māori worldview) approach/focus, most specifically projects that foster and promote aspects of tikanga Māori (values, customs). These include the pou (pillars) of the Tapawha model of well-being; tinana (physical), hinengaro (mental), wairua (spiritual), and whanau (family).
How to contact us?
Potential recipients will be invited directly to apply for a grant.
If you are interested in being considered as a possible applicant, please contact our Trust Secretary: [E-Mail not displayed]
Other details
Charities Registration Number: CC21470
New Zealand Business Number: 9429042911166
History
The Trusts origins are in a grant made on the 27th October 1852 when the Crown gave a parcel of land comprising approximately 73 acres to Rev James Watkin, the Superintendent of Wesleyan Missions "in trust for the use of and towards the maintenance of a school therein mentioned so long as religious education, industrial training, and instruction in the English language shall be given to the youth educated therein".
Additional land was given on 10 July 1869 or 261 acres in the Foxton area; and again on 23 November 1868 (2 acres in the township of Foxton).
With the adoption of The Wellington Methodist Charitable and Educational Trusts Act 1916 (later amended), these properties were transferred from individuals to the new Board. Today, only the farm (at Moutoa, near Foxton) is owned by the Board.