The Impact and Effectiveness of Waikato Funding Organisations (May 2004)
Group or Institution
University of Waikato
Author(s)
Dr Jo Barnes
Abstract
The purpose of Community Foundations such as Trust Waikato is to help organisations carry out charitable, cultural, philanthropic and recreational projects of benefit to people in the Greater Waikato. While foundations such as these insist that the organizations who receive their funding be accountable there has been little work undertaken on the measurement of effectiveness of the foundations themselves. Sponsored by Trust Waikato this research assesses the impact and effectiveness of funding organisations to which community groups in the Waikato have access.
The aims of the research were to produce a report that focused on Trust Waikato’s performance relative to other funding organisations in the Waikato region; to analyse and assess the impact and effectiveness of funding organisations that community groups in the Waikato may access; and to test the methodology used by the Center of Effective Philanthropy (Boston, USA) for their Grant Perception Report in the context of New Zealand.
This report is a summary of the findings of a survey conducted using methodology based around the concepts and measures so far developed by the Center.
The results produced in this report give an overall picture of the relationship between the funders and the community organisations which depend on the funders for their ability to do their work. While in most Trust Waikato’s performance is as good as or better than the other funders, the 87 organisations who took part in this survey indicate a perception that all the funders are performing well overall.
The report recommends that a larger survey to include other funding organisations in the Waikato region be carried out using a refined, more comprehensive methodology.
Full copies of this report can be obtained from Dr Jo Barnes, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Waikato, Private Bag, Hamilton.