Making good happen with The Gift Trust - YouTube

Here at The Gift Trust, we help our donors to simplify their generosity

by connecting them to charitable causes who are making a difference.

The Gift Trust just radically simplifies things for us as donors.

They take all these different

bureaucratic steps out of the process, so that we can really focus on the giving,

and focus on the organisations that we're supporting.

Donors can set up a Gift Account that operates a bit like a bank account for your charitable giving.

Through our impartial advice,

we help donors find the right causes,

and we've enabled over $3.5million of donations so far.

Humans are having a dramatic impact on this planet,

I think we all know that, and we have a lot of work to do.

so we support predominantly organisations that are focussed on environmental care.

This is the start of our 10 year project to regenerate this stream, the Tauraroa Stream

-Alright? -Grow trees? -Grow trees.

- Alright! - [Together] Grooooooooooooow trees!

- [group] - Okay, cool!

[Ness] The Learning Environment is a living campus,

and we're around education and regenerating the land.

[Matthew] Given the state of our climate, and the ecological situation that we're in,

education is one of our highest leverage points.

[Ness] If you heal the land you can heal yourself, and vice-versa.

So that's a foundational principle,

and how that shows up is reforestation, re-igniting the wetlands, bringing the springs alive,

and growing beautiful kai.

[Matthew] Donor-advised-funds are one of the fastest growing segments of philanthropy,

but most donor-advised-funds are actually housed within banks, or investment portfolios.

So it's a different experience, whereas The Gift Trust in and of itself is a non-profit.

The Gift Trust is really about a partnership, where we're trying to make good happen,

we're trying to encourage this culture of giving,

and we're really in communication and in partnership with the different organisations.

[Ness] One of challenges was knowing whether we could financially steward this land.

All the barriers have for everything we want to do,

is this land purchase.

So we can't have education here, we can't start regenerating the forest, until we have that confirmation.

[Matthew] To enable this project we reached out to foreign sources of capital.

[Ness] We're people who are enthusiastic and passionate, but don't necessarily have the funds,

because we volunteer a lot.

We needed to setup the administrative structures that were tax compliant in those foreign jurisdictions,

which is not an easy task!

The Gift Trust were able to create that connecting pipe for philanthropic capital to come into The Learning Environment.

Very cost-effective, minimal bureaucracy, and now the team is off to the races,

creating these outdoor educational experiences.

and new types of conservation curriculums for the local community.

I mean The Gift Trust has world-class, professional experience,

a lot of ongoing community relationships,

and a dedicated team in service to the community,

and so, y'know, it's just-it's a partner, it's really about partnership.

[Matt Dagger] So, we've had a long-term relationship with The Gift Trust,

and when Covid-19, the lockdown occurred,

we had a lot of unexpected costs.

[Matthew] The relationship with Kaibosh started through The Gift Trust.

When Covid hit, it was really important that we could provide support to the community quickly.

-[Kaibosh driver] Ah, g'day Di, how ya doing? -[Di] Hey, how are you?

[Ondine] So Kaibosh, our vision is for zero food poverty, zero food waste.

[Matt Dagger] Covid was massive for the communities that we work in.

We had a surge in demand for the food.

A lot of the traditional networks of food distribution were broken or disrupted,

so there was a huge amount of need from the community.

But there was also a huge amount of support via The Gift Trust.

[Matthew] And the relationships the team had at The Gift Trust were instrumental.

So we were able to set aside funds for Covid response,

and immediately get them to families who needed it during lockdown.

[Matt Dagger] So y'know, we've literally added a whole another 50% to our capacity.

[Matt Dagger] It's been massive for us... game changer. [Ondine] Game changer... such a game changer.

[Ondine] Like, unbelievable! [laughter]

[Matt Dagger] So, yeah, having this new site and having it funded, has really enabled us to

feed a lot lot more people in our community.

We all have bank accounts... why don't we all have giving accounts?

I think this is an easy and simple step we can take to nurturing a culture of generosity and giving in our country.

Whether you're a business or an individual, The Gift Trust can simplify your generosity to make good happen.