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The Contingency and Innovations Fund
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What is it?
The Contingency and Innovations Fund is a specific fund to help not-for-profit community organisations in special circumstances. It is administered by Child, Youth and Family on behalf of the Minister of Social Services and Employment and over the past year has helped more than 20 organisations.
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How much?
The grants range in size from $1,000 to $30,000. They are intended as a special one-off grant and not as an alternative means of getting baseline funding. Community organisations cannot usually expect further funding in later years from the Contingency and Innovations Fund.
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Who is eligible?
The Fund helps community organisations in the following situations:
Contingencies
When an organisation is having difficulty maintaining its current services because of unforeseen financial difficulties.
Innovations
A community organisation wants to bring in creative, new methods to meet the Government’s social services objectives, which are outside current funding streams.
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Criteria
There are two components to the Contingency and Innovations Fund, both of which you must meet as an applicant:
1. A general component.
2. A contingency or innovations component.
General component
All community organisations:
- Must be not-for-profit and have aims and objectives consistent with government policy.
- Offer a service that is recognised as being an acceptable response to an established need.
- Demonstrate an appropriate level of community support.
- Use the grant to provide or improve social services to the community.
The contingency or innovations component
Once the general component has been met, community organisations must then meet either the contingency or the innovations component of the Fund’s criteria.
Contingency applications
A community organisation:
- Must be experiencing severe financial difficulty maintaining their existing services.
- Could not reasonably be expected to have foreseen the cause of the difficulties.
- Has sought, or is seeking, other sources of funding.
- Can demonstrate that they are taking necessary steps to continue the service without further applications to the Fund.
Innovations applications
A community organisation must show:
- They will be offering a creative and innovative response to achieving the Government’s social services outputs.
- The response is outside existing funding programmes.
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Making an application
It is useful if you include the following information in your application:
- The amount of funding you are requesting.
- An outline of the project, including how the funds will be used and how the application fits the criteria outlined above.
- Background information about your community organisation and what it does.
- What efforts or strategies you have made to secure funding from other government sources and/or private sector agencies, including the terms and amounts of these grants – and/or results or progress reports on obtaining these funds.
- Details of your organisation’s current financial position (for example, the most recent audited accounts, balances of current bank accounts).
- Details of your projected financial position that make it clear your organisation can cope without Contingency and Innovations funding in future years.
- Comment on the financial impact on the organisation if the application is not approved.
- Possible future income sources.
- Supporting statements from the local community – such as testimonials from reputable community organisations like the police or community leaders – and whether any community organisations or businesses are interested in supporting the initiative.
- Supporting statements from your local Child, Youth and Family Contracting Group representative.
This information can be sent to:
- The Minister of Social Services and Employment, Parliament Buildings, Wellington (freepost).
- The Chief Executive, Child, Youth and Family, PO Box 2620, Wellington.
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