Grants and funding

Community Facility Development Fund - an outline of the process

North Shore City Council has a Community Facilities Fund consisting of approximately $800,000 to assist community groups and organisations who wish to develop or create key community facilities that fulfil community development outcomes for their sector or area.

The process for council allocation takes approximately three months.

This funding round is advertised by way of an 'expressions of interest' form in August and council receives around 30 requests for funding across the city each year.

Some of these applicants are city-wide groups making a request; e.g. St John Ambulance or North Harbour Hockey, but most of them are smaller community groups and clubs. An "expression of interest form" needs to be completed and returned to council by 5 September 2008. The form may be submitted electronically through the link at the foot of this page, or printed from the PDF document and posted or delivered to the Council.

Once received, the 'expressions of interest' form is then analysed and summarized, and if accepted and supported by council's Parks Department and council's Community Services Division, the relevant organisations can then go ahead and fill in the evaluation workbook 2008.

This requires quite detailed input regarding your plans, your timeline, your status and your funding options. The deadline for this information this year is 10 October 2008.

It is advisable for groups to also take their application with a five-minute presentation to their local community board meeting during September and October. Groups do well who outline comprehensively:

a) How their building project will promote and advance opportunities for community benefit
b) How the project will enable their club or organisation to sustain and build its core business
c) How the project will enhance their organisation's financial viability and sustainability
d) How the project will allow more and increased opportunities for the group / club or organisation to increase partnerships within and across their community.

Council meets to decide on its funding allocations from the Community Facilities Fund in November and this year the dates for deliberations are 11 and 12 November, where groups are asked to make their five to 10-minute presentation to council.

Applicant groups normally find out whether or not they have been granted funding, and to what extent, by the end of November.

Applicants are advised to carefully read the guidelines before completing the application form.

For further information

Please contact Sue Dennehy, Community Advisor in Sector Development at North Shore City Council, on:

Telephone: 486 8671
Email: Actionline@northshorecity.govt.nz

Useful documents

Community Facilities Development Fund - Guidelines PDF (58 KB)
Community Facilities Fund - Expression of interest form (electronic)
Community Facilities Fund - Expression of interest form (post or deliver)PDF (19 KB)