Relief as ASB Trust opens wallet again

The recession has begun to lift for community groups in Auckland and Northland with news that the ASB Community Trust will resume grants next month after a six-month freeze.

The trust froze grants at the beginning of the year after its investment funds plunged by $210 million in the wake of the global financial meltdown.

But it announced yesterday that its funds have recovered by $33 million since February, earning a 9.2 per cent total return on investments in the three months to June 30.

It will resume grants from next month with $23.7 million to hand out by March 2010.

Community Waitakere chairman Tony Mayow, who also chairs the national Federation of Voluntary Welfare Organisations, said the decision was a "tremendous relief".

"There will be many groups, including our own, who will say, 'Thank goodness for that'," he said. "There are a lot of organisations that are really squeezed now. A lot of the traditional sources of funding are getting harder to access, so I'm sure that any suggestion that there might be an easing of that really tight monetary situation would certainly be welcomed."

Trust chief executive Jennifer Gill said there was an "uplifting" mood yesterday among about 250 past grant recipients who attended the trust's annual public meeting at Orakei Marae.

"People are very upbeat," she said.

The trust's funds, which totalled $854 million at the end of June, are up 5.3 per cent from February's low point of $811 million.

However, they are still 16.4 per cent below their March 2008 level of $1.02 billion, and this year's grants of $23.7 million will be down 29.5 per cent from the $33.6 million given out in the full year to March 2009.

Ms Gill said the trust would stick to a policy already announced of giving priority to operational spending rather than capital investment, apart from major projects such as refurbishing the Auckland Art Gallery, which are being funded out of ongoing past commitments, separate from this year's new grants.

"One hopes that by the time we get to the end of the financial year and we are looking at the next year, things will be different," she said.

"We have a very small budget for capital grants this year. We hope we can reinstate it next year."