'Dating agency' chance to help

Auckland's rich-listers and ordinary citizens are being offered a chance to help areas of need in the Super City through a new community foundation.

The Auckland Communities Foundation, to be launched on August 25, aims to be a "dating agency" linking Aucklanders who want to help with trustworthy and effective projects.

Chief executive Mark Bentley, who led a $58 million fundraising campaign for Auckland University's business school, said many local rich-listers would follow the lead of American billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett and give money to charity - if the right structure was available.

"The evidence is that New Zealanders are generous - a bit more generous than Australians, about the same as the UK, although still short of the US, unfortunately," he said.

"They particularly give generously of their time in volunteering. I do believe people would give more in financial terms if they had more confidence that there was someone advising them."

The foundation will be launched by Sir Stephen Tindall, who set up his own Tindall Foundation 15 years ago.

British researchers Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, whose book The Spirit Level showed that more equal societies do better on everything from crime rates to simply trusting each other, will speak on a video about New Zealand's social performance.

Mayoral candidates for the Auckland Super City have also been invited.

The foundation will start with eight new funds - a Waitakere fund that will be an ongoing legacy for a city that will disappear in November, a youth fund, an environmental fund, several funds provided by individual donors, and a general fund to support areas of need that do not fit the criteria for any specific funds.

It will also have an existing $130,000 Manukau fund that comes from the foundation's previous existence as the Manukau Community Foundation, set up with support from former Manukau Mayor Sir Barry Curtis in 2000.

Mr Bentley said the decision to go regional predated the decision to create the Super City and was aimed at matching areas of need in Manukau and other poor areas with donors in wealthier parts of Auckland.

"It's to unlock the Super City, to show that people can support projects from Papakura to the North Shore," he said. "One of the most stark things we see is this huge discrepancy between affluence and need in the city."

Westpac, the Vodafone Foundation and the SkyCity Auckland Community Trust are sponsoring research which will form the basis of brainstorming on the launch day about possible opening projects.

ON THE WEB

www.aucklandcf.org.nz