The Waikato Community Rugby Fund will help to secure the future of rugby across the Waikato. Photo / Colin Thorsen
Waikato Rugby is proud to offer their loyal supporters the chance to join a group of valued members who will secure the future of rugby across the Waikato through the Waikato Community Rugby Fund and supported by Momentum Waikato.
Waikato has a long and proud history of championing rugby culture and success at all levels of the game.
From the thousands of grassroots players involved at a club level, through to Waikato's legendary wins, rugby holds a special place in the Waikato community.
Community rugby in the Waikato is the breeding ground where great players are developed.
Waikato is made up of 32 clubs from Hamilton and the surrounding districts, and it is the strength of the grassroots game, with more than 10,000 registered players, that makes Waikato rugby strong.
However, funding at the grassroots level of rugby is not as straight forward and secure as it has been in the past.
The New Zealand Rugby environment has seen dramatic changes over the past 25 years since the game went professional.
These changes have impacted the game at a grassroots level, creating new challenges for Waikato and the 25 other provincial unions working to foster the community side of the game.
One of the biggest challenges Waikato Rugby faces is funding of the game in the region as it becomes increasingly challenging to secure the sponsorship and social dollar.
For example, competition from fully professional sports teams (including Super Rugby) for sponsorship dollars and fans attending games.
Professional rugby and the perceptions that come with that have also had an indirect impact on player participation at the amateur level.
Grassroots Trust provides massive support for community rugby and many other organisations in various fields, and has done so for many years, but the game's dependency on gaming trusts is a risk area as they are only a legislative change away from this funding source being significantly reduced.
NZR funding models are trying to support the game across the country but what they provide covers only a certain percentage of what is required, and is heavily reliant on the continued success of the All Blacks.
To this end, Waikato Rugby believes that the establishment of an additional self-sustainable funding model is the best way forward.
Your support of the Waikato Community Rugby Fund will allow Waikato Rugby to continue to grow grassroots rugby and help them to strengthen the strong arm of New Zealand rugby.
The fund will be used to deliver the objects and purposes in support of the Waikato rugby community.
The Union had initially set up their own charity, which is quite unusual for a sporting organisation to receive charity status.
Since then they've changed tactics and embedded the fund within community foundation Momentum Waikato, an endowment fund which has been brought on board initially thanks to an anonymous donor and further support from three local businesspeople who are massive advocates for Waikato Rugby.
An endowment fund is donated money or assets (property or other purchases) invested to earn revenue to fund a charitable activity.
The fund is fully managed by Momentum and only up to 75 per cent of the returns on the invested capital can be spent, so that the fund is continually growing, never reducing.
"We are there to build and invest endowment funds for causes for the community. In effect become another future funding for the community. We've got all sorts of funds that we support ranging from development funds, CBD funds, personal wills and gifts that people have left for us for different causes," says Momentum Waikato chief executive Kelvyn Eglinton.
"The rugby fund was established by an individual who wanted to support community rugby. So he's come to us and provided the initial donation used to establish this fund."
Founded in 1921, Waikato Rugby creates opportunities to ensure rugby is available and accessible to all members of the Waikato.
"It is our job to make sure that all players, coaches and administrators have a genuinely positive rugby experience in our province with a proud rugby history.
"We are committed to creating an enduring legacy for future generations to enjoy. The dedicated team at Waikato Rugby works with schools, community organisations, clubs and players of all ages.
"From leading development programmes, maintaining competitive club competitions and creating pathways for young players, we are constantly feeding the Waikato's passion for the game at all levels," it says on the Waikato Rugby website.
Waikato Rugby chief executive Carl Moon says the fund secures the future of community rugby and makes the rugby community much more resilient against big economic shocks like what we're seeing with Covid-19.
"One of the key elements behind that is trust. Momentum is a big, strong, very well led organisation. It's not just rugby that's involved there, so people can be very secure in the knowledge that their funds and their legacy are being managed well," says Carl.
"If there are changes to any environment, legislative change around gaming trusts, or economic, such as the global financial crisis or the global pandemic then it helps insulate the game from those sorts of things. It doesn't make us immune to them, but just helps us to sustain through the hard times.
"It's a way for people to leave a legacy too. People that have been Waikato rugby fans for their whole lives, if they choose to, they can leave behind something which is going to support the game forever."
The rugby fund is just one example of how people can leave a gift to support different organisations and causes.
'We've got 15 different funds that support everything from education, scholarships and environmental causes to rehabilitation of land. We've got funds that support the Houghton Retreat for Wellness centres," says Kelvyn.
There are many different ways that people can donate.
'Salary Giving' is common where people set up a $20 automatic payment, or however much, per pay cheque.
"The good thing about it is, we can talk to the rugby community during the centenary celebrations and people may decide to leave a gift within their will to say "we love rugby" or "we love the environment" or whatever it is, but "we want to support this fund and add our little bit to it"," he says.
"What that means is the fund gets bigger, the investments get better returns and the returns go back to support community rugby. That's the idea of an endowment fund."
There is also a provision within the setup for people to put money in for certain periods of time.
"So you might put X amount of money in and set it up with a written agreement, which says in 10 years that amount of money comes back out or, or an agreed amount of money comes back out. In the meantime the returns have been growing and being invested back into the game," says Carl.
"I guess the key message there is that we're really stoked to be working with Momentum, working with a firm with such ability. We think that our rugby and our history go really well with Momentum and their place in their community."
For more information or to donate head to momentumwaikato.nz/donate.
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