Many New Zealand businesses want to give back to their communities, but struggle to turn good intentions into meaningful impact. Without a structured philanthropy strategy, charitable giving often becomes scattered and reactive. You can end up responding to endless donation requests, making ad-hoc contributions, and finding it difficult to measure the outcome of your giving.
Do any of these challenges sound familiar?
- Unclear giving criteria that make it hard to say yes or no to requests?
- Donations that don’t align with your business values or brand?
- Minimal employee engagement with your charitable efforts?
- No time to research worthy causes and manage relationships with multiple charities?
A Smarter Approach to Corporate Social Responsibility
The Gift Trust provides businesses of any size with expert philanthropic advisory services. We help you develop a structured charitable giving framework that aligns with your business values, engages your team, and creates measurable community benefit, all without the complexity and cost of establishing a private corporate foundation.
Whether you’re a SME making your first formal charitable commitment, a family business looking to cement your legacy of giving, or an established company seeking to enhance your ESG strategy, we provide you with the tools and knowledge to make corporate philanthropy simple, effective, and meaningful.
Advice Packages We Offer for Businesses
Our team has the expertise and connections to help you make good happen, whether your giving journey is well on its way or just starting out. We can help you create a package of giving that’s impactful, on mission, and intuitive. Navigate your giving journey with one of our advice options:
The Navigator Advice Package
A starter pack to formalise your business’s giving strategy and set a direction.
The Navigator package will tease out your business’s motivations for giving, identify causes you care most about, and craft a clear statement about your giving vision, strategy and goals.
What We’ll Explore Together
- Your business’s experience of giving and philanthropy
- What you want your giving to achieve
- Your hopes for your business and community
- Your investment strategy
- How involved you want to be with the organisations you give to and what support we provide in the future
What’s Included
- A meeting with your team and one of our team to engage your people with giving (this can include a workshop to identify your goals)
- A crafted giving statement, to set out your giving vision and goals
- Guidance, support and direction for the next steps in your giving journey including identifying any research needed
- Up to ten hours of support
The Connector Advice Package
Expert knowledge to help you identify and research relevant causes.
Once we understand your giving strategy, we can provide research and guidance to match you with the causes you most care about. Our expertise, contacts and due diligence result in greater impact.
What We’ll Explore Together
- Research on the causes aligned with your business, to identify organisations working in these areas
- The financials and credentials of those organisations
- Opportunities for your business to make a difference
- Volunteering opportunities for your people
What’s Included
- A meeting between you and one of our team
- A research brief with options for your giving, detailing the organisations, opportunities for business giving, and credentials, including financial due diligence
The Storyteller Advice Package
Let us tell your giving story, to build a community.
The Storyteller package lets you tell your giving story to the world, and bring the world along on your journey. We’ll set you up with what we call a ‘collaborative fund’ – a public-facing digital giving portal that lets your customers and contacts support the causes you care about.
What’s Included
- A meeting between you and one of our team to discuss the goals for your collaborative fund
- A bespoke webpage with your own branding that allows you to collect donations from customers or other donors into your fund
- A bespoke distribution plan allowing us to distribute the collected donations to the causes of your choice
The Evaluator Advice Package
Measure the impact of causes you connect with.
The Evaluator package lets you know what impact your giving is having on the world, and on your goals. We ensure that every charitable cause you donate to offers accountability on your investment. If you would like to have a thorough impact measurement report conducted on particular organisations you support, we can work with our friends across the sector to give you the full picture.
Why New Zealand Businesses Choose Strategic Giving
Employee Engagement and Retention
Workplace giving programs that involve your team in selecting causes and contributing create stronger company culture and improve staff retention. When employees see their company’s values reflected in authentic charitable action, engagement increases significantly.
Brand Positioning
In a world where consumers and clients increasingly value corporate social responsibility, strategic philanthropy helps you stand out. A clear giving mission backed by genuine impact demonstrates your commitment beyond marketing claims.
Measurable Community Impact
Rather than spreading resources thinly across many requests, a focused giving strategy amplifies your impact. Supporting fewer causes with greater commitment creates transformational change and builds deeper community partnerships.
Real Results: G.J. Gardner Manukau Major Projects
How They Utilised The Gift Trust
Auckland-based construction company G.J. Gardner Manukau Major Projects have partnered with The Gift Trust to plan and manage their company giving fund. The Gift Trust ran a staff workshop with their team to gather feedback to create a giving mission statement and strategy. We then provided research on a range of charitable organisations that met their goals.
Where G.J Gardner Manakau Have Decided to Give
G.J. Gardner Manukau Major Projects have chosen Garden to Table as their main charity to support this year, based on The Gift Trust’s research and introductions. Garden to Table helps kids to grow, harvest, prepare,and share great food. The Gift Trust also run a staff matched giving fund for the G.J. Gardner Manukau Major Projects team, where the company will match donations made by their staff members.
Stil Have Questions?
If you’re unsure about any aspect of our business giving options, start by visiting our FAQs page for answers to common queries. For personalised guidance, you can contact our team directly to discuss your giving goals, investment options, or succession plans. Contact us today to learn more and take the next step in your charitable journey.
