Charitable donations
 
 

Guests at our regular events will know we usually hold a raffle, with prizes donated by our kind sponsors & supporters. The proceeds of these raffles go directly to our charitable fund (i.e. they do not fund Society events but are kept separately & audited by our accountants), and then are disbursed to worthy New Zealand/UK related causes after deliberation by our charities sub-committee and approval by the general committee.  

Recent charitable payments are listed below. Your generous support through buying raffle tickets has made these possible. 

 
2011

  • A grant to help New Zealand actress Yael Gezentsvey to perform at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

  • A grant to assist CTV Cup 20-20 Earthquake Appeal 2011 to help with printing costs of the programme and wristbands for the event. This event raised funds to send back to Christchurch with regard to the February earthquake. More details can be found on http://www.ctvcup.com  

  • A grant to assist the launch of the New Zealand Studies Network (UK and Ireland). This is a new organisation which aims to promote New Zealand arts and culture in the UK in the widest sense by holding regular meetings and events, developing a seminar programme and showcasing New Zealand products, work and visitors. The grant will be used toward the reception (wine and nibbles) and towards the printing of 200 copies of the booklet of readings

  • A grant to assist Cambridge University second-year PhD student, Alice Kelly, and Cambridge University Junior Research Fellow, Kate Kennedy, organise an international conference at the university on Katherine Mansfield ("Shaping Modernism"), to be held in March 2011
     

  • A grant to assist Dr Gerri Kimber with her research trip to New Zealand to study Katherine Mansfield's original papers. Gerri and Emeritus Professor Vincent O’Sullivan are editing and annotating the Collected Fiction of Katherine Mansfield. to be published by Edinburgh University Press, in conjunction with Columbia University Press in New York. This will take the form of two large volumes, collating all Mansfield’s extant fiction, which has never been done before. This internationally important project will redefine the status of New Zealand’s most celebrated writer for the next generation. The volumes will be published in January 2013, to coincide with the 90th anniversary of Mansfield death.
     

  •  A grant to the City of London Festival, which is celebrating Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific this year. The grant will assist with the schools program.

 

  
 2010

  • A grant to assist the family of Ollie Van Lent with their London expenses on their way to a specialist clinic in Austria. Born with an extremely rare chromosome disorder (one of only 12 in the world), the Austrian clinic weaned Ollie off his feeding tube, so that Raewyn, Hayden & Ollie can enjoy a better quality of life. More details about Ollie are on his website: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/Oliverkoby.
     

  • A charity donation to thank the ATR(W) RIFLES Winchester Regiment for providing Scott Barts to "bugle" for us at ANZAC Drinks.
     

  • A grant to the Katherine Mansfield Society to assist with printing a booklet for their inaugural birthday lecture in London. More info about KMS
     

  • Assistance to Mahana Clutha, a UK based New Zealand judo competitor to help her with her with qualifying costs for the London Olympics 2012
     

  • A grant to assist Shaky Isles Theatre produce "My Inner Orc" in October 2010
     

  • A grant to assist the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB, UK) in eradicating rats on Henderson Island in the Pitcairn Islands. New Zealand native bird protection expertise is being utilised in this project and many Pitcairn Islanders are now residents of New Zealand
     

  • £5000 towards the Canterbury Mayoral Relief Fund following the September earthquake. We also coordinated donations from other UK groups and individuals to minimise international currency exchange & transfer costs. The final sum transferred was just over £7000 and this transferred was handled free of charge by NZ based Direct FX
     

  • Raffle proceeds from Winter Drinks to the Pike River Miners Fund


Romy (President 2009/10)with Hayden, Raewyn & Ollie

 


Michelle (President 2010/11) with Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker
 2009

  • The New Zealand Society Fellow in New Zealand Studies, at the Centre for New Zealand Studies, Birkbeck, University of London, for 2009-2010. Awarded to Katharina Luh (Giessen University, Germany), researching culturally specific manifestations of femininity/ies and ethnicity/ies in the New Zealand novel from 1970 to the present, and Natalie Lewandowski (Macquarie University, Australia), researching screen sound personnel in the New Zealand feature film industry.

  • RNZRSA - £352 raised in the raffle at our ANZAC drinks, held on April 23.

  • Maramara Totara - grant towards the annual SUPA 6 Kapa Haka competition & fund raising effort. 

  • Funds to assist 14 yo UK based Kiwi kayaker Gemma Bishop towards equipment. Gemma attended the Wild Water Worlds Junior Championship in Switzerland in July 2009, and was the only New Zealand competitor.

  • A grant to help produce "Skin Tight", a New Zealand authored, directed and acted play, produced by Shaky Isles Theatre.

 
  
Gemma Bishop; spot our logo!
 2008

  • Centre for New Zealand Studies Fellow research grant 2008. The grant was split between Margit Wolfsberger (University of Vienna; relationships between the former Austrian empire and NZ) and Ilana Gershon (University of Indiana, USA; the early years of Maori seats in the NZ parliament). 

  • Manu Wahine (a Maori kite) - contribution towards costs of transportation from New Zealand to the British Museum

  • Katherine Mansfield Conference - contribution towards the travel costs for speakers from NZ

  • New Zealand shore plover for the Department of Conservation's relocation programme of the plover to Mana Island and to upgrade the breeding facilities at Pukaha Mt Bruce - over $20,000 raised as a one off fundraiser through an art auction.


New Zealand Shore Plover aviary at Pukaha Mt Bruce. Money we raised in 2008 will help pay for an improved water filtration system.

2007

  • Pasifika - a grant towards the staging of an NZ play

  • Centre for NZ Studies  
    Establishment of the NZ Society Fellow research grant. The first Fellow was Dr Yvonne Kozlofsky-Golan, from Israel, and during her 11 day stay conducted research at the Imperial War Museum, focusing on NZ soldiers in the Holy Land in WW1 and WW2.

  • ROSL Jubilee Trust - a grant to help bring NZ musicians to the UK in association with Royal Overseas League

  • Christ College Choir - profit from the concert that we organised in London


Christ College Choir

2006

  • Ngati Ranana Kohanga Reo - donation for books

  • Carleen Ebbs - donation towards living costs and tuition while at Guildhall Music school

  • Maramara Totara - donation

  • NZ/UK Link Foundation - donation (NZ UK Chef exchange)

  • Carleen Ebbs - donation (second donation in lieu of performance fee)

  • Shakey Isles Theatre company

  • Ngati Ranana Kohanga Reo - 10th Year anniversary publication

  • Waitangi Dinner speaker's charity - St Bart's Cancer research

  • Campbell Island Teal - art auction proceeds


Carleen Ebbs
- NZ lyric coloratura soprano

 Previous years' donations have included

  • British Museum for restoration of Taiaha

  • Natural History Museum restoration of Reverend Lashley journals (naturalist drawings)

  • Havengore Charitable trust (Education)

 


Taiaha at the British Museum

If you know an organisation or individual who may wish to apply for a charitable grant, please contact us including using the attached application form.