More could be approached for funds

The pool of charitable trust funding available to the Forsyth Barr Stadium may not have been squeezed dry, but while one Dunedin city councillor would like to see further requests, another would prefer community groups did not find the pool empty.

A new report shows four charitable trusts responded to requests from the council, the Carisbrook Stadium Trust, and Dunedin Venues Management Ltd, with $7,905,000 raised, while from another 12 asked, there had been "to date, no success".

The report, from council acting chief executive Athol Stephens, showed applications had gone to 16 trusts, but Cr Paul Hudson said yesterday there were more than double that number of trusts that could have been asked for funds.

Cr Hudson, at a council meeting on February 28, called for the report, from the council's rates and funding working party, detailing the applications made by the council to outside organisations for stadium funding.

Cr Hudson said yesterday comment had been made that trusts that were prepared to give money had not received applications.

He had not been involved in the working party, and wanted to know if that was the case.

He said he understood up to 40 trusts could help with the stadium, and he wanted those opportunities explored before ratepayers were asked for more money.

His expectation was there would have been a "large number" of trusts that would have been asked for money.

"A lot can't give a large amount," he said.

But with some of the items on the list not requiring large amounts of funding, there should be trusts that would want their name attached to the stadium that could help.

Cr Hudson said he hoped those trusts might still present an opportunity to raise money, rather than going back to ratepayers.

Cr Kate Wilson, who seconded the motion calling for the report, said she thought there might be even more than 40 trusts that could help with funding.

But her reason for backing the call for a report was more to acknowledge the work done by the working party.

She did not want to see every small trust being asked for funds for the stadium, when small community groups relied on those same funds for their activities.

The issue will be discussed at a finance, strategy and development committee meeting on Monday.


Cash call

Successful stadium funding applications
Community Trust of Otago: $7 million
New Zealand Community Trust: $605,000
The Southern Trust: $50,000
The Alexander McMillan Trust: $250,000

Unsuccessful applications
The Central Lakes Electric Fund
The New Zealand Lotteries Trust
The Perry Foundation
The Trusts Charitable Foundation
The Lion Foundation
Pub Charity
The Caversham Foundation
The Mainland Foundation
The ILT Foundation
The Bendigo Valley Sports and Charity
Foundation
The St Kilda Community Sports Society
The Southern Victoria Charitable Trust


david.loughrey@odt.co.nz

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