Central Lakes Trust (CLT) have, in their first round for 2021/2022, granted a further $1.75 million to the development of the cycle trails linking the great rides of New Zealand, marking year four of a five- year grant commitment.
Central Otago Queenstown Trail Network Trust (COQTNT) chair Stephen Jeffery says, “The
completed Lake Dunstan Trail is stage one of five to establish an additional 170 kilometres of
trail linking Queenstown and Wanaka to existing New Zealand Cycle Trails.”
The remaining four stages are concurrently being worked on, some more advanced than others.
“CLT’s overall commitment of $11.15m is five times greater than any previous grant and still
remains the largest grant to date,” says CLT chief executive, Susan Finlay.
Ms Finlay says she couldn’t be prouder of the Trust’s commitment to the development of the
cycle trail network. “The amount of people utilising the Lake Dunstan Trail is evidence of what
an asset it is for the community, and shows the potential of what the entire network will
become.”
In fact, multi-year grants now make up the largest portion of the grants budget.
In this latest round, $3.57 million of the organisation’s $4.73 million grants was approved on a multi-year basis.
CLT Grants Manager Mat Begg says multi-year granting is a high trust model that the Trust only
considers with long serving grantees; it reduces the administrative burden of applying year-on-year.
He says, “multi-year grants make sense for groups we have a long-standing relationship with.
Where there is a strong relationship and good understanding of what the group is delivering,
why make the application process more onerous than it needs to be.”
Central Lakes Arts Support Scheme (CLASS) is another example of a CLT initiative to be granted on a multi-year basis.
The scheme was created by the Trust in 2008 to promote arts at a local ‘grass roots’ level.
It is administered by the four local community arts councils, Alexandra Community Arts Council, Arts
Central, Creative Queenstown, and Upper Clutha Community Arts. Local groups can apply to
the councils for funding to support art activities in their region. Grants are available to the tune
of $2,000 per applicant or project each year.
Creative Queenstown’s Jan Maxwell says, “Having the security of knowing this funding is
available for the next three years will provide our community with many opportunities to
experience and be creative through projects funded through CLASS. Our thanks to the trustees
for their ongoing support of the arts in the Wakatipu.”
Cromwell College and Cromwell Resource Centre also receive multi-year grants.
A recipient of a large project grant was St John with $219,379 of support given towards three new ambulances, one each to be based in Cromwell, Alexandra and Queenstown.
Since the Trust commenced 21 years ago, it has returned over $123 million back into the
community. This year’s grants budget is the largest in the Trust’s history at $9.60 million.
Central Lakes Trust is a charitable trust that grant funds for charitable purposes.
It is the largest philanthropic trust per capita in the Southern Hemisphere. The trust purpose is to make a positive lasting contribution to the community by supporting charitable projects throughout Central Lakes; to enhance our community and the lives of the people within.
Since its inception in 2000 the Trust has grown its asset base from the $155m, bestowed by the Otago Central Electric Power Trust to assets totalling $431m, and has distributed more than $118m into a wide range of community projects and services throughout the Central Lakes area.
