Funding dries up for two Auckland charities as demand increases
On Monday it was another busy morning at West Auckland based charity Nurturing Families with the buzz of staff packing and facilitating pickups of essentials such as nappies, clothing, prams and toiletries.
When
Checkpoint
visited Founder Taylah Nasmith and partnerships manager Marissa Bell were busy in the warehouse sorting through dresses, onesies and winter woolies to fill a box for a family of seven.
Marissa read out the brief of what was needed: "So the one we're going to pack is a family that is struggling as Dad's lost part-time work, seven family members are living in a two-bedroom home and mum is struggling to buy warm clothes."
Tayla Nasmith started the charity when she was just 12 years old.
Twelve years later, she has seen the need skyrocket, the charity now supports around 300 families a month.
"The need is the highest we've ever seen, so every single month we continue to have record-breaking months.
"There are so many case workers that don't even know where to reach out to, so when they find us we're often inundated with applications for families."
They are partnered with 200 agencies to provide boxes of family essentials, which can be obtained through a referral from a social worker, police officer, midwife or nurse.
But just a few months ago their major sponsor of five years, a private philanthropist, pulled their funding.
Funding might be drying up for these two Auckland charities but demand is continuing to increase.
Photo:
RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Partnerships manager Marissa Bell said that sponsor's contributions had paid the salaries of two staff members, who were now in limbo.
"It was a hard conversation because they really believe in the work that we do. They've had a personal circumstance where their business is not doing very well so they are unable to continue to support us, yeah, it was a tricky one."
In the same week they lost other sponsors, all up losing $100,000 in funding - a fifth of their annual budget.
The team has been having difficult conversations about how they can keep going. They have brought forward some of their funding campaigns and applied for whatever grants they can.
Bell said they had almost exhausted all options.
"It's a sign of the times, you know the work that we're doing is so important we've got levels that we've never seen before.
"The need is rising, but the funding landscape is not keeping up with us."
Nasmith was adamant they would keep fighting.
"There are children who are going without and so they drive me every single day to wake up in the morning and make sure that I can do even just a little bit of good.
"That means that they can have a fresh change of clothes or, you know, a warm bed to get into with some clean sheets."
Tayla Nasmith started the charity when she was just 12 years old.
Photo:
RNZ / Marika Khabazi
Another charity which provides clothes to those in need is Common.
Charli Cox, who started the charity six and a half years ago, echoes the concerns of Nurturing Families.
"Yeah, we were declined over $230,000 worth of funding last year and dressed nearly 10,500 on $74,000."
The charity re-circulates clothing donated by the public or extra stock donated by brands.
The clothes are delivered through social services like Rainbow Youth and Victim Support.
The number of social services the charity provides for has increased from 14 at the end of last year to 23, that means they are able to provide 1000 people a month with clothing.
Cox said funding had always been a struggle, but never more so than now.
She felt clothing was overlooked by those making funding decisions.
"Some of the responses we have is like 'people are wearing clothing, we see the street community wearing clothing' and it's like they could have been in that clothing for days, weeks, months.
"It's the only set of clothing they have, they do absolutely everything in it, they sleep in it there's absolutely no dignity attached to that clothing."
Charli Cox who started the charity Common said they were declined over $230,000 worth of funding last year.
Photo:
RNZ / Marika Khabazi
To keep some money coming in, the charity has a small retail space where it sells donated clothing, and it sells online.
It is also able to rent some items to the production and film industry.
Cox said if they had access to more funding, they would be able to help more people.
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