Last week, Eastern Bay Community Foundation Manager Angela Jackson joined clients and guests at the Craigs Investment Partners Market Update in Ōhope.
Hosted by Investment Director Mark Lister, the event explored current economic and market conditions, providing valuable insights into the opportunities and challenges facing investors. It also created an opportunity to reflect on another important form of investment: investing in our communities.
Investing in Community Impact
During the presentation, Angela shared how the Eastern Bay Community Foundation is helping generous individuals, families, and businesses create lasting benefits for the communities of Ōpōtiki, Whakatāne, and Kawerau.
Through endowment funds, scholarships, giving circles, and gifts in wills, local donors are building a permanent source of funding that will continue supporting community causes for generations to come.
Today, the Foundation manages approximately 60 funds and has distributed more than $250,000 this financial year alone. Funds under management now exceed $4.2 million, creating growing opportunities to invest in the future of our region.
The power of long-term giving
A key message of the evening was the value of thinking long term.
Unlike a one-off donation, gifts entrusted to the Foundation are invested for the future, creating ongoing funding for local causes year after year.
One example is the Verna MacDonnell Fund, the Foundation's first endowment fund. Through careful stewardship, Verna's generosity continues to support projects in Ōpōtiki long after her lifetime, demonstrating how a single act of giving can continue benefiting the community for decades.
A valued corporate sponsor
The Foundation is proud to acknowledge the ongoing support of Craigs Investment Partners as a corporate sponsor.
Partnerships like this help strengthen the Foundation's ability to connect generous people with the causes they care about, while also demonstrating the important role businesses can play in creating positive community outcomes.
Craigs' commitment to the Eastern Bay extends beyond its sponsorship of the Foundation. The organisation also supports several local initiatives, including the annual Christmas food parcel programme, which delivered 100 parcels to seniors across Kawerau, Edgecumbe, Ōpōtiki, and Whakatāne last year.
Business giving that makes a difference
Strong communities are built through more than financial investment. They are strengthened when businesses choose to invest in the places where their people live, work, and raise their families.
For businesses considering their own approach to community investment, the Foundation can help establish business funds, scholarship programmes, workplace giving initiatives, and other forms of structured giving that align with organisational values and corporate social responsibility goals.
As more people and businesses think about the legacy they would like to leave behind, these conversations become increasingly important.
Local giving. Local impact. Lasting legacy.
