Kia Ora,Through the loyal support of our deposit customers we are able to provide loans to assist in the development of inspiring projects. It’s energising seeing these projects come to fruition, and in this newsletter we share with you some stories of our newest loan customers.

But Prometheus is about more than just savings and loans. The Prometheus “Family” also includes the Prometheus Gift Trust, a charitable trust that offers Gift accounts. Inside we interview Mark Finser, chair of RSF Social Finance – a large charitable trust in the USA and a sister institution to Prometheus over many years. We also profile Touch Compass, a recent recipient of a donation via the Gift Trust.

If you are interested in setting up a Gift Account please get in touch. We have something to suit small and large givers.

Enjoy our Spring edition. Until next time,

Phil McKinstry, CEO

Touch Compass is New Zealand’s only professional inclusive dance company, where disabled and non- disabled dancers meet on the floor, or in mid-air.

The company’s performances have won international and national acclaim and challenge society’s notions of what dance is, and who can do it.

At the start of this year a Prometheus Gift Trust donor provided three years’ worth of matched funding to Touch Compass. This donation will enable them to confidently renew their lease on their custom built, wheelchair accessible dance studio, with a spring-loaded floor. The matched funding will also help increase their fundraising ability to ensure their longer term financial sustainability.

“The funds are a real boost for the company,” says General Manager Karen Fraser Payne. “It’s a life-changer in the employment of disabled dancers and choreographers, and a game-changer enabling us to deliver more high quality

inclusive dance performances and community programmes in more regions.”

The company was founded in 1999 and has been growing through grant funding from Creative New Zealand.

The company has two components: a professional performance function, and Encompass, their community and education programme. The dance company provides development training for dancers, and presents one major season or tour a year. Encompass delivers inclusive community classes and dance education resources, as well as training for dance teachers to incorporate inclusive dance into their classrooms.

“For us, accessibility is about more than just venues,” says Karen. “It’s about changing people’s perceptions, attitudes and practices. It’s about respecting individual differences and encouraging and enabling individual creativity.”

› www.touchcompass.org.nz

Celebrating Inclusive Dance

SPRING 2014 www.prometheus.co.nz

Last year, Sue Barker joined the Prometheus Gift Trust as a trustee. She brings a variety of knowledge in law, charities and accounting.

Sue is a Wellington-based lawyer, and specialises in charities and public tax law. She has been involved in advising on charitable sector issues for the last 15 years. Since 2012, she has run her own boutique Wellington law firm, Sue Barker Charities Law, which was voted New Zealand’s Boutique Law Firm of the Year in 2013.

Sue has published a number of articles relating to charitable sector issues, and is co-author of the 2013 text, “The Law and Practice of Charities in New Zealand”. Her work history includes roles at some of New Zealand’s largest and most respected legal firms, the Crown Law Office and the Inland Revenue.

Sue is also a chartered accountant and a talented musician. She volunteers her time as a trustee to the New Zealand Third Sector Educational Trust and the Wellington Dance Festival Charitable Trust.

Find out more about the rest of our team at: www.prometheus.co.nz/about-us/

Introducing Sue

The Anglican Action Mission Trust (AAMT) is a community-based “justice through service” organisation in the Waikato that has been operating for over 25 years.

AAMT’s services include youth programmes, a residential parenting centre for women and children, youth mentoring, and a social enterprise café that is partially staffed by clients.

One of their major community projects includes supported accommodation for men recently released from prison. For many ex-offenders, leaving prison opens up a whole new set of problems, including finding accommodation and employment opportunities.

As part of a contract with the Corrections Department, most of the men on post-prison release undertake a 13-week Supported Accommodation Programme with AAMT. The programme provides

Opening of the new housing units

Anglican Action Mission Trust

transitional accommodation and assistance in finding employment and alternative accommodation when these men are ready to return back to the community.

They currently manage a number of housing units around Hamilton. However, existing units are not sufficient to meet demand. To alleviate this, AAMT approached us for loan finance to purchase two additional housing units for their supported accommoda-tion programme.

“Successful reintegration saves significant prison costs, and restores communities, futures and the humanity of both the individual and society,” says Karen Morrison-Hume, Anglican Action Missioner. “Our vision is to break cycles, treat the causes as well as the effect, and support people to support themselves.”

› www.anglicanaction.org.nz

Meet our team We’ll be attending the following events. If we’re in your area, please stop by and say hello!

• Wellington Go Green Expo – 8-9th Nov, TSB Arena

• Nelson Eco Fest – 16th Nov, Founders Park

Mark Finser, Chair of RSF Social Finance in the United States has been instrumental in the growth of RSF’s Giving Accounts. Today over $45 billion is held in Donor Advised Giving Accounts in the US. We asked for Mark’s insights into how these Giving Accounts work.

Prometheus: Can you tell us about RSF and how it started?

Mark: We started in 1984 and had two parts to the foundation - a saving and lending side similar to Prometheus, and shortly after, we started Giving Accounts. A close friend wanted to close her private foundation and make donations via RSF. She transferred these funds to us and then nominated a long list of her favourite charities that she wanted to donate to. It grew from there. Today RSF hold over $170 million in total assets.

Over the years we’ve connected with a lot of successful organic food companies, and others in our three mission areas, through our finance arm. When some of these businesses started they allocated shares to a Giving Account, at a time when their shares had no value. Then when the company went public or was sold their Giving Account received a windfall.

Prometheus: What are some of the benefits of operating a donor advised fund (DAF)?

Mark: As our original donor found, it’s a pain in the neck to do all the administrative work managing a private foundation. Unless you have multiple millions of dollars to donate, US regulators suggest there is no point establishing your own private foundation.

A Giving Account partner carries out the administration work, checks charitable status, writes grant letters, tracks where the funds are spent and reports back. There is also the opportunity to be anonymous, as some people don’t want to be publicly known for having deeper pockets - especially in a small community.

At RSF, there is also a menu of different investment options so clients can choose how their funds (or assets) are invested. Some accounts earn a return, tax-free, giving the donor advisor more funds to donate in the longer-term.

Prometheus: What are some of the unique ways you have seen people give?

Mark: When you first set up your Giving Account the money leaves you and you make a sacrifice. The second time you donate (when you advise which charities to support) the feeling of sacrifice is removed and creates a sense of freedom for a donor, which encourages strategic and objective giving. There are so many wonderful and flexible ways for these DAFs to work.

One donor didn’t want to make the decisions of where the funds should go. So she brought her favourite charities in a particular interest area together in a room and let them collectively decide how to allocate a lump sum. Over the years this has formed a sense of community and camaraderie between the charities. This has now inspired a number of what are called ‘Shared Gifting Groups’ around

specific topics around the US (more can be read about this on at rsfsocialfinance.org).

DAFs can also be set up to leave a gifting legacy or can be used as an educational tool. We have one family who get their children to find a need in their community each thanksgiving. Before their family meal they each nominate a small gift for the year from their Giving Account.

We also operate field of interest funds, like Prometheus, where both small and large givers can contribute. A community of people interested in local food and agriculture in New Zealand, for example, could collectively donate to this area. Prometheus would find the charities to support, and donors would see the impact they are making through an annual report. There’s also an opportunity for people to leave bequests and continue to support charities close to their heart into the future.

Prometheus: What does the DAF landscape look like now in the US?

Mark: There are now many brokerage firms that have created charitable trusts to manage the assets in DAFs. They manage these funds (and earn fees) until someone is ready to donate these assets. The problem is that so many of these funds invest in ways that are in direct conflict with the values of the donor.

In comparison, at RSF 100% of our investments are mission-aligned. Funds “sitting” in DAFs can also be recycled through investments in social finance projects while awaiting distribution, and in the process earn a social return.

The Prometheus Gift Trust, a charitable trust, offers Gift accounts for both large and small donors, as well as accepting bequests and general donations to special interest funds. More at: www.prometheus.co.nz/personal/gift-accounts

The Global rise of Gift Accounts

Hadi Gurton

Hadi recently received loan finance from us to relocate and refurbish two former school classrooms onto a section at the Delhi Eco Village development.

This eco village is part of a community founded on principles of environmental sustainability, and is located on a former dairy farm on the fringes of Whanganui. Most of the building sites in the village are clustered together, leaving the rest of the land as a common area that will be used by the community for planting vegetable gardens and orchards, raising animals and replanting native forest.

Hadi works for Zero Waste Education, who provide programmes based around sustainability for schools and the community. This housing project is a great fit with Hadi’s values, and will allow him to further showcase sustainable living.

› www.delhivillage.org.nz

Orapiu Grove

We have recently extended a loan to Orapiu Grove, a farm partnership established in the early 1990s on Waiheke Island.

The original loan helped a group of eight friends to purchase 120 acres of hilly gorse-covered land, with some large pockets of regenerating native bush. More recently we have provided finance to help them buy out a partner who is heading overseas.

The goal of the group was to establish and to operate commercial organic enterprises, while protecting and enhancing the land and its eco-systems.

Over the years, the property has undergone significant development and today has access roads and five dwellings. There are now large areas of kanuka and manuka, especially in areas that were once covered in weeds. In 1998 they also planted 600 olive trees and established an organic vineyard (Awaroa Organic Winery).

Warkworth Therapies

Warkworth Natural Therapies founders, Richard Moon and Eugene Sims, saw demand for an integrated natural health clinic for the region.

Today their business has a number of complimentary health therapists working in one space, including osteopaths, a physiotherapist, a homeopath, an acupuncturist, a paediatric occupational therapist, a massage therapist and a neuromuscular therapist.

By working together, their goal is to enable their patients to get well and stay well and ‘close the circle’ of healthcare.

In 2012, we helped with loan funds to fit out Warkworth Natural Therapies’ new clinic. More recently we have approved loan funds to expand the clinic’s services to provide prescription orthotics. This required the purchase of a Gaitscan System – a hardware and software package that determines footfall and the support design required.

› www.wnt.co.nz

If you are a saver with us we want you to know where we use your money. Our website has a project map that details every project we lend to - see www.prometheus.co.nz/projects/

Know where your money goes