Dear Givers, thank you so much for your generosity and help for children of Ukraine!
We did not take your trust lightly and made all efforts to establish a sustainable and accountable channel to pass on Kiwis’ aid directly to children in Ukraine. It was a long way, and we are grateful for your patience; a step-by-step story of this cause is available below for you to read.
Our application to be a registered charity was successful and we are pleased to advise that THE KŌWHAI-KIKORANGI (YELLOW-BLUE) TRUST is now a charity on the official Charities Register.
What does it mean for your donation?
All net proceeds donated to this page will finance aid for children in the city of Chernihiv, which is in accordance with this Givealittle page initial purpose.
To avoid doubts, all net proceeds collected via this Givealittle page, including possible koha from the Hamilton City Council, are to be used to help bring children of Chernihiv back to schools and kindergartens.
How will your donation be directed for the benefit of children in Ukraine?
We will chip your donation in a programme to renovate damaged (pre)schools Chernihiv.
Chernihiv schools and kindergartens are massively destroyed by Russian shelling. For example, 27 of 34 schools were destroyed, five of them were directly hit with half-ton bombs (see photos at https://www.flickr.com/photos/195560251@N05/sets/72177720298821118/). While some of educational institutions will be hard to restore, others require replacement of windows blown out by the blast wave only.
This is how the Save Chernihiv School https://savechernihivschool.online/ programme came about. The programme is administered (on no fee basis) by a charitable organisation in Ukraine “Prism UA” https://prismua.org/en/pro-radu/ . We vetted this organisation in accordance with compliance and vetting process recommended by Perpetual Guardian - New Zealand’s largest Trustee for Charitable Trusts.
What happens next?
A (pre)school our cause will take care of is being chosen. Currently, we consider destroyed windows replacement in a Chernihiv kindergarten #69 “Brook” ( https://dity.in.ua/sites/default/files/2019-04/%D0%94%D0%9D%D0%97%20%E2%84%96%2069_0.jpg ). We will:
• talk to the kindergarten management directly to confirm the requirements
• select and contract a supplier to deliver on the agreed target cost estimate
• monitor the project through to the completion via volunteers on the ground and municipal educational department
How is the Trust governed?
To establish a low cost model for charitable trusteeship it was determined that THE KŌWHAI-KIKORANGI (YELLOW-BLUE) TRUST would not appoint a professional trustee company, but rather appoint a suite of lay trustees that would provide official sponsors/promoters of the fund and all donors with re-assurance around the trust governance, a trustee of the trust should:
· Be a Ukrainian individual in good standing, and
· Avoid any perception of a conflict of interest, and
· Possess management experience within organisation(s) with 500 or more employees, or
· Hold a membership of The Institute of Directors in New Zealand, or New Zealand Law Society, or Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand.
The skilled trustees make it possible for the trust to show sponsors and donors that the money the trust raises are well managed and used with full accountability, including transparency of administrative expenses.
The capable trustees reduce costs by completing a lot of administrative work as volunteers.
The trustees are bound only by the framework set at the outset in the trust deed for how they can spend the money raised and must act in the best interests of the beneficiaries. A clear and defined purpose of the trust provides trustees have a clear scope to work with in their decision making around the allocation of funds and that any donors have comfort that the funds they are settling to the trust will be used for the purpose.
Can you have a tax credit (as an individual) or a tax deduction (as a company) for your donation?
No. The Inland Revenue (IRD) usually does not allow tax credits and tax deductions for donations (gifts of money) even to a registered charity, if 25% or more of the charity’s funds are applied overseas (Interpretation statement IS 18/05), which is our case.
How can New Zealand communities participate in fundraising?
The trustees may appoint duly authorised representatives of various communities as Special Trust Advisors (advisory trustees) and take their advice providing it goes along with the requirements of the trust deed under which they are appointed.
Within the boundaries of the trust purpose, the advisory trustees can manage fundraising causes like the trustees, i.e.:
• Each Special Trust Advisor is entitled to initiate a cause to get the trustees’ pre-approval of the project.
• Then the Special Trust Advisor promotes and co-ordinates fundraising for their project as they may see fit, including work/meetings to make donations happen.
• The trustees handle administration of multiple streams/projects within the trust.
The trust enables targeted fundraising for agreed projects of various groups/teams across New Zealand by offering them a reliable and accountable operational and transactional platform.
Please keep in touch and stand with Ukraine!
A Story of THE KŌWHAI-KIKORANGI (YELLOW-BLUE) TRUST
(Constitution of Ukraine (s. 20) goes: "State Flag of Ukraine is a banner of two equally sized horizontal bands of blue and yellow colour.")
1. On the 11th of March 2022, the Mayor of Hamilton agreed with the Friends of Ukraine Secretary’s suggestion to support a fundraiser initiative for Ukraine. She asked for a bridge structure - for example a trust - capable of distributing money in Ukraine in an accountable and compliant manner for the Hamilton City Council (HCC) to donate and to encourage local businesses and residents to donate too.
2. Until recently, resources of the Ukrainian communities in New Zealand fell short to deploy such a structure. Hence, Anastasiya Gutorova, one of the leading women in New Zealand’s legal profession on the 2021 Elite Women list and a proud Ukrainian, been asked by the Friends of Ukraine Secretary if she could set up a special purpose trust, took it a level further and suggested we consult with Perpetual Guardian (PG) - a reputable professional trustee company, the New Zealand’s largest and oldest statutory private client trustee company powering the whole Givealittle platform – who could potentially provide independent professional trusteeship, or advice in regards to structuring and governance.
3. Based on the Mayor’s reference during the meeting to the recent HCC’s $10,000 support of the Tongan community in January 2022*, there were grounds to expect a HCC donation of the comparable amount helping to meet costs to establish a trust and appoint PG as a professional independent trustee amongst other fees.
4. Therefore, the HCC preference for the fund to specifically help children determined the trust’s purpose and the Council’s consent to the name and purpose of the trust was sought and received by the end of March 2022.
5. In two weeks, on 5 April 2022 PG drafted the trust deed ready for signing and offered an optional letter of engagement indicating costs reflective of professional trusteeship, which were higher than expected. More regrettably, on the same day, on 5 April 2022, it was communicated to PG that Hamilton Council would no longer be making a donation to this cause.
6. On 8 April 2022, the Mayor of Hamilton assured the Friends of Ukraine Secretary in HCC’s full support of the fundraiser. They had already been promoting the fundraiser within its staff and externally, writing to the businesses, and were still planning to donate a $2,000 koha. Indeed, on 20 April 2022, the Mayor’s Office advised another update of the HCC position, informing that the Council intended donating $2,000**. However, this did not revert the situation as this leverage did not secure contributions sufficient to justify PG’s fees.
7. A way a trust vehicle could be justified in the new circumstances - with the HCC supporting the fundraiser as a promoter rather than a donor - was to use it as a shared instrument for targeted Ukraine focused fundraisings (agreed projects) by various groups/teams across New Zealand. Yet a new approach required a more generic trust name and purpose*** together with a more inclusive governance structure. On 2 May 2022, PG was asked for their thoughts about these objectively needed adjustments.
8. On 7 June 2022, PG responded with good news that they would see to the amendment of the Trust Deed to appoint lay Trustees instead of the professional Trustee, and they would waive the fee’s incurred to date in support of the cause. Yet, PG was happy to make trust deed changes for us at no charge.
9. Apart from a requirement to handle funds received via this Givealittle page, a trust was needed due to the following reasons:
• An opportunity had arisen to draw on the professional expertise and experience of Perpetual Guardian in establishing a special charitable trust vehicle to administer aid from New Zealand to Ukraine. This New Zealand’s largest and oldest statutory private client trustee company has offered to donate time of its staff to design a special purpose trust. The Ukrainian communities in New Zealand had always been missing such an established and duly managed tool, which became obvious after the Moscow invasion of Ukraine.
• Besides direct assistance to Ukraine, the trust can add value and be instrumental for the Ukrainian communities in New Zealand if it is:
· A sustainable platform to accumulate and channel aid from New Zealand to Ukraine.
· A transparent aid distributor demonstrating direct link between donations and various beneficiaries in Ukraine money was contributed for in course of different fundraise projects.
· A provider of reassurance around the trust governance for potential promoters and donors.
10. On 27 June 2022, upon consultations with the members of the advisory board of the trust that had not eventuated (designated in March 2022) and the Ukrainian communities across New Zealand, required trust deed amendments were communicated to PG.
11. On 26 August 2022, an amended trust deed draft was received from PG and final remarks communicated on 29 August 2022.
12. On 8 November 2022 following extensive internal PG consultation to perfect the governance structure, the finalised trust deed was received from PG following finalisation of the Trust Deed on 14 November 2022, when we applied for the Trust registration with the charities commission to utilise the document for the benefit of Ukraine and its people.
13. In December 2022, the trust bank account was opened with ANZ in the name of the trust. We still needed to wait for the charities commission registration to gain a 'tax charity' status to enjoy income tax exemption even for non-business revenue like donations via Givealittle.
14. On 22 February 2023, the trust registration with the charities commission - THE KŌWHAI-KIKORANGI (YELLOW-BLUE) TRUST was included into the official Charities Register. The charity’s registration number is CC60996 and its details are available at https://register.charities.govt.nz/Charity/CC60996
NOTES:
* In all fairness, the Tongan Community Trust was co-ordinating relief efforts on behalf of the city and funds were designated to help cover shipping and freight costs only for already donated goods leaving Hamilton and the wider Waikato region.
** While it is less than a one-off $10,000 grant Hamilton City Council provided to kick-start a Hamilton-centred relief effort for Tonga in January 2022, back then it was to assist a better organised cause with political decisions probably influenced by and wider support due to ethnical structure of New Zealand: Waikato only is home for twice more Tongans than there are Ukrainian in the whole NZ, with 165k Tongans in the country overall. The local business proved they could be generous.
*** From the very beginning, a wider, all-over-Ukraine context has been under consideration so that the trust’s purpose would have been applicable, if Chernihiv had ceased to exist.
