Plugging the hole

Originally published in the Waikato Business News, Tuesday 3 November 2026.

By Janice Lapwood, General Manager Endowments, Momentum Waikato.

We keep asking charities to do more with less. As the cost-of-living bites, the need for support rises. Many organisations we rely on to hold our society together are watching their financial reserves dwindle, their people burn out, and volunteers and trustees harder to find.

Janice Lapwood

Yet they keep the doors open, run the programmes, care for the vulnerable and bring communities together.

Here’s the question – for generosity to fill the gaps, is enough being done to ensure all the money given reaches where it’s needed?

The people closest to the problem are also closest to the solution. Local for-purpose groups understand their communities in ways no national strategy or spreadsheet ever can. They know the pressure points, what makes a difference and where investment matters. There is little reason to think the demand will disappear anytime soon.

Local organisations should be trusted to decide how best to use their funding. Which brings us to philanthropic generosity and a hole in a bucket.

Previously I wrote about Budget 2026 changes to the donation tax credit that capped the rebate at $33,333 per annum. Community foundations including Momentum Waikato advocated against this blanket ruling.

Rather than lament this setback, let’s focus on an opportunity.

Parry Field Lawyers have analysed this tax credit change and describe the current system as a “leaky bucket”, as some money is seeping away and the full potential of donors’ generosity isn’t being realised.

When you donate to a registered charity you can claim one-third of your gift back as a tax credit, but most people don’t because it requires a follow up, so a potentially significant amount of donatable money doesn’t reach the intended recipients.

Budget 2026 also proposed that donors be able to direct their tax rebate back to the relevant charity when claiming the credit, instead of receiving it themselves. Plugging this hole in the bucket begins.

Parry Field says this should go further by instead allowing donors to direct their tax credit automatically back to the charity when making the original donation, without needing a follow up.

They are inviting people to add their names to their submission calling for this by early November, for consideration by the next Government.

Imagine those dollars not leaking from the bucket. Imagine more funding reaching the groups doing the work. And imagine community organisations having the confidence to plan beyond keeping the lights on.

This is the conversation we need to have.

A thriving community takes planning, people willing to give, organisations who collaborate, funders trusting those closest to the issues, and government systems that deliver every dollar to where it is needed.

The cost-of-living crisis has exposed holes in our buckets. Time to plug this tax credit leak.