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Hoa Pūtea Moni: Timaru Muslim Educational Trust

During the 2020 nationwide lockdown the Timaru Muslim Educational Trust was inundated with requests for help from their community.

Hoa Pūtea Moni | Grant Writing Support is a support programme for small charities and community organisations that need help to write grant applications. Hui E! pairs them with skilled volunteers who set them up for success in fundraising. Find out more on the Hoa Pūtea Moni | Grant Writing Support page.

Hui E! matched Elizabeth Young with a number of community groups, including the Timaru Muslim Educational Trust, within a week of applications opening.

Elizabeth had already applied for the grant for her own organisation, KiwiClass, in Wellington and wanted to help other groups.

“Grant writing is a necessary skill in the community sector but it’s a skill that can be hard for a community group to access at times. I started by speaking to each of them about what they were wanting to do with the funding and helped them develop a budget.

“Many groups don’t have a targeted need. You ask them what they need money for and they say ‘everything!’. Hui E!’s resources helped us define how they would spend the funding.

“As an experienced grant writer I knew what sort of language needed to be used for the application to succeed. I was identifying funding needs for culturally diverse communities, from migrant support groups in the South Island and marae in the Far North. It was important each group was represented well, that the application was written with them not about them.

“Thanks to the grant, they [the Timaru Muslim Educational Trust] received $5000 and were able to supply food parcels and vouchers for large numbers of the Muslim community who were without income and others who had been financially affected. I hope the work I did will help them apply for grants themselves in the future.”