Olive Tree Charitable Trust

Purpose and History of the Trust

The Olive Tree Charitable Trust was established in 1991 with aims to acquire land, build and administer the operations of a retirement village located at Dalwood Grove in Highbury. In 2008 the village and villas from the owner-residents were sold.

The sale of the village infrastructure and common facilities enabled the Trust to establish a diversified investment portfolio, the annual income from which enables the Trust to provide grants, donations, and funding to a wide range of organisations to help fund projects that benefit the residents within our local community and region.

Trustees meet bi-monthly to review trust finance and investment portfolios; evaluate funding applications and accountability reports, receive emails and other correspondence. Appointed trustees have a wide range of governance experience as past and present representatives from local government, religious, community, and service organisations. Income from trust investments is available each year for distribution as grants and donations that meet the charitable aims of the Trust.

Trust Aims

The Trust aims to promote, encourage, and support the relief of poverty, the advancement of education, religion, and for other charitable purposes, in accordance with the law of New Zealand, and beneficial to the Palmerston North and Manawatū communities.

Grants and Donations

The Olive Tree Charitable Trust, a small trust, has over the years distributed in excess of $1.5 million to help fund a wide variety of events, projects, individuals, groups and organisations. All funding requests are considered against the aims of the Trust and its funding criteria. Funding requests are evaluated on their merit, the need of those who benefit, and how well the applications aligns with the Trust's community-focused aims.

The amount available annually for donations is limited, with investment returns varying from year to year, the Trust is not always in a position to fund all funding requests, no matter how worthy, and these have to be prioritised against other requests.

Accountability Reports

These reports are a condition of receiving a non-taxable grant or donation from the Trust. Each recipient, you or your organisation, is required to submit a report to the Trust Secretary upon project completion, or annually, as part of financial accountability and transparency processes which apply to both recipients and the Trust, as donor and charitable organisation.

The required accountability report should relate to a specific project or event, as detailed in your grant application, or as subject to conditions specified by the Trust. It is simply a brief report or update on the project outcomes.

Contact Us

Phone contact preferably outside working hours

Downloads

OTT Accountability Report Guidelines (February 2025)

PDF - 401 KB

OTT Funding Guidelines (February 2025)

PDF - 474 KB

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