The Milford Foundation Strategy

Purpose – Investing in Aotearoa New Zealand communities by creating a sustainable future for generations to prosper.

Mission – We will work to strengthen the communities within Aotearoa New Zealand, through the lenses of youth, education and the environment by leveraging our investment expertise.

Core Values – Caring, Impactful, Partnerships, Innovative and Transformative

Strong and meaningful partnerships

We work alongside our charity partners to ensure quantifiable impact. Whilst providing support in the form of financial resources, we will also give of our time and provide ongoing stewardship.

A focus on transparency, efficiency and effectiveness

We use Milford's tried and trusted investment rigour and due diligence process in choosing appropriate charity partners to support.

Investment expertise

50% of every dollar donated will be granted and 50% of every donated dollar will be grown for future granting. Milford has a proven track record of using its investment expertise and active management approach to materially grow the capital of its clients. The same long term investment approach in managing the Milford Foundation's investments will be applied, maximising return on donations received ensuring the longevity of the Milford Foundation is maintained.

Best practice principles at every step

The outcome from holding ourselves to account and our ongoing engagement with our charity partners will be a successful Foundation that will undoubtedly make a meaningful ongoing social and environmental impact in New Zealand.

We will grow donations through Milford's investment expertise and charity partner oversight.

The Youth of Aotearoa

Image credited to the Graeme Dingle Foundation

You're never too young to change the world

Our rangatahi and mokopuna are the future leaders and guardians of Aotearoa. We will work with charitable partners who see the value in our youth, harnessing their energy, and providing them with the opportunities to play an integral role in the growth of our country now and in the future.

 

A deeper lens of focus

Alongside the work that we are doing with our current charity partners, we have a deeper lens on working to make a discernible impact in the first 1,000 days for the children of Aotearoa as well as Education Equity and Tertiary Education for Pasifica and Maori specifically. 

Milford-Foundation-A-deeper-lens-on-focus

The natural environment of Aotearoa

Nature defines who and what we are

The environment plays a vital role on life in Aotearoa. That’s why we are committed to working with like-minded charitable partners who work hard to safeguard our natural environment, particularly as it pertains to how we manage, minimise and mitigate the impacts of waste in our broader environment. 


The environment plays such a vital role in Aotearoa’s long-term prosperity and success.  

Manaaki whenua/Care for the land

New Zealand is one of the most beautiful countries on earth, however our native plants, animals, and ecosystems are under threat. There are changes to the vegetation on our land which is degrading the soil and water. Urban growth is reducing versatile land and native biodiversity and our waterways are becoming polluted. 

We need to take action now to reverse these growing issues and work to repair and protect Aotearoa. We believe that if we don’t look after our land, sea and rivers, the future we want for generations that follow will be severely impacted and the work we are doing now in relation to education and youth will not have the outcome impact we hope for, because of it.

Education in Aotearoa, New Zealand

Let the uniqueness of our child guide our work

Every New Zealander has the right to a good education so that the dreams and ambitions they set for themselves can be realised. We support those working to enhance education and provide knowledge for the youth of Aotearoa, New Zealand allowing them the freedom of choice for a prosperous future. In a highly targeted fashion, the Foundation will partner with charitable organisations specifically addressing the widening achievement gap currently found in the education system.

The main hope of a nation relies in the education of its youth

If Aotearoa is to continue to grow and develop a sustainable and viable way of life for our children, then investing in education needs to be a priority.

Everything we need to fix in New Zealand’s society starts there, with our children. To get the message through about living healthy, living sustainably, living in harmony with everyone around us, it all starts with our children.

Our why

The Milford Foundation, an internal award winning idea from our own William Curtayne, has been born out of a desire to make a significant positive impact for our communities and help build a stronger New Zealand. With the might of Milford behind us, and the team of willing and capable Milford employees ready to use their skills to make a difference, we will be one of the leading charities in New Zealand for transparency, efficiency, effectiveness and most importantly, social impact.

Grant and Grow

50% of all funds donated will be invested and grown for future granting utilising Milford Asset Management's proven active management and investment expertise approach to materially grow the capital of funds donated. This will enable us to over time, make a significant granting impact for our charity partners to deliver on our aligned objectives.

We work alongside our charity partners to ensure impact

In our funds management business we carefully research companies before making any initial investment. We subsequently work hard to continually monitor and assess those companies, ensuring we understand how they can maximise their potential. This same investment rigour and due diligence process in firstly funding and then providing ongoing supportive engagement with our charity partners will be applied here.

We grant with our heads and our hearts

We know that giving to charities is part of the Kiwi way, and often it is our emotion that drives us to donate and be part of a recipients journey. But as custodian of donations to pass onto those who need them, we are also committed to using our analytical expertise to achieve maximum social return for the donations we manage.

Our charity partners

We are proud to be supporting the following charity partners.

Milford Foundation Partner MoneyTime Logo

Thanks to our amazing supporters

About the Graeme Dingle Foundation

We inspire all school aged children to reach their full potential through programmes that help build self-esteem, promote good values and which teach valuable life, education and health skills.

About 0800 What's Up

0800 What’s Up is run by Barnardos New Zealand. We’re a free, nationally-available counselling helpline and webchat service for children and teenagers.

For the past 18 years our counsellors have been helping callers to find solutions to their problems, equipping them with the tools they need to deal with situations now and in the future.