Grants

InternetNZ | Ipurangi Aotearoa community grants provide contestable funding to support community-led initiatives that extend the availability, use, and benefit of the Internet in Aotearoa.

You can sign up to receive notifications of when our grant funding applications are open.  

Purpose: To support affected communities around Aotearoa as they grapple with the rising incidence of online extremism, racism, transphobia, and hate-motivated abuse online (‘dangerous speech’). 

We welcome anyone to get in touch with us if your work aligns with the purpose of this grant.  Read more about this in our recent blog.

Grant amount: We have a funding pool of $100,000. Can be up to $10,000 (per initiative). 

Priority will be given to:

• funding initiatives from groups that support and are led by tāngata whenua, Pasifika peoples, migrants and refugees, faith-based communities, the rainbow community and gender minorities, and people with disabilities.

Application process (on-demand)

• Applications open: Friday 6 August 2021
• Applications closed: As of 08 February 2022 all funding has been earmarked 

The first step – contact us for a kōrero

Our team is happy to chat and offer support. You can start by emailing us at funding@internetnz.net.nz with a brief introduction about yourself and your work so that we can arrange a time to speak. You can expect to hear from us within 2-3 working days. 

The next step - following our kōrero

After our kōrero, we may provide our online application form. We can work beside you to offer support and advice on the best way to present your initiative. 

Applications can be submitted at any time until all our available funding is distributed. Applications will be assessed in batches at the end of each month to enable prioritisation. 

Eligibility criteria (on-demand)

• not-for-profit, charitable and voluntary 'community' organisations with a formal legal structure
• academic institutions 
• individuals and/or groups with no formal legal structure
• social enterprises (e.g. charitable trusts, cooperatives or unions, etc.)

While we do have listed commercial entities as organisations we fund, we are always open to collaborative opportunities that support our grant purpose. Talk to us if that is the case.

Who and what is excluded?

We don’t usually fund website or app development. 

For research projects, we do not usually fund PhD research. We have funded overheads in the past, but depending on applications received, these may not be funded in the future.

Assessment criteria (on-demand)

This is a contestable grant fund. Applications are internally assessed in batches with approval by the Chief Executive. All decisions are final.

Assessment is based on:

• Alignment with purpose
• Potential benefit
• Likelihood of success

Purpose: Support digital inclusion initiatives to further shift the needle towards digital equity in Aotearoa.

InternetNZ is working to increase the evaluation capabilities within the Aotearoa digital inclusion community.

Grant amount: The total funding available for this round is $250,000.

Priority will be given to: 

• organisations with strong evaluation planning, or wishing to increase their evaluation capability and capacity,
• organisations which are kaupapa Māori.

Applications are now closed. If you have submitted an application you will receive an automatic email confirmation. If you haven’t received a confirmation, please check your spam folder. Applicants will hear from us by mid-February on the next steps. 

Application process 

• Applications opened: Wednesday 10 November 2021 
• Applications closed: Friday 14 January 2022 (midday)

This is a two-stage contestable grant round. Applicants will be required to provide at least a draft evaluation plan in their stage 2 application - check out our evaluation toolkit for guidance.

We recommend you get in touch with us before you apply so we can provide advice and support. You can start by emailing us at funding@internetnz.net.nz with a brief introduction about yourself and your mahi so that we can arrange a time to speak. Our shut down period for the summer holiday break is 20 December - 10 January, so if you can, get in touch before then.

Click here to start your digital inclusion grant application.

Applicants can expect to learn the outcome of their submission at the beginning of April 2022. Applications are assessed by an external Funding Panel, then approved by our Chief Executive. All outcomes are final.

Eligibility criteria

To be eligible you must be able to demonstrate a link to our grant round purpose and we fund any of the following:

• not-for-profit, charitable and voluntary 'community' organisations with a formal legal structure
• academic institutions 
• individuals and/or groups with no formal legal structure
• social enterprises (e.g. Charitable trusts, cooperatives or unions, etc.)

While we do have listed commercial entities as organisations we fund, we are always open to collaborative opportunities that support our grant purpose. Talk to us if that is the case.

Assessment criteria

Our larger grant rounds are assessed by our Funding Panel, based on the following extended criteria:

Alignment with purpose

Applicant has:

• identified how the initiative matches the InternetNZ purpose for this grant round
• outlined engagement within the community relevant to this initiative
• identified how the initiative can help address community goals and objectives

Potential benefit

Applicant has:

• indicated the expected outcomes and intended change to the community
• identified how and to what extent the initiative is addressing community/research needs
• identified the initiative’s ongoing commitments and viability if any
• identified the initiative’s relationship to any other related initiatives in New Zealand or internationally

Likelihood of success

Applicant has:

• shown clearly how the initiative will be implemented
• shown strong evaluation capabilities and planning; or the capacity and willingness to evaluation capabilities 
• outlined their approach and management of any ethical considerations
• provided evidence of commitment and support - ie. of involved or affected groups/communities, co-funding, in-kind support
• described the experience of the people applying, i.e. a successful track record of implementing the initiative of this kind
• stated what qualifications they have that are relevant to the requirements of the initiative

Over the last 2-3 years our focus has been to support digital inclusion efforts, though historically our grants have been split by project type, including community projects, internet research, on-demand grants and conference attendance awards. 

Due to pandemic risks and restrictions, we are less likely to support conference attendance applications.

Grantee reports from our previous funding rounds can be found in our document library.

Here are some stories of recent grantees...