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: Supporting community initiatives that will work towards digital equity and a safer, more positive Internet to benefit all of Aotearoa.

Part of our work is connecting and supporting the digital inclusion community in Aotearoa so that more people can benefit from the Internet. But with more people online, there is a rising tide of harmful mis/disinformation and hateful material.

The best solutions are designed by and for the people. Communities know what works for them. 

This grant will empower communities working on issues of digital inclusion, mis/disinformation, online harms, online extremism, reporting mechanisms, counter speech, platforms, AI, transparency, and moderation.

Grant amount: The total funding available for this round is $230,000. Funding requests can be up to $10,000 (per initiative).

Priority will be given to: 

• Applications by tangata whenua (individuals or organisations that can identify their Māori whakapapa).

• Applications from groups who support and are led by Pasifika peoples, migrants and refugees, faith-based communities, the rainbow community and gender minorities, and people with disabilities.

Application process: 

• Applications open: 7 December 2022

• Applications closed: The grant will close when all funding is distributed or on 31 March 2023

The first step — Get in touch with 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 what you are planning so that we can arrange a time to speak. You can expect to hear from us within 2-3 working days. 

We will not be taking any queries about applications from 20 December 2022 - 9 January 2023. We wish you a restful holiday break, and we will be back on deck after that to support you.

The next step — After our kōrero:

You will need to complete a written application. We are here to help you as much as you need. If your idea doesn’t quite fit, we will do our best to save you some time with a quick response and any advice that might be useful. You can preview the application form.

Applications will be assessed in 4-6 weeks.

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:

• individuals and/or groups with no formal legal structure

• not-for-profit, charitable and voluntary 'community' organisations with a formal legal structure

• academic institutions 

• social enterprises (e.g., charitable trusts, cooperatives or unions, etc.)

What is excluded?

• We don’t fund website or app development. 

Assessment criteria 

This is a contestable grant fund. Applications are internally assessed in batches with approval by the Tumuherenga Waka  |  General Manager Public Impact. All decisions are final.

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

• 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

Purpose: Supporting diverse voices to contribute, influence and champion different perspectives on key Internet issues.

Our goal is to support people to contribute, influence, and get involved in key Internet issues. 

For example, this funding could be used to attend an event such as a conference, hui or forum. For instance, it could go towards: registration fees, travel costs, accommodation, childcare, accessibility needs, and/or translation.

Grant amount: we have a funding pool of $85,000. Funding requests can be up to $10,000 (per initiative). 

Priority will be given to:

• Applications by tangata whenua (individuals or organisations that can identify their Māori whakapapa)

Application process:

• Applications open:   10 October 2022
• Applications close:   The grant will close when all funding is distributed or on 31 March 2023

We welcome anyone to get in touch with us if your work aligns with the purpose of this grant. 

READ MORE about this funding in our blog.

The first step — Get in touch with 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 what you are planning so that we can arrange a time to speak. You can expect to hear from us within 2-3 working days. 

You can preview the application form. 

The next step — After our kōrero:

You will need to complete a written application. We are here to help you as much as you need. If your idea doesn’t quite fit, we will do our best to save you some time with a quick response and any advice that might be useful.

Applications will be assessed in 4-6 weeks.

Eligibility criteria (on-demand)

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

Who and what is excluded?

• For this grant, those who have received funding from us in the past will have a lower priority.
• We don’t fund website or app development. 

Assessment criteria (on-demand)

This is a contestable grant fund. Applications are internally assessed in batches with approval by the Tumuherenga Waka | General Manager Public Impact. 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...