Snapshot of our community funding 2021-2022
Our support for the Internet in NZ
InternetNZ | Ipurangi Aotearoa funding and sponsorship comes from .nz domain name sales. We want to support the growth of the Internet community in Aotearoa. How do we do this? We distribute funds through partner organisations, run contestable grant rounds, collaborate with other funders, and sponsor community initiatives.
Latest funding in review
From 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022
$65,000
in sponsorships
$519,500
supported through partners
$401,130
granted to 21 community initiatives
$100,000
in collaborative funding
Investing in partners
Partnering with organisations gives us the chance to support others whose vision and kaupapa aligns with our own.
Our current partners include:
- Figure.NZ: Launched websites that bring together data about Māori, Pasifika, and people with disabilities - Pātaka Raraunga, the Pacific Data Fale o Aotearoa and Aotearoa Disability Figures.
- New Zealand Work Research Institute: Launched the latest iteration of World Internet Project report.
- Tohatoha: Commenced their programme “A Bit Sus”, to train librarians to support youth and schools in countering misinformation and preventing its spread.
- TUANZ: Supporting the Rural Symposium and other events for tech users across Aotearoa.
- 20/20 Trust: Supporting digital skill programmes and evaluation, for digitally excluded communities.
- Digital Futures Aotearoa: Supporting digital device provision and the Code Club network.
- Waka Ama: Supporting digital programme development, with work still underway.
We’ve also supported the establishment of Digital Equity Coalition Aotearoa (DECA), which connects and supports the digital inclusion community in Aotearoa. This year DECA has steadily grown through a constellation model and held a number of hui, bringing people together to spark connections, collaboration, and innovate.
Grants
Since 2019 we have contributed over $2,200,000 towards digital inclusion initiatives, and our main grant round continued this focus by investing in growing the evaluation capability of organisations that are working in digital inclusion. To achieve digital equity, we need to ensure those supporting digitally excluded people and communities have the ability to effectively measure impact.
This year we launched our digital inclusion evaluation toolkit. With the help of Standard of Proof and 13 different organisations from across our grant and partnership community, we have been testing and refining this toolkit since 2019.
We have come a long way, check out our journey:
- Supporting community groups to learn how to better evaluate their work (published Jul 2021)
- SeniorNet - SeniorHangouts and evaluation (published in Sep 2021)
- Evaluation launch blog - A new toolkit for digital inclusion initiatives (published Nov 2021)
- Evaluation toolkit (published Nov 2021)
- InternetNZ grant changes (published Apr 2022)
We had the pleasure of working with groups who help specific demographics - including people with disabilities, seniors, youth, and Pasifika:
- Tamariki and new New Zealanders
- Accessibility of the top 1,000 NZ home pages
- Fostering belonging and inclusion online
- Mosen At large is more inclusive with transcripts, thanks to a grant from InternetNZ
- Research – the University of Auckland and digital inclusion
- DIGIFALE – an intergenerational approach to improving digital inclusion
- Digital inclusion support for seniors
- Research - safeguarding children’s data privacy and connecting communities through technology
- Community funding for digital inclusion in Christchurch
We have been thinking about what developing an Internet that benefits people looks like and ways to improve the Internet for us all. We provided almost $100,000 to support affected communities and associated organisations around Aotearoa New Zealand as they grapple with the rising incidence of online extremism, racism, transphobia, and hate motivated abuse online (‘dangerous speech’).
Sponsorship
This year we distributed $65,000 in sponsorship funding to support communities and help showcase the work we do to keep .nz humming.
We sponsored:
- Living by the Stars, Kokorangi Māori Limited: Supporting Professor Rangi Mātāmua with an online web series on Matariki
- Mahi Aroha Awards, Volunteer Wellington: Principal sponsor alongside the Domain Name Commission for these annual volunteering awards in Wellington
- Belonging and Inclusion Hui, Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono (through Sharma): delving into ideas of belonging and inclusion in Aotearoa, through an ongoing series of hui around the motu, particularly among marginalised communities
- Ka Hao i te Ao, Te Whare Hukahuka: Supporting Māori and other indigenous people with e-commerce skills
- NZNOG: Supporting the annual NZ Network Operators Conference.
Contact us
If you have any pātai about InternetNZ funding, email us at funding@internetnz.net.nz