Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa (national fund)

Before you apply

The Kaupapa Māori pathway is a tick-box on the application form, and that's the point, not a shortcoming. Sport Canterbury's own page: "If you opt to apply through this pathway, simply indicate on the application form that your project aligns with kaupapa Māori." That one tick routes the application to "a panel led by Māori from our region," rather than the general assessment. (Read at sportcanterbury.org.nz/funding/tu-manawa-active-aotearoa — regional partners word their own pages differently, so check the one covering your rohe.) Sport NZ separately publishes Te Whetū Rehua, five values developed with Māori community sport and recreation providers, as a national resource for kaupapa Māori applications — worth reading before you write one, though not every regional partner's page states outright that its panel scores against it.

The requirement most applications fail on: you must show the tamariki and rangatahi actually want it. Not that you think they need it. Sport Canterbury spell out what counts — collated survey results, a photo of a whiteboard brainstorm, a video of young people talking about it. Do that before you write the application, not after.

Ages 5 to 18. Priority goes to those who are less active, including girls and young women, disabled tamariki and rangatahi, and communities with higher deprivation.

Funds delivery — venue or equipment hire, transport to the activity, and wages for delivery staff such as an activity leader or coordinator. Does not fund capital costs like facilities or playgrounds, existing staff salaries, administrative overheads, medals and trophies, or anything to do with professional athletes, academies or representative teams.

You must be a legal entity. A group without one can partner with an entity that is, and the regional trusts recommend exactly that rather than turning people away.

Nationally the fund distributed $64 million across 5,281 projects between July 2020 and June 2024, reaching close to two million participation opportunities. Fourteen Regional Sports Trusts deliver it and each sets its own rounds — apply to the one covering your rohe, not to Sport NZ.