Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa — Te Tai Tokerau

Before you apply

The Full Fund has no dollar limit, which is unusual and worth knowing before you scale an idea down. Both rounds follow the same criteria and guidelines, so the only real question is size.

There is a kaupapa Māori pathway and it is not a tick box. Sport NZ run it nationally and several regions assess those applications against Te Whetū Rehua, the five key Māori development criteria. If your kaupapa is Māori-led, apply through that pathway rather than the general one.

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.

Link note, 31 August 2026. The specific fund page has moved or been taken down and now lands on the trust’s homepage. Look for Tū Manawa in their funding section, or ring them. The fund itself is unchanged.