Learning together

Northland’s Taitokerau Education Trust runs on a model its chair Jo Brosnahan CFInstD describes as “collaborative governance”.

The trustees work alongside, and with, local business experts, sponsors and the community to deliver digital learning opportunities to low-decile school students.

“This model has an awful lot going for it, particularly at a time like this where NFPs are stretched and a lot of them may not survive,” says Brosnahan.

“And NFPs are needed even more out there at times of challenge.”

The Taitokerau Education Trust model includes giving in kind from local businesses as well as funding. Meetings are held at the offices of ultrafast broadband provider Northpower Fibre (the board of which Brosnahan also chairs) and of parent company Northpower. The company provides administrative support. Local firm YHPJ Chartered Accountants provides financial expertise. And both the Northpower Fibre CEO and the director of YHPJ are designated “executive partners” of the trust who attend board meeting and provide advice. Sponsors include local businesses, private individuals and community trusts, together with Amokura Iwi Consortium, representing the iwi of Taitokerau. The schools involved are represented at the meetings by their principals.”

“The interesting thing about the model is they sort of wrap around the Trust. At the table we have a very diverse board. People who are at the grassroots working from the community who may not have governance experience. Having active help at the table, rather than simply sponsorship money, provides expertise and resources.”

But the collaboration model goes even further than that. The very goals of the Trust were established with input from local supporters and the community itself.

“We had the conversation right at the beginning which identified the real benefit is that fibre will enable a community, one that has real challenges in parts of it, to have improved educational outcomes. I know that Northland has struggled in many ways over many years – I used to chair the regional development council – but has so much going for it.

“Northpower Fibre held a community seminar that brought together people in from around New Zealand who had used the internet to create value in different ways. This included educational organisations, health providers and corporate users. It was clear that you can connect your health centres digitally, you can live locally in this beautiful environment but work nationally, you can educate children in a way that has been proven to make a huge difference. We had a lot of CEOs and chairs from business, local government and community organisations and they identified education as the main benefit.”

That meeting of minds at the beginning means that everybody feels they own the outcomes, she says. And everybody involved mucks in to help.

“Underpinning our collaborative model are long-term partnerships, aligned outcomes, agreement of what those outcomes should be and an understanding that what is good for the Trust is good for the community which in turn is good for its companies and everyone else. That has given us an ability to be quite fleet footed in terms of doing the mahi, doing the work.

“It ultimately means we don’t have to spend half our time raising money to pay for the basics. We can spend time on the doing. Digital learning programmes have been proven to improve the speed of learning in similar communities. We now have 1,200-1,400 kids involved across 10 schools.”

A model for today

“Our model shows a way corporates can embrace and support local NFPs, even when cash is tight,” Brosnahan says.

As COVID-19 and its economic impact continue to be felt, the amount of sponsorship money and donations available to community organisations is shrinking and the biggest issue – for organisations of all types – is cash flow.

“The biggest issue is cash. In the NFP environment the demand, particularly in the social/community space, the need is going up but the availability of cash is going down. We need to be clever about how we ‘do it together’ on a partnership basis - because this is good for our community. It’s a change from a transactional sponsorship basis to a transformational basis.”

The solution is for the other organisations in a community to “embrace their NFPs” and look after them.

“At a time of rising unemployment and poverty, communities really need their NFPs. Collaborative governance is a way to support them and ensure they have broader expertise around them to enable them to survive.”