Te whakahaere i tō rōpū mahi atawhai - Running your charity

This page outlines key information to help you run your charity successfully.

Running your charity successfully relies on having good governance procedures in place.

According to research carried out by Te Mata Hautu Taketake (the Māori and Indigenous Governance Centre), Māori governance has its own unique challenges given the multiple levels of accountability to whānau and hapori (community) members and structures that are often organised around whakapapa, tikanga and mana. Below are links to a number of different websites and organisations that can help with the governance of your charity.

• Te Puni Kōkiri governance resources(external link) - Provides a number of different reports and guides around governance, such as communicating with stakeholders, making decisions and chairing a board.
• Te Kooti Whenua Māori (The Māori Land Court) resources(external link) - Te Kooti Whenua Māori is a court where you can interact with other owners and interested people about the current and future use, ownership, occupation and/or management of Māori whenua (land). They offer guidance on how to make an application to the Te Kooti Whenua Māori as well as information on how you can use your Māori whenua.
• Appoint Better Boards(external link) - Appoint Better Boards has a Māori Governance Special Interest Group, sponsored by Te Whare Hukahuka,(external link) which empowers indigenous leaders to create better outcomes for their whānau. Individuals in this group are Māori with two or more years governance experience and a desire to share their knowledge. 
• Māori Women's Development Incorporated(external link) - This organisation provides developmental training programmes, development opportunities and upskilling to empower and enable Māori women and their whānau to achieve financial independence.
• Māori and Indigenous Governance Centre(external link) - Te Mata Hautu Taketake (the Māori and Indigenous Governance Centre) is a research centre within Te Piringa - Faculty of Law at the University of Waikato, with a vision to improve Māori indigenous governance generally. They offer a range of Māori governance training programmes as well as publishing research on indigenous governance.
• NZ Navigator(external link) - Developed for New Zealand organisations, NZ Navigator is a free online self-assessment tool. You can use it to assess your strengths and weaknesses and it links out to educational resources.
• CommunityNet Aotearoa(external link) - Has a wealth of governance resources and also publishes the Community Resource Kit.(external link) This excellent resource is a guide to setting up and running community groups in Aotearoa. It is for community, voluntary and iwi/Māori organisations. 
• Kaitakawaenga Māori (Inland Revenue)(external link) - Kaitakawaenga Māori offer a free advisory service to meet the needs of Māori individuals, organisations and businesses. The service is particularly useful for organisations where people in voluntary positions, such as treasurers, change frequently.
• Marae Kete(external link) holds helpful resources for running Marae, while still maintaining and upholding tikanga and manaakitanga. This online resource was developed after Tangata Whenua asked Western Bay of Plenty District Council to develop a toolkit to help the volunteers in the district. Designed by Māori – for Māori, Marae Kete has four sections: iwi (people), mahi whakahaere (operations), waahi (place) and rauemi (resources).

Te whakamahere rautaki - Strategic planning

Successful charities make time to do an annual strategic plan. There are a number of things you should consider when you sit down to do your strategic planning for the year ahead. It can help to lay out the following, in order to help guide your mahi and activities:

• Ngā moemoea (vision) - Where you want to be for your whānau, hapū, iwi at the end of this process?
• Kaupapa (mission) - What is your purpose?
• Ngā whāinga (objectives) - Specifics about what you will achieve and when.
• Ngā rautaki (strategies) - How you will achieve your goals?
• Ngā mahinga (actions) - What will be done, who will do it, when will they do it by, how much will it cost?
• Arotakenga (evaluation) - How will you know what you have achieved?

You can find some more information on setting strategy, including templates on Community Net Aotearoa(external link).

A guide from TPK on setting strategies is available here.(external link)