The Ministry for the Environment’s (MfE) Community Investments Team, Whakamanahia te Hapori, administers over $400 million in Jobs for Nature funding programmes. This Jobs for Nature programme, administered over five years in response to challenges posed by the Covid pandemic, focused on critical projects like riparian planting, wetland restoration, and freshwater farm plans.

Recognising the inherent social and environmental value that recipient organisations and projects provide, and anticipating a substantial drop-off in funding in 2025, MfE proactively engaged Ākina to support project recipients to strengthen their financial sustainability.

Challenges and Opportunities

The high levels of government funding through Jobs for Nature are unsustainable and prompted MfE to seek a strategic partner in Ākina, which was appointed to develop financial sustainability plans for pilot organisations and address the challenges faced with innovative solutions.

Forging a Multifaceted Approach

Together with MfE, a multifaceted approach was taken:

Development and application of a Financial Sustainability Assessment Framework
A financial sustainability framework was crafted which enabled MfE to identify which partnering organisations were best-placed to participate in an investment-readiness pilot.
Effective Workshop Facilitation
Ākina excelled in facilitating workshops, drawing out solutions from organisations, ensuring a nuanced approach to their unique challenges and barriers. The workshops were designed to explore and prioritise generation opportunities, to set up the participants to be less reliant on grant funding in the future.
Developing financial sustainability plans
Ākina co-developed plans with partnering organisations and used Ākina’s network to identify business consultants to further support these recipients in actioning the plan over a 12-month period.

Navigating Distinct Journeys

The implementation process saw pilot organisations such as Para Kore and Environment Hubs Aotearoa (EHA), embarking on distinct journeys. Para Kore addressed operational issues identified during the implementation process and enhanced its project management systems. For EHA, Ākina facilitated strategic sessions for Board members and staff that aligned to a rebrand and the development of a pitch deck for future investors.

Shifting from Operations to Strategic Planning

After 12-months of implementation, the pilot organisations reported the value of the project in enabling them to shift their focus from day-to-day operations to progressing intentional and strategic planning. Across participants, the collective rating for the programme was an impressive 8.6 (rated on a scale of 1 to 10). Tangible outcomes will eventuate in coming years; however, this initial feedback has underscored the positive impact of the collaborative, multifaceted approach.

Time and Cultural Sensitivity

The collaboration brought forth key lessons:

Time for Financial Resiliency: Financial resiliency work takes time, both for pilot projects to find suitable contractors and for embedding the work into operations.
Balancing Cultural Needs: With the short timeframe of the programme some compromise was needed in terms of engagement. For example, kanohi ki te kanohi (face-to-face) meetings were not always able to be facilitated due to time and resource constraints, which was not optimal especially for some Māori organisations. With strong existing relationships, clear communication and understanding of expectations emerged as key for successful collaboration.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this collaboration has helped MfE build an understanding of funding recipients’ needs which will assist them in developing a Jobs for Nature transition plan. Ākina’s support has enabled MfE to develop more strategic and purposeful thinking amongst high-impact providers of critical environmental services in Aotearoa.

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