Club Grant Funding Guide
Which New Zealand funds pay for club equipment, which ones will not touch it, and what to have ready before you apply.
Updated 12 August 2026
Most clubs buy gear out of subs and hope for a good year. There is a much larger pool sitting next to that, and the rules deciding who gets it are scattered across a dozen funder websites and never written down in one place.
A note on where this comes from. We supply quotes into these applications, so the quote section is the part we deal with first-hand. The rest is research, and every funder’s own page is the authority. Check yours before you rely on anything here.
Gaming trusts are the biggest single source
Class 4 gaming societies, meaning the pokie machines in pubs and taverns, are the largest source of community sport funding in the country. The Gambling Act requires them to return at least 40 percent of net proceeds to the community as grants, so the money is going out whether or not you apply for it.
Grants typically land between $1,000 and $20,000. That is the range that buys a club a set of control boxes, a class set of SIACs, or a uniform order.
Ones that fund sport across New Zealand:
- NZCT, which funds most things needed to play a sport, including equipment, playing uniforms, first aid kits, and coaching
- Pub Charity
- The Lion Foundation
- Four Winds Foundation
- Grassroots Trust
- Infinity Foundation
Four rules that decide it before anyone reads your case
Check where that society’s venues are. This one is widely misunderstood, including by us until recently. There is no law requiring a society to grant locally, and the DIA says so explicitly. But societies set their own internal policies, and many restrict grants to the regions their venues sit in. So the question is never “do they fund nationally”, it is “what does this society’s policy say”. Get it wrong and a good application is dead on arrival.
No retrospective grants. Funders do not reimburse money already spent. If you buy the gear and then apply, you have lost. Apply, wait for the decision, then buy.
Two quotes, from unrelated suppliers. This is the norm. NZCT asks for competing quotes so it can judge whether the price is reasonable. If there is a genuine reason you can only get one, say so in the covering letter rather than leaving the gap unexplained.
Nobody connected to the venue can be involved in your application. The DIA prohibits key persons at a class 4 venue taking part in the grant application process, and prohibits attaching conditions to a grant.
What the quote needs to look like
This is the part we handle directly, so treat it as ours.
NZCT’s requirements are the tightest we deal with, so we write every quote to them by default:
- the supplier’s GST number, or IRD number if the supplier is not GST registered
- the date it was issued, generally needing to be under three months old when you submit
- a description of the goods and the quantities
- totals both excluding and including GST
You do not need to ask for that format. Request a quote and it arrives that way, because a quote that gets bounced on a technicality wastes your funding round, not ours.
Regional community trusts are a separate pool
Different money, different rules, and worth knowing about because clubs routinely miss it. These trusts are regional, so exactly one of them applies to you:
- Foundation North for Auckland and Northland
- Rātā Foundation for Canterbury and the top of the South
- Trust Waikato
- Otago Community Trust
- BayTrust and TECT for Bay of Plenty
Your Regional Sports Trust is also worth a phone call before you apply anywhere. They track which local funds are open, and that advice is free.
Where we stop
We will help with the equipment side for nothing. We will not be your second quote, we will not sign or submit anything on your behalf, and we will not take a percentage of a grant.
That last one is not modesty. The DIA’s arm’s-length rules bind the gaming society and the recipient. A supplier helping with paperwork is fine. A supplier with a financial stake in whether you win becomes your problem, not ours.
Before you apply
- Confirm the society funds your region, from its own policy page
- Confirm nothing has been bought yet
- Get two quotes from unrelated suppliers
- Check your incorporated society or charity details are current
- Check the quote is under three months old on the day you submit
Need the quote, or a second look at a gear list before it goes to a committee? Ask. It costs nothing and we would rather the application worked.
Need the quote this guide keeps mentioning
Build a list from the catalogue and send it. What comes back is dated, itemised, has GST split out, and carries our GST number, which is what the strictest funders ask for.