A: The primary objectives of Trail Fund NZ are to benefit the community by:
- Support the development and maintenance of publicly accessible, environmentally sensitive and sustainable mountain-bike accessible trails in New Zealand.
- Promote sport and recreation, specifically mountain-biking and indirectly other forms of sport and recreation which use trails (e.g. walking and running).
- Support and promote public access to the outdoor and wilderness areas of New Zealand.
This will be achieved by focusing on delivering outcomes in three key areas:
- Funding to enable both new trails as well as maintaining or upgrading existing trails.
- Education to develop and promote best practice sustainable trail development.
- Marketing to promote trail building to riders, sponsors and the wider community.
More information on the objectives can be found here.
Q: Who is behind the Trail Fund NZ?
A: Trail Fund NZ was initially launched in late 2012 with a $5000 contribution from Mountain Bike New Zealand (MTBNZ). Since then we have developed sponsorship relationships with a range of organisations and riders all over the country have donated or purchased merchandise. Trail Fund NZ is an independent project run entirely by unpaid volunteer staff and in early 2013 became a registered charity in New Zealand.
The Trail Fund NZ constitution can be viewed here and you can read a little about the people involved here.
Q: My group is interested in applying for funding, what are the funding criteria?
A: The current funding criteria can be found here.
Q: Where does my money go? How does it get used?
A: Donations from individuals and sponsors are put into our General Fund. Projects from around the country can apply for funding from the General Fund up to 3 times per year.
Q: What about overheads? Where do they get funded from?
A: Trail Fund NZ has been setup with very low costs and overheads, however the costs of payment transaction fees, accounting overheads, web hosting etc. will be paid for out of corporate sponsorships whenever possible so that as much of your individual contribution will go to supporting and promoting trail building.
Q: Who decides which projects get approved and which don’t?
A: Trail Fund NZ has established an independent Advisory Board that reviews all funding applications and where necessary ranks them based on specific criteria. The Advisory Board reports its recommendations to the Trail Fund NZ Executive who are ultimately responsible for all financial decisions.
Q: My project is working on Public Conservation Land (PCL) managed by the Department of Conservation (DoC), can I apply for funding?
A: Yes, we have funding specific to projects working on PCL. Trail Fund NZ partnered with FMC and NZDA to form the Outdoor Recreation Consortium in 2015, which has since been rebranded the Backcountry Trust. More information, including how to apply for funding, can be found HERE .