Internet NZ – Canterbury Community Grants

At NetHui South last weekend our friends at InternetNZ announced a round of community grants for Canterbury – if you are in the region the details of how to apply are below.

Why we love community grants round: Canterbury edition

As part of our mission to work alongside the Internet community of New Zealand, we help fund projects that go towards making New Zealand’s Internet better.

Every year we invest $500,000 in community projects, research projects and conference attendance as well as our strategic partners. We do this because we are the stewards of the .nz domain for New Zealand. Part of this responsibility means we are in the position to provide funding to the community to benefit the 

New Zealand Internet.

While at NetHui South – taking part in Christchurch for the first time – we launched a funding round for projects based in the Canterbury region. We’re giving away $100,000 to support Internet projects that will benefit the people and the Internet of Canterbury. The money is the last part of the half million dollars that InternetNZ has contributed to the region following the major earthquakes in 2010 and 2011.

The Canterbury funding round is to help fund projects that will extend the availability, use and benefit of the Internet in and around Canterbury. Two such areas would be projects that support more widely available access to the Internet, and projects which deliver better use of the Internet.

We think that community funding is one of the best parts of being at InternetNZ. It lets us help others work towards our vision of a better world through a better Internet. And everyone wants to help create a better world.

When we get to work alongside some of the best and brightest in New Zealand’s Internet community it gives us a thrill. Combined with the fact that Canterbury is an important region where people are thinking hard about how to build the sort of city and region, and the sorts of businesses and other organisations, that suit the 21st century and you have a perfect storm of helpfulness and a happy little satisfaction at doing a good thing.

We are aware that there is still much to be done in the rebuild, but the major focus of this round is towards projects that look beyond the rebuild and help answer this simple question: ‘what will the Internet’s contribution be to Canterbury’s for the next 15 years?’

By contributing this money to the work of others we’re helping them to grow Internet capability in Canterbury. We’ve previously provided money to groups who have set out to map the Internet in New Zealand and provide free wireless to some of New Zealand’s poorer communities.

The Internet is such a dominant part of our society now that any work we can do to help grow Canterbury’s capabilities will definitely contribute to the region’s economic and social progress. This has obvious flow-on effects to the rest of the country. Christchurch is New Zealand’s second largest city. For a successful and prosperous New Zealand it’s important that we do all we can to help Christchurch thrive.

The first stage of getting access to these funds is filling out an Expressions of Interest form.

These close on 5 January 2015, and details and application forms are at https://internetnz.net.nz/content/Canterbury-Funding-Round.

Get cracking! Let us help you make a difference.