Background

In 2022, through participation in Creative HQ’s GovTech Accelerator, The Wellbeing Protocol (TWP) began investigating how Web 3 principles such as decentralisation, transparency, and community-led governance, could be applied to traditional grant funding and philanthropic systems. This exploratory work highlighted the limitations of existing grant processes for small, hyper-local groups: access was difficult, administrative burden was high; and community leadership was often sidelined. We concluded that a technology enabled, community-driven funding model that genuinely reflected the needs and strengths of the people using it could have a positive impact. 

Through connections made during the Accelerator, TWP partnered with Sport New Zealand, Nuku Ora (the Wellington regional sports trust) and a māori men\'s health group called Tāne Ora to co-design and pilot a new approach to grant funding. 

Who are Tāne Ora

Tāne Ora is a self-formed group of Māori men based in Waiwhetū, Aotearoa New Zealand, focused on improving physical and mental wellbeing in a way that reflects their cultural values. The group originally came together through whānau connections and a shared commitment to hauora (health). Members were already running fitness sessions, holding space for difficult conversations, and creating support networks grounded in tikanga Māori. Their approach was already working — the challenge was sustaining and resourcing it in a way that fit in with their kaupapa (initiative).

Our Approach

​​Through this multi party partnership, we worked with Tāne Ora to co-design a new participatory grantmaking model — one that brought the power of decision-making back in the hands of the group. We took a very exploratory and iterative approach which was loosely structured into three phases:

Discovery Phase

It was important that we designed an approach that supported and amplified Tāne Ora’s existing efforts and didn’t just impose a technology solution. So a key part of this co-design process was spending a lot of time understanding how they already worked. Across a few months we spent a number of workshops learning from each other about the challenges and opportunities. From this we developed the initial concept of a technology supported funding model that would allow the Tāne Ora members to collectively control their own fund.

Build phase

With this initial concept in place, and stakeholders aligned, we moved into the build phase. The focus was on creating a lightweight, easy-to-use system that enabled Tāne Ora to control how they accessed and allocated funding.

This involved creating:

A Simple App Interface: Designed to support transparent, collective decision-making. Members could propose ideas—such as purchasing boxing gear or gaining gym access—and vote on them directly within the app. This removed the need for formal grant applications and ensured the process remained grounded in the group\'s everyday realities. This video demonstrates how the software works.

A Community Fund Constitution: Because the group was fully in control of the fund it was important to clearly define how it would be governed. Tāne Ora collaboratively developed a living document that outlined their shared values, decision-making processes, and agreed priorities for funding. Integrated with hard coded rules in the software, the constitution formed the central governance tool, giving the group a clear mandate for how resources would be managed and decisions made. You can read their constitution here.

Members of Tāne Ora and other stakeholders at one of the co-design workshops.

Trial phase

With the model in place, the trial moved into implementation. Sport New Zealand provided funding, released into Tāne Ora\'s community-controlled fund in a high-trust, staged manner. Rather than a lump sum, funds were made available in tranches as the group demonstrated their ability to collectively govern in line with their constitution—managing risk for the funder while maintaining the communities autonomy. This allowed Tāne Ora to prioritise spending based on their values and show accountability through transparent processes, without the burden of traditional reporting. 

Outcomes

Through the trial, Tāne Ora accessed resources to strengthen their existing wellbeing activities — from buying new fitness equipment to supporting new group initiatives. Importantly, the group retained full control over what was funded and when, aligning spending with their evolving needs rather than external grant cycles. In general people found the core functions of the app like submitting ideas and voting easy to use and the wider stakeholders were happy with how things progressed. There is now some work underway to look to expand this work within both Sport NZ granting programmes as well as other central government departments. 

Some feedback we received from the Tāne Ora members: 

“The app has given us the opportunity to actually help ourselves and also help the community as well.”

“I think it\'s pretty cool because it\'s not a whole heap of paperwork or whoever comes up with an idea. They just put it in the app and then everyone in the group just gets to vote. We can sort of control what we can and can\'t get.”

The trial also demonstrated that a technology enabled participatory funding model could:

• Strengthen community connection and collective decision-making

• Reduce administrative burden

• Increase transparency over how decisions are made

• Lower the barriers to include more people in governance processes, including those who had not participated before.

• Help funding better match the real, day-day priorities of grassroots community groups

A huge thanks to our collaborators and supporters 

This project wouldn\'t have been possible without a whole lot of support from both individuals involved and their organisations. So a huge thanks to those who took the leap to faith help us get this trial of the ground, these include:

• Tāne Ora

• Sport New Zealand 

• Nuku Ora 

• Creative HQ 

• Westpac Government Innovation Fund

• Callaghan Innovation

• Te Rūnanganui o Te Āti Awa

Impact and Next Steps

The Tāne Ora trial was a critical step in the development of The Wellbeing Protocol\'s participatory grantmaking tool. Since this initial project, TWP has expanded the approach through trials with other communities across Aotearoa, Australia, and the UK. Each new context has provided valuable insights into how community-led funding can be adapted to different settings while staying true to local leadership and priorities.

Off the back of these learnings, we evolved our offering into a community-empowered micro-granting platform. Our upgraded system is designed to make funding hyper-local community initiatives more transparent, efficient, and equitable. It offers:

• Funders: A highly effective, transparent way to support grassroots initiatives at scale, with real-time visibility of community impact.

• Community Development Partners (e.g. charities, NGOs, social enterprises): Simple, easy-to-use tools and processes for deploying capital into communities.

• Communities: Practical ways to self-govern, distribute resources, and create grassroots change.

We\'re working towards a better way of distributing resources — one that puts decision-making power directly into the hands of the people best placed to drive positive impact.