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Ākina Foundation

The Ākina Foundation permanently closed its doors at the end of April 2025. Ākina is a Māori word used as a call for bold action.

Permanently closed.

It also conveys a spirit of watchful and active encouragement, helping others to identify pathways through their challenges. We help businesses, government agencies, social and community enterprises uncover the best ways to tackle challenges like poverty, inequality, environmental degradation and climate change. We offer a unique range of tailored consulting and business development services designed to help you make change for the better.

08/05/2025

📰 I am feeling proud and reflective, as we share a final summary of the new Homes of Impact. The ripples of our impact have spread far and wide; our relationships across the eco-system are deep and have been enduring. As I pulled this summary together I was struck by the depth of our expertise and the breadth of our mahi. Changing the system takes a lot, and proof of our success is the partnerships we share with like-minded organisations, many of whom did not exist 17 years ago.

🛶 With thanks to the wonderful partners who have joined the Ākina waka and will pick up the wero for impact - keeping the legacy alive. We are very grateful and stand alongside you as this new chapter begins for Aotearoa.

☎️ Please do reach out to any of these organisations for more information about how they can support your impact journey.

💙 💛 Be kind, be brave, have fun
Nicola xox

14/04/2025

Last month we made the announcement that The Ākina Foundation will close its doors and cease trading on 30 April 2025.

Today we release our final Impact Report.

Over the years, our Impact Report has served as a testament to the collective effort towards positive change. It has underscored our commitment to transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement to create a sustainable, prosperous and inclusive world.

This Impact Report was developed prior to the decision to close. We are releasing it in full, as a time capsule capturing the successes of the past year.

We hope that this final Impact Report will act as a lightning rod for future impact practitioners to undertake the wero of creating a more impactful Aotearoa.

Read the full report here: https://www.akina.org.nz/impact-stories/2024-impact-report

Thank you to our clients who have been a part of the case studies for this report Te Rūnanga o NgāiTakoto, Downer, Xero, IndigiShare, Chapter Zero New Zealand, Good Grub.

Tēnā rawa atu koutou to our programme partners BayTrust, Capability Builders NZ, Chapter Zero New Zealand, Foundation North, Impact Investing Network, Manukau Urban Māori Authority, Russell McVeagh and The Tindall Foundation.

Last but not least, the successes of Ākina were ultimately the successes of all the kaimahi - both past and present. Mei kore ake koe, e pai ai tēnei ao. E rere ana ngā mihi! 💙

25/03/2025

💙 Turning the Lights Off, But Not the Impact: A Love Letter to Ākina.

⛰️ Whāia te iti kahurangi, ki te tuohu koe, me he maunga teitei.
Seek the treasure that you value most dearly, if you bow your head, let it be to a lofty mountain.

It is with great sadness that the Trustees of Ākina, and our Chief Executive Officer advise that The Ākina Foundation will cease trading on 30 April 2025. This is a bittersweet moment, however we feel much pride in the achievements of our mighty social enterprise.

Founded in 2008 as a charitable foundation, Ākina has spearheaded innovation across the economy of Aotearoa. Our first chapter was focused on incubating environmental innovation, our second as a champion for the Social Enterprise movement, and our final chapter has focused on mainstreaming Impact Investment, Impact Management, Impact Reporting and Social Procurement across the New Zealand economy. Our vision for a sustainable, prosperous and inclusive Aotearoa has never wavered.

The current economic and political environment has been extremely challenging for Ākina, and we know it has been for our wider ecosystem too. We do not believe things will improve quickly, and continuing to trade would not be responsible, nor ethical. Therefore we have elected to close our doors.

At Ākina we have always held strongly to our core value of manaakitanga, particularly for our people. We make this difficult decision with a focus to maintain the mana and dignity of our people - present and past - including all who have contributed so much to Ākina’s legacy of impact.

The amount of support Ākina has received over the last 17 years is immense. To all our partners and supporters - thank you, we are deeply grateful.

❤️‍🩹 At this time we are focused on supporting our people, delivering our final mahi to our valued clients, and honouring The Ākina Foundation's long journey of impact for Aotearoa.

🖇️ Read the full announcement, where we reflect on the last 17 years here: https://www.akina.org.nz/news/a-love-letter-to-akina

13/03/2025

⭐ Ākina Impact Buyer Masterclass: Bridging Social Values and Procurement
📆 Thursday, 20 March 2025
⏰ 10:00 – 11:00 am, Online

🎧 We've started the year with some great conversations at our community of Practice events, and are looking forward to our first Masterclass of 2025, on bridging social values and procurement.

📓 Ākina Senior Impact Consultant, Nick Douglas, will join Senior Social Procurement Consultant, Dave Vige, for this Masterclass designed to help procurement professionals and decision-makers integrate social value principles into their procurement processes.

🤔 Whether you're new to the concept or looking to use these principles in the future, this session will provide practical tools and strategies for achieving social outcomes while meeting procurement objectives. This would be a good session to invite people from outside the *organisation's procurement team to attend.

📩 Ākina Impact Buyers have been sent the invitation to RSVP to via email. Will we see you there?

*Impact Buyer Masterclasses are available exclusively for Ākina Impact Buyer Members.

12/03/2025

Impact Consulting Case Study: AGMARDT (The Agricultural and Marketing Research and Development Trust).

In 2021, AGMARDT engaged Ākina to assist in the design of an Impact Strategy.

AGMARDT is working to accelerate positive change and ignite a better future for food and fibres in Aotearoa New Zealand. They strategically invest in initiatives to encourage innovative thinking and collaboration, all whilst developing emerging leaders in Aotearoa New Zealand’s primary sector.

🌟 What did we do together?
✨ Together, we developed an impact model that explains what change AGMARDT creates, who they create change for, and how.
✨ We provided practical guidance to help them measure their impact and devised tactics to increase it!
✨ AGMARDT now has an Impact Strategy they can use to articulate, track and grow their impact over time. We backed this up with practical tools AGMARDT can use to choose where to invest their funding.

📩 If you’re struggling to measure and manage the positive impact your organisation creates and want to be more confident that your organisation’s investment decisions are generating positive impact, get in touch with Ākina by emailing [email protected]

11/03/2025

📢 Get access to free resources and tools to grow your impact! 📏

🧰 If you are starting out with an idea, Ākina has a bunch of FREE tools and resources that will help you along your way. These tools were developed part of the Impact Initiative - a partnership between the Department of Internal Affairs (NZ) and the Ākina Foundation with support from the Community Enterprise Network Trust (CENT) between April 2018 and March 2021.

💼 Ākina developed these to help entrepreneurs and founders develop to progress their ideas in an financially accessible way. As the tools are still relevant in 2025, we want to re-introduce you to some of them!

💡 First up: A beginners guide to social enterprise and impact-led business in Aotearoa.

Social enterprise ideas are born from and typically respond to a combination of:
⏺️ market failures
⏺️ community-identified goals and
⏺️ urgent social and environmental needs.

This means that the impact of social enterprises is often closely aligned with Government’s priorities.

📩 Embedding Impact can be done at all types of organisations. Get in touch if you would like to prove and improve the impact your organisation creates

🔗 Find the tools here: https://www.akina.org.nz/tools-and-resources

06/03/2025

📢 Ākina is hiring!
⭐ Senior Social Procurement Consultant
📍 Based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington or Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland
⏲️ 0.5 FTE

Ākina is seeking a Senior Social Procurement Consultant to join our team on a 0.5 FTE basis. This role will be in charge of developing and delivering high quality social procurement services, for clients in the public and private sectors. The role will lead Ākina’s social procurement programme to scale and generate revenue through business development and the delivery of support, advice and services to Ākina’s social procurement buyers and suppliers.

We are a small, highly engaged, motivated team, connected by and driven towards our purpose. We work in a highly supportive and flexible way, across projects and clients. The team operates with a high degree of autonomy across Auckland and Wellington, travelling as required.

Find the full job listing is on
Do Good Jobs https://jobs.dogoodjobs.co.nz/job/17462/senior-social-procurement-consultant/
or
SEEK https://www.seek.co.nz/job/82559397?ref=search-standalone&type=standard&origin=showNewTab =4f2e0880d987ebed82cc624406f02bc5eeddf06b

📅 Applications close as soon as the right candidate applies, but not later than 24th March 2025.

🫶 Ākina is committed to upholding our values on diversity, equity, and inclusion in our recruitment and workplace culture. We strive to make our roles and workplace accessible, culturally appropriate, and respectful of diverse needs and identities.

🌞 Help us spread the word and share with your networks.

02/03/2025

📩 You've got mail! The latest Ākina newsletter has landed in inboxes, featuring..

💥 Hutt City Council
💥 PEERS, The Joyful Movement, Radiqal Movement
💥 Impact Investing Network and The Selwyn Foundation
💥 Chapter Zero New Zealand
💥 Tapuwae Roa
💥 Mindful Money
💥 Parry Field Lawyers
💥 All Good Ventures
💥 SEWF - Social Enterprise World Forum C.I.C.
💥 WorldCC Foundation
💥 Para Kore
💥 Hot Lime Labs

🖇️ Check out the latest edition, and subscribe here: https://us4.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=25c1e2c0c3195ab9662226d86&id=134636490c (link in bio)

27/02/2025

✨Are you a social enterprise or impact-led business? Struggling to explain how you create positive impact? Looking to amplify that impact?

🌱Ākina can help you take action, plan your next steps, or connect with others who can support your journey.

🤝 Thanks to BayTrust, Ākina is working with social enterprises and community initiatives to tackle key challenges in Te Moana-a-Toi.

🗣Help us spread the word to pakihi in the Bay of Plenty!

https://www.akina.org.nz/capability-support

24/02/2025

Meet Te Pūoho Katene 👋. Te Pūoho has been on the Ākina Board since 2018, and Board Chair since November 2023.

🌱 Te Pūoho (Ngāti Toa, Ngāti Whātua, Ngāti Tama) is steadfast in his pursuit of holistic prosperity for Māori. A Stanford graduate, Fulbright Scholar, and Obama Foundation Leader, he weaves together global best practice within an indigenous, values-based lens.

🗣 "Purpose is what has driven my life and career. I have always positioned myself to enhance the collective prosperity of our communities, and in doing so bring a diverse background including government, corporate finance, impact investment and community-led programmes. Whether on the board for my Iwi, or as an executive delivering impactful programmes, purpose is always at the forefront of my mind." - Te Pūoho Katene.

🤝 Te Pūoho always impresses the team with how many pōtae he wears outside his role of Ākina Board Chair. We are so grateful for his time and his mātauranga and need to mihi to his whānau for supporting him to juggle all of his responsibilities.

✨Some of the pōtae Te Pūoho wears includes:

🎩 Kaihautū (Chief Executive Officer) at Tapuwae Roa, a leading Māori social impact organisation that funds, invests, delivers, and advocates for targeted social change in leadership development, education and training, and STEMM for all Māori across Aotearoa.
🎩 Trustee of his iwi, Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira.
🎩 Independent director with Armillary Private Capital, a boutique investment bank
🎩 On the Investment Committee for Te Pae ki te Rangi, a $75 million Impact Fund.

💪 This week Te Pūoho is performing at his SIXTH Te Matatini Society Incorporated with his kapa, Waihīrere! Ākina will be cheering for Waihīrere this Friday on TVNZ+!

🌱 Stay tuned to learn more about the Ākina tīma.

➡ Learn more about Te Pūoho here: https://www.akina.org.nz/akina-board-bios/ -katene

21/02/2025

🏳️‍🌈 Ākina stands in solidarity with the Trans, Takatāpui, MVPFAFF+, LGBTQIA+, and rainbow community - not just in the wake of recent events at Auckland Pride, but everyday.

Ākina is committed to amplifying diverse voices, championing equity, and advocating for a future where all identities are valued and celebrated. Diversity and inclusion are not just values, they are essential drivers of innovation, belonging, and positive impact. By embracing the unique experiences, perspectives, and strengths of our rainbow whānau, we create spaces where everyone can thrive, contribute, and be their authentic selves. Toitū Takatāpui!

Instead of highlighting the most recent harm that was caused in Tāmaki Makaurau, we want to tautoko some of the organisations that we have worked with that are supporting the LGBTQIA+ community.

🏳️‍🌈 PEERS
PEERS understand that healthcare should be more than just a service—it should be a connection. Their aim is to break barriers and build bridges, fostering an environment that understands the unique needs of the LGBTQIA+ community. PEERS created a free and secure platform —a searchable database encompassing healthcare professionals from GPs to therapists or podiatrists, welcoming everyone under the rainbow.
🔗 https://peershealth.co.nz/

🏳️‍🌈 Radiqal Movement
Established in November 2021, Radiqal Movement (RM) is a q***r-affirming, body-liberating, "fitness" organisation based in Tāmaki Makaurau, offering gender-affirming, joyful exercise experiences tailored to the LGBTQ+ community. Radiqal movement has a diverse team of instructors and facilitators who are all q***r. Their values are; body neutrality, manākitanga, hauora and autonomy.
🔗 https://www.radiqalmovement.com/

🏳️‍🌈 The Joyful Movement
The Joyful Movement is a collective of Transgender and Non-Binary people pooling their expertise to transform the way that Q***r people experience movement in Aotearoa. Movement, exercise, and sport are all important protective factors that connect young people to their peers and increase their confidence and self-esteem. The earlier in life we can establish a relationship with movement and incorporate it into our daily life, the more likely we are to maintain it as we get older.
🔗 https://cayad.org.nz/the-joyful-movement

Ākina is proud to have partners like Foundation North and The Tindall Foundation that are supporting the rainbow community. We’ve linked further information about their inspiring work in the comments.

*At Ākina, we use the term "rainbow community" as a way to refer to Takatāpui, MVPFAFF+, LGBTQIA+, and all diverse gender and sexuality identities. We acknowledge that language evolves and that not everyone may identify with this term.

https://www.akina.org.nz/news/rainbow-solidarity

19/02/2025

🌏 Ākina is proud to be re-certified Climate Positive Business Operations with Ekos. We have measured and offset 120% of our carbon footprint for 1 July 2023 - 30 June 2024 with certified carbon credits.

Total emissions = 36.65 tCO2e (tCO2e means tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent)
Total offsets = 44 (120%)

📉 This is a 37.86% decrease of emissions from our previous financial year, and a 48.43% decrease from our 2018-2019 base year of reporting. We are continuing to take steps to lower our emissions, because we know we can’t offset our way out of the climate crisis.

➡️ Swipe through to read some of our emissions insights.

🌱 Learn more about our sustainability journey here: https://www.akina.org.nz/climate-positive-akina

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