Wayne Francis Charitable Trust and Leadership Lab: An ecosystem approach and ‘showing up differently’

The Wayne Francis Charitable Trust is a family foundation based in Ōtautahi Christchurch focused on youth health and wellbeing through positive youth development. The trust work in partnership with Leadership Lab, a network of people that work collectively on projects across Aotearoa New Zealand. Together they created LinC Puāwai, a youth leadership development programme that is co-designed with rangatahi, rooted in a kaupapa Māori framework and centres equity and inclusion. The trust and Leadership Lab reflect on the value of collaboration and collective decision-making with an ecosystem of stakeholders that share a vision for youth wellbeing, enabled through cultural and practice shifts post-earthquake and the trust’s practice of centring partnership and community self-determination. Read the Wayne Francis Charitable Trust story below.

In the video below, Wayne Francis Charitable Trust General Manager, Jenn Chowaniec reflects that funders and community need to be seen as one connected system, with deeper engagement by funders to understand what they can bring and how else they can support a kaupapa by leveraging their relationships and other non-financial resources.

NB: This is a case study from The Philanthropic Landscape Volume II: Shifting Culture and Power through Mana-Enhancing Partnerships. Read the full report here.