Small Charity, Meaningful Impact: Why New Zealand Businesses Should Consider Backing Kenzie's Gift
When a business decides to support a charity, the natural choice is often a large organisation with a familiar name. However, smaller charities can offer businesses a closer connection to the work being funded and a clearer view of the outcomes their support makes possible.
That is the case being made by Kenzie’s Gift, a specialist New Zealand charity providing free, professional grief support to tamariki and rangatahi aged between 3 and 24 whose parent or sibling has died or is seriously ill.
Because the charity has a focused purpose and a small team, it says contributions can be directed closely towards the young people and whānau its services are designed to help.
A focused approach to supporting grieving young people
Kenzie’s Gift concentrates specifically on providing professional support to children and young people experiencing grief or serious illness within their immediate family.
Its work is not spread across numerous unrelated causes. Instead, funding is directed towards helping young people access qualified therapists who can support them through experiences they may not yet have the words or tools to process.
The charity’s recently published article, Small Charity: Big Impact — Why Your Business Should Back Kenzie’s Gift, explains that the relatively short distance between a contribution and the child receiving support allows business partners to see more clearly what their involvement has helped make possible.
Kenzie’s Gift operates with a small team and limited hours, meaning every contribution of money, time or practical assistance has to be used carefully.
The scale of childhood grief in New Zealand
The need for this support is larger than many people may realise.
The Kenzie’s Gift article refers to analysis drawing on the Growing Up in New Zealand study, described as the country’s largest longitudinal child-development research project.
According to the article, more than 10,000 New Zealand children experience the death of a parent by the age of eight. Hundreds of thousands more are bereaved of another close family member by the same age, with around one in three Kiwi children experiencing the death of a loved one before turning eight.
The article also notes that grief education was removed from the New Zealand curriculum in 2007. This can leave children navigating the death of someone close to them without structured grief education or the language needed to explain what they are feeling.
Although professional support is available, its cost may place it beyond the reach of some families at the time it is most urgently required. Kenzie’s Gift aims to help close that gap by providing free professional support to eligible young people and their whānau.
What a business partnership can provide
Supporting Kenzie’s Gift gives businesses an opportunity to contribute to a specific and clearly defined area of need.
The charity says its focused approach allows it to demonstrate what a business’s support has helped deliver, including the therapy provided, young people reached and whānau given somewhere to turn.
Kenzie’s Gift also believes a meaningful charity partnership can benefit the participating business and its employees.
Because grief eventually affects almost everyone, supporting young people who have experienced the death or serious illness of a parent or sibling is a cause that may resonate personally with employees and customers.
The charity offers several ways for workplaces to become involved, ranging from team fundraising activities to regular workplace giving and longer-term partnerships.
Bringing teams together through the Big Winter Plunge
One of the charity’s main workplace fundraising initiatives is the Big Winter Plunge.
The challenge invites teams from across Aotearoa to take a cold-water plunge during winter while raising funds for Kenzie’s Gift. It is designed to be an accessible group challenge rather than an athletic competition.
Participants can take part together, raise funds as a workplace and create a shared experience outside their normal working environment.
The Kenzie’s Gift article also references research associated with cold-water activity, including potential benefits such as sharper focus, improved sleep, increased energy and reduced stress.
JB Hi-Fi staff raised more than $20,000
Kenzie’s Gift points to JB Hi-Fi as an example of how a national business can involve staff in supporting a smaller charity.
During the previous winter, JB Hi-Fi employees around New Zealand took part in cold-water plunges before work and raised funds for Kenzie’s Gift.
Stores challenged one another, and the initiative eventually included members of the company’s senior leadership team.
According to Kenzie’s Gift, the JB Hi-Fi team collectively raised more than $20,000 through the campaign.
The activity provided financial support for the charity while also giving employees across different stores a shared challenge in which they could participate.
Businesses can contribute in several ways
Taking part in the Big Winter Plunge is only one option available to businesses.
Kenzie’s Gift identifies several ways organisations can support its work:
- Entering a workplace team in the Big Winter Plunge and fundraising together
- Establishing regular workplace or payroll giving
- Matching contributions made by employees
- Providing funding through a business grant or foundation programme
- Offering sponsorship or practical in-kind support
- Establishing an ongoing partnership with the charity
These options allow businesses to choose an approach suited to their size, available resources and level of staff participation.
A small business may organise a single fundraiser or sponsored challenge, while a larger organisation might establish regular giving, sponsorship or a longer-term partnership.
A direct connection between businesses and families
For businesses considering a charitable partnership, Kenzie’s Gift’s central argument is that smaller does not necessarily mean less effective.
A focused charity can give partners greater visibility into how their support is being used and allow employees to feel more closely connected to the cause.
In this case, the outcome is helping a child or young person access professional support while facing the death or serious illness of a parent or sibling.
Businesses interested in taking part in the Big Winter Plunge, setting up workplace giving or discussing another form of partnership can find further details in the charity’s original business partnership article.
More information about the charity, its services and the young people it supports is available from the Kenzie’s Gift website.