Impact Snapshot
May 2023
In this month’s Impact Snapshot, read about EHF Fellows in action creating environmental, social and economic impact, plus recent recognitions and awards they’ve received.
Fellows in action 🎬
Justin Milano, Founder of Abroad, is supporting Kiwi Founders to change their experience as entrepreneurs for the better. Working with NZ’s innovation ecosystem, including Angel Association New Zealand, Callaghan Innovation, and NZ Growth Capital Partners, to launch the 3rd Annual New Zealand Founder Programme, the programme supports leadership development and well-being of New Zealand’s future leaders, to build a resilient local startup community.
The subsidised programme is designed for NZ entrepreneurs to take a deep look inward, with the support of a community of founders, investors, coaches, and wisdom keepers, which includes the voice of Maori cultural wisdom. The aggregate scientific results of 50+ Kiwi Founders who participated in the 2022 Programme, included +31% in growth mindset and +24% in burnout resistance.
The programme runs from 15 June into September 2023.
Following her recent Welcome Experience in New Zealand, Aya Miyaguchi, Ethereum Foundation Executive Director, contributed her time and expertise to Aotearoa NZ’s Web3 community, to scope out community projects, and share insights with Callaghan Innovation. Aya is passionate about creating an open and inclusive world using Blockchain - experience, knowledge and connections she’s sharing to support the development of high-value sectors of Web3 and Blockchain within Aotearoa and the NZ innovation ecosystem.
Maya Soetoro and Zelda Keller, Co-Founders of The Institute for Climate and Peace, held an event on 20 May in Wellington, called ‘Talk Story with The Institute for Climate and Peace'. The event brought together EHF Fellows and community members, and featured guest speaker Fellow Amy Armstrong from Great Barrier Reef Foundation's ‘Resilient Reefs Initiative’. During the session, Fellows and the community had the chance to share their work on climate and explore opportunities for deeper connections and partnerships.
The ‘Talk Story’ brought together a diverse range of perspectives, exploring the intersection of technology, finance, governance, and indigenous wisdom, with a shared goal of creating a more sustainable and inclusive future.
Currently visiting Aotearoa NZ, both Maya and Zelda have immersed themselves into meeting with local climate innovation advocates, to create connections from ‘place-to-place’, which is a central value to their work style for climate-resilient futures led by community practice.
Guy Ryan, Founder of Inspiring Stories, is bringing back the Festival for the Future for 2023. Aotearoa NZ's largest leadership and innovation summit runs from 8-9 June, at Tākina, the new convention centre in Wellington.
The panel of speakers this year include EHF Fellows Shay Wright, Florence Van Dyke, and Emeline Patt-Dahlstrom. The themes for the Festival include climate and community resilience, mātauranga Māori/celebrating indigenous wisdom, business for impact, tech futures, and the future of food.
The Festival is an amazing opportunity to connect and network with changemaking businesses from around Aotearoa NZ.
Project Gender, co-founded by Fellow Erin Jackson, released its ‘Mako Mama - Mangopare: Single Parents Project’ report, detailing 82 recommendations to address the discrimination and systemic inequity faced by single parents in Aotearoa. The project was conducted in partnership with Ngāti Kahungunu, and provides an easy-to-use guide for systematic, policy and immediate change recommendations for government, businesses, and community.
Co-Founded by EHF Fellows Alex Lee and Dan Shanan, Doc Edge Festival is underway and runs until 9 July, celebrating, supporting and showcasing international documentaries, and bringing new immersive worlds to New Zealand audiences.
This year’s programme includes films from Fellows Matthieu Rytz and Christopher Gebhardt, while Fellow Kat Lintott is world premiering her latest XR projects. Fellow Joseph Michael was a subject in the festival’s opening night film, and Fellows Mayank Malik and Hunter Weeks are part of the Doc Edge Pitch event.
Fellow involvement doesn’t end there, with Bruktawit (Brukty) Tigabu joining the Doc Edge Forum, along with Kat Lintott. Fellows Sasha Lockley, Sean McGrail, and Janine Edge have also supported Alex and Dan in the lead up to the Festival.
There are many storytellers within EHF - Fellows sharing stories to change our world, so the Festival is a great opportunity to see the impact they are creating.
Dr Ruth Martin is working on an all-of-government project (jointly led by the Ministry of Social Development and Oranga Tamariki) to improve the commissioning of social services in New Zealand.
An effective and sustainable social sector is deemed central to improving wellbeing across Aotearoa NZ communities. Progress towards a better system has begun, with an Action Plan that contains nine practical and pragmatic actions and defines interim outcomes. The plan will be implemented in three phases over the next six years.
Jase Te Patu, CEO of M3 Mindfulness and mental health advocate, spoke with Sir John Kirwin this month about how to take care of ourselves online. In the episode, Jase speaks about how to incorporate wellbeing activity into hybrid and remote work; how to protect your energy when spending a lot of time in virtual meetings; and how to build and maintain culture and community at a distance. The work Jase does to improve the mental health of rangatahi (youth) and the wider community is helping to grow strong leaders for future generations and helps to lift the mana and connectedness of Aotearoa NZ as a nation.
Tim Pare and The Funding Network NZ finished its 3rd Generosity Generator programme where they trained 23 small charities (60% under $140k income annually) in how to plan and run a successful crowdfunding campaign, raising $158k online in 12 days, and another $30k offline. Since launching in February 2022, The Funding Network NZ have run three programmes with $503,949 raised by 86 charities online.
Fellows Lily Stender and Scott Miller have joined forces to create the Tolaga Evergreen Fund, in collaboration with Tolaga Bay Innovation, to create an opportunity for service businesses to bring their ideas to life.
The Fund’s focus is to support Māori and indigenous entrepreneurs to start their own service businesses through seed loans and business wrap-around support in the form of training and support, and mentoring.
Lisa Nelson has joined the Board of Directors of Banqer, a startup focused on financial literacy for rangatahi (youth). Lisa will focus on helping to scale the business, which operates in NZ and Australia but has aspirations to operate and drive impact at a global scale. She brings a diverse perspective to the Board, including knowledge of the common characteristics and behaviours of successful startups in the US.
In 2021/22, Fellows reported holding 162+ NZ governance roles. Lisa’s is another example of Fellows using their expertise and credentials to help NZ startups and organisations.
Absolute Essential Ltd, Founded by Dr Bo Hendgen, won the inaugural award for corporate social responsibility from Natural Health Practitioners of New Zealand, and was crowned the supreme winner for 2023.
Sustainability has been at the core of Absolute Essential since its inception. For 35 years, they have been implementing projects to create a clean and conscious business that sells products to make a difference, and to ensure the best ethical and environmentally sustainable practices are followed to prevent adverse impacts on the economy, environment and people.
SpaceBase, Co-Founded by Emeline Patt-Dahlstrom and Eric Dahlstrom, have launched the 2023 Space Challenge, with the goal to use space technologies to find new and innovative solutions to address climate change issues in New Zealand, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. The Space Challenge, which was launched at TechWeek earlier this month, generates impact through solving important local problems by catalysing ideas, research, projects, products and services. In previous years, the Challenge has initiated startups across NZ, and is an important component to creating a space community to develop a new tech ecosystem.
This month also marks SpaceBase partnering with the Australian Space Agency and Philippine Space Agency.
*Images have been provided by Fellows or sourced from the Internet. EHF does not claim to own the images.