TOA Fight Fitness in Kawhia received funding to travel to Hamilton to sparring practices

This fund helps to cover the cost of petrol- and gets our kids get to sport!

The Fund is open now and is staying open!
We now accept your applications all year - so any time is a great time to do apply for this fund.

How it works- if you want your players to be considered for the next deliberation round ('Round 1 2025/26') apply now if you are ready, and you have till 31 July 2025 to get your application in.

The Committee will meet to deliberate these submissions on 10 September.

Remember we cannot fund players retrospectively, so when you're writing your application any costs cannot start before that September date.

Note; If you need to take a little longer and intend to submit your application to us after 1 August 2025 we will tag it towards the subsequent Committee deliberation round ('Round 2, 2025/26').
This meeting will be held in April 2026.

In addition; please note all applications must be for a group of players, a club, or a school - we do not accept applications from individual players.

• The Sport NZ Rural Travel Fund subsidises rural travel for individuals and junior teams and clubs aged 5-18 years.
• It helps players, and school and club sports teams who require financial assistance with transport costs so that they can participate in regular sports competitions, particularly those who need to travel a bit further than normal to use facilities or to be able to play against appropriate peers.
• The total annual budget of $15,500.25 for this year is spread across 2 ‘rounds’ (one every 6 months).
• This Fund helps make Ōtorohanga District a supportive and empowering place for our young people to grow.
  
  
• Please note! We have made some changes based on the use of the fund over the last few rounds.
  We have finished our trial and we no longer allow single players and individuals to apply.
  
  All applications must be for a group of players, a club, or a school.
  
  If you have any questions- just email us first.

Application Process

Funding will be allocated at a Grants Committee meeting at Council Chambers (17 Maniapoto St) on 10 September 2025. Applicants will be informed of decisions the following week.

If you are successful you are required to complete a CCS Grant Accountability Form. This tells us all about your project and how it went. It’s a good idea to get it done as soon as you finish.

Eligibility

Eligibility criteria includes:

• Teams from schools, group, and clubs
• Costs must cover regular local sports competition out of school time, but not regional competitions
• Include events held at weekends and nights, but excludes inter-school and intra-school competitions run during school hours.
• Team members need to be aged between and including 5-18 years.
• Funding can cover costs such as van hire, petrol, petrol vouchers distributed to parents of the team members.
• Costs to travel across the wider Waikato region. As long as it’s for regular team competition/normal practice and not for annual or rep competitions.
• Any costs need to be factored from the deliberation date onward- we cant cover anything before this.

Eligible types of sport

It's very wide! Everything from rock-climbing to rugby, BMX to basketball, hockey to horse riding.

What's not covered by the fund?

• Individual players, parents or caregivers cannot apply
• Rep teams, or the costs of an individual to play in a rep team
• Rural school or club teams located outside of Ōtorohanga District
• Costs for coaches or officials
• Inter-school or intra-school competition during school hours
• Annual regional or national competitions - ie; events

Hypothetical examples of what is not eligible;

• A young regional football rep team (of which some members are students in Ōtorohanga District schools) has gotten into a national rep competition to be held in Auckland.
• An individual swimmer who lives in district has been selected to be part of a Waikato Rep team and needs to travel to Hamilton for training and competition.

Taking into account the information above, you can also see full information on the fund in the Sport NZ guideline document.

Completing the application form

All applications must be made online here;

• Complete the form with all necessary information attached.
• Please double check your bank details are current, and all the numbers are correct
• Submit your application before the advertised closing date/time.

Please note: incomplete or late applications may be deemed ineligible and therefore may not be considered for funding.

Top Tips

1. You'll be asked to register for Connecting Ōtorohanga (you won't be asked again and can use the same login to apply for other grants and participate in our public consultations and engagements).
2. Download the supporting documents in the sidebar of this webpage, and have a look at the timeline.
3. Make sure you are somewhere with a good internet connection
4. All applications go onto our server which saves them all
5. Our grants team will email you to let you know it has been received.
6. If you need computer access, help completing the online form, or uploading the supporting information and documentation, head to Ōtorohanga Library where the friendly staff can help you get it all done.

Successful Applicants

Round 2, 2024/2025

TOA/ Kāwhia Fight Fitness - $1,207.67

Kāwhia Moana District Sport Collective- $1,770.25

Kio Kio School- $1,348.08

Ōtorohanga Football Club - $470

Ōtorohanga Rugby- $450

Ōtorohanga South School - $1,520.25

Ōtorohanga Sports Club- $1,100

Questions?

If you have any questions about your application or need to talk about your idea, please email grants@otodc.govt.nz

Application form below