*APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED*
The next Round 2 will open for applications across the whole month of February 2025 where $7,145 will be available for applicants.

Successful applicants funded in the most recent Round 1 which was deliberated by the Grants Committee in October 2024 were;

Ōtorohanga Sports Club, Kāwhia Galaxy Touch, Elizabeth Pikia, Kio Kio School, Ōtorohanga South School, Ōtorohanga College, and Ōtorohanga Primary School.

Help our kids get to sport!

• 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 and taken your feedback on board.
  We have worked with Sport Waikato and are doing a trial for this fund that allows single players and individuals to apply. But these individual players cannot be applying for costs as part of a rep team.
  In order to check eligibility we may arrange an informal conversation with our Sport Waikato Regional
  Co-ordinator. All other criteria is the same. 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 30 April 2025. Applicants will be informed of decisions the following week. Remember this is a rolling fund, if you miss this upcoming round just apply for the next one in 6 months time. The next funding round after this one, on will be open again across August 2025.

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 and clubs
• Single/individual players (as long as they are not applying for rep team costs)
• Costs must cover regular local sports competition out of school time
• 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.

Examples of hypothetical eligible applications;

• Maihiihi District Rural Primary School has three junior hockey teams and they play weekly games in Cambridge on Sunday morning. The school gives parents petrol vouchers to assist with driving their children to games.
• Ōtorohanga College has a senior netball team which has monthly competitions on Thursday night in Hamilton. They use the college van, but need to pay for the petrol.
• Kāwhia School has a junior rugby club which travels to play in Te Kuiti every second Saturday, they pay for a van and petrol.
• A young tennis player from KioKio travels to Te Awamutu for competition every Saturday and needs petrol vouchers.
• Korakonui School has two young rockclimbers who travel to Hamilton every Tuesday night to use the larger indoor wall and compete with peers at their skill level- funds will pay for petrol.

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?

• 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.

For full information on the fund, what's eligible and what's not, check out the 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.

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