Changes to the application criteria for the Community Organisation Grant Scheme (COGS) have been released by the Department of Internal Affairs.

Centres who were past applicants to the Community Organisation Grant Scheme (COGS) may have received a letter advising of the changes. Sean McKinley, Playcentre General Manager, met with the Department of Internal affairs at the end of January to clarify the changes, how they will impact on Playcentre and what options are available to us. We have briefly set out below:

1. The changes that have been made.
2. How this impacts on Centres.
3. How grants will be managed in the future

1. The changes that have been made.
From 2019, organisations with an annual operating expenditure of $2 million or more for each of the past two years will be ineligible to apply to COGS. The purpose of this change is to further align grants to the cabinet-mandated purpose of COGS, which is to support small organisations. The $2m criteria is in line with the Charities Services tier one and two annual reporting framework.

2. How this impacts on Centres.
In the COGS context, an organisation is considered to include the national office and any branches that come under the same legal entity status. Types of legal status include incorporated society, registered charitable trust, or Māori land trust. Being registered with Charities Services does not make an organisation a legal entity.

The Department of Internal Affairs advised that amalgamation did not change our eligibility and with or without amalgamation Playcentres individually will not be able to apply for COGS funding under the new criteria.

a. Playcentre, prior to being amalgamated, would be considered a national organisation with branches (Associations) with a combined operating expenditure of $2 milliion or more and as such would now be ineligible to apply for COGS funding.

b. Playcentre, post being amalgamated, would be considered a national organisation with a combined operating expenditure of $2 milliion or more and as such would now be ineligible to apply for COGS funding.

There is however a new funding category level that Playcentre will now be able to apply and we think the process will be simpler and require less reporting by centres receiving funding.

3. How grants will be managed in the future

Playcentre is currently working with the Department of Internal Affairs to develop a process whereby the New Zealand Playcentre Federation will be able apply for funding for centres at a national level. All the administrative processes such as applications, providing financial reports and the outcomes reporting after funding has been received will all be handled by the national management team. We are negotiating with the Department of Internal Affairs on the fine points of how we manage the process but the intended outcome is that the funds will be made available to Centres but they will not have to complete the administrative paper work to secure the funds as they have in the past. Please note however that any Centres in receipt of funds from COGS in previous funding rounds will still need to complete the outcome reports associated with those grants. We will keep you posted on the how the final process will work and we hope that Centres will be pleased with the new centralised funding model.