Foreword from Manatū Taonga

Ki te puāwai te ahurea, ka ora te iwi.
Culture is thriving, the people are well.

Arts, culture and heritage are a key part of all New Zealanders’ lives. Cultural experiences bring people joy, entertain us and connect us to our stories and histories, and those of others. They help us understand our world, they challenge our thinking, and they make us proud of our unique identity. The cultural system – the vast network of organisations, businesses, and creative people in the arts, culture and heritage sectors – provides social, cultural, education, and wellbeing benefits for all New Zealanders, while also adding significant economic benefits too.

‘Ki te puāwai te ahurea, ka ora te iwi’ is the vision of Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage which speaks to the intrinsic relationship between the cultural system and people’s wellbeing.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world. In early 2020, a range of data confirmed the cultural sector was at significant risk. Economic forecasts at the time predicted the sector would be hit twice as hard as the rest of the economy, with 11,000 jobs at risk in the first year alone. There was a real risk that, as pandemic restrictions eased, the cultural system would not have the capacity or confidence to provide the very experiences that kiwis had missed most. Cultural practices and knowledge unique to Aotearoa New Zealand were at risk of being lost.

To respond, the Government made a landmark investment to support the sector. Our Ministry was then tasked with the responsibility of setting up and administering funding of a scale it had never done before, and in ways that required pragmatism, pace and people-to-people connections.

The Ministry’s funding function was expanded in late 2021 to respond to the changing needs of the cultural and creative sectors. This enabled the Ministry to administer bespoke funding to underwrite cultural events, support cultural organisations at imminent risk of insolvency, and make payments to individual artists who were falling through the gaps of other supports. It is highly unlikely that these critical funds would have been available if the Ministry had not taken them on.

Evaluation and insights played a crucial role throughout the pandemic in helping to identify what was working well and what could be improved. Our direct funding role meant that we worked directly with hundreds of people from the creative and cultural sectors. We received daily feedback, which we used to inform changes to our approach and improve the quality timeliness of our advice to Ministers. We were hugely appreciative of the insights (and candour!) that people shared with us during that period.

This final report is the third in a series of reflections of the COVID-19 Cultural Recovery Programme (CRP; Manatū Taonga 2021, 2023a). Nicholson Consulting has brought together in-depth analysis of the impacts of funding, our experiences delivering the CRP, and insights from previous reports. This final report provides high-level analysis of the impact of arts, culture and heritage activities that were funded between 2022 and 2024. Key lessons have been pulled together from the CRP data and from previous impact measurement activities and evaluations.

Evaluating the impacts that hundreds of diverse initiatives have had is no easy task. While this report adds to the evidence of the significant positive benefits that the funding delivered, the ongoing legacy of funding will continue. Many initiatives will endure long after funding contracts end – something that wouldn’t be possible without the passionate creatives in the sector we were able to partner with. Some initiatives, like those supported by the Mātauranga Māori Te Awe Kōtuku programme, will endure for years to come. Critical mātauranga Māori was able to be preserved and shared for future generations of practitioners.

Together, we were able to try things that had never been done before – some worked, and undoubtedly some could be improved. We hope that our successes and challenges can be learned from so that future investment or emergency responses can be more effective. In short, the CRP was a cross-agency, people-driven effort which delivered essential support at a time of national emergency, which helped the cultural system survive the pandemic, adapt to new challenges, and begin to recover from COVID-19. All New Zealanders benefit from a thriving cultural system, and it has been this Ministry’s privilege to help support it.

As the New Zealand Royal Commission COVID-19 Lessons Learned | Te Tira Ārai Urutā Phase One summary report (2024) acknowledges, the response to the pandemic required extraordinary effort, sacrifice and resilience from all of us:

Our collective experience of COVID-19 may have brought challenges and loss, but it also gave us some valuable resources – new knowledge and tools, a renewed awareness of the things we value most as individuals and societies, deeper understanding of the systems and services we will rely on in a crisis, and a broader portfolio of response and support options.

We look forward to continuing to build on the relationships with people from all across the arts, culture and heritage sectors that were established through the CRP and take lessons we all learned into our collective future.

Joe Fowler
Pou Mataaho o Te Hua
Deputy Secretary Delivery & Investment

Emily Fabling 
Pou Mataaho o Te Aka
Deputy Secretary Policy Performance & Insights

Executive summary

In early 2020, economic forecasts predicted that the COVID-19 pandemic and any associated restrictions would have negative outcomes for the arts, culture and heritage, and media and broadcasting sectors (‘the cultural sector’).

These economic outcomes were expected to hit the cultural sector twice as hard as the broader economy due to heightened risks to individual employment and organisational viability. Many core activities in the sector could not take place or were postponed, resulting in a significant loss of revenue.

As part of Budget 2020 (COVID-19 Recovery Budget), the Government approved a targeted response to assist the cultural sector to recover from the impacts of the pandemic.

The COVID-19 Cultural Recovery Programme (CRP), administered by Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage (Manatū Taonga), was primarily delivered over five financial years (2019/20 to 2023/24), with some activities continuing into the beginning of 2024/25. The appropriated amount set aside for the CRP totalled $569.3 million over the five financial years, with the total CRP spend amounting to $464.8 million (82% of the budgeted amount).

CRP initiatives were designed to support the cultural sector through the different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CRP included more than 25 initiatives designed to provide short-term relief to address critical immediate risks, investment to aid in adapting to a post-COVID operating context, and support for the sector to recover from the pandemic and ‘build back stronger’ through transformed practices and relationships. In line with these goals, the CRP initiatives can be grouped into three main categories: 

1. Survive initiatives addressed immediate concerns like financial viability, job loss and maintaining operations as well as continuing to provide cultural content and experiences to New Zealanders.
2. Adapt initiatives helped organisations and businesses to respond to the COVID-19 environment and build new skills and systems to support longer-term sustainability and resilience.
3. Thrive initiatives supported longer-term transformations to strengthen the cultural sector ecosystem over time, such as building systems and relationships, and fostering innovation.

The highest CRP investment was made in survive initiatives at $205.3 million (44% of the total spend), followed by thrive initiatives at $146.9 million (32% of the total spend), then adapt initiatives at a cost of $102 million (22% of the total spend). An additional 2% of the spend was allocated to ‘Other’ spending such as operational expenditure and evaluation activities.

In 2020, Manatū Taonga developed a strategy-based approach to measure the programme-wide impacts of the CRP.

This involved setting measures at the initiative level, where deemed appropriate, to collect data on a range of emerging impacts. These data were then assessed across the CRP as a whole on an annual basis to determine how the CRP was performing against three overarching outcomes: 

1. Whakahaumanu Ōhanga | Economic Recovery – The sectors are economically stable, sustainable and adapting to a post-COVID environment. The sectors make a positive contribution to wider COVID-19 economic recovery.
2. He Kuhunga, He Whai Wāhitanga Māmā | Better Access and Participation – New Zealanders have access to and participate in diverse and rich cultural experiences in a post-COVID environment.
3. He Rāngai Ngangahau, He Rāngai Auaha | Vibrant, Innovative Sectors – The sectors collaborate, adapt and innovate in new ways, enhancing the quality, equity and relevance of content, knowledge, products and services in a post-COVID environment.

Manatū Taonga completed impact assessment and reporting for the 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years, with key findings published in the respective 2020/21 and 2021/22 COVID-19 Impacts Reports (Manatū Taonga, 2021, 2023a). To produce this report, the third and final CRP impacts report focused on 2022–24, Nicholson Consulting was commissioned to:

• Assess the impacts of key funds delivered from 2022–24 through a desktop review of available programme reporting and evaluation data
• Design, deliver and analyse the results of a participant survey for the Regeneration Fund, which had not been examined in previous analysis
• Interview ten stakeholders to document organisational learning and support outcomes analysis
• Conduct a retrospective review and synthesise findings to determine key lessons from the delivery of the CRP for future consideration.

In 2020–22, findings showed that the CRP addressed the sector’s immediate needs and supported participation where circumstances allowed.

The first two CRP impacts reports showed that the CRP delivered largely positive results for funding recipients and New Zealanders, and contributed to the resilience of the cultural sector by helping it to survive through the initial impact of the pandemic. This included preserving employment and service delivery, as well as enabling the ongoing provision of cultural content and experiences where conditions permitted (Manatū Taonga, 2021, 2023a).

For 2022–24, the findings highlight that the CRP continued to deliver on all three outcome areas.

The CRP supported economic recovery by continuing to help organisations and individuals to remain financially viable and maintain operations and service delivery. The CRP supported a range of employment opportunities through a mixture of new positions, increased hours for existing positions, and paying those who had previously held voluntary roles. In some cases, positive economic impacts flowed on to the wider community around funded organisations, leading to positive employment outcomes for non-sector businesses. Funding for adaptation supported organisations to adopt new mechanisms to deliver services to reach online audiences, and uplifted capability and skills training across a broad range of transferable and industry-specific skills, including strategic plans and governance. These adaptations are likely to support the cultural sector’s sustainability and resilience in the longer term. 

In relation to better access and participation, the CRP supported a wide range of cultural activities to continue and, in some cases, increase despite challenges to delivery. At the same time, the CRP lowered barriers to participation in cultural activities by supporting alternative modes of participation, reducing cost, and expanding offerings to new population groups and localities. The CRP enabled new content to be developed and accessed over a broad range of media, as well as new tools to track the reach and success of content. The CRP supported iwi, Māori, and others to protect and preserve mātauranga and taonga Māori in a range of areas, leading to increased access to knowledge, participation in wānanga and other cultural activities, and the intergenerational transfer of skills.

Lastly, the CRP fostered vibrant, innovative sectors by creating opportunities for employment, leadership, and participation that increased equity among target groups in the sector, including Māori, Pacific peoples, and people with disabilities. Some CRP initiatives empowered Māori to lead projects in a te ao Māori-aligned way, in turn supporting a relational approach that built trust and strengthened Māori-Crown partnerships. The CRP enabled initiatives to use innovative practice to engage diverse audiences where those audiences may otherwise have not had the opportunity to participate. Finally, the CRP supported both government and sector stakeholders to build new and stronger relationships across organisations, between funders, and with community.

In addition to findings on impact, insights have been developed from CRP delivery to inform future investment in an emergency context.

Analysis of available evidence was conducted to identify lessons relating to how (and how well) the CRP was delivered and what could be improved in a future emergency response. The resulting set of insights are grouped in four areas: design, administration, delivery and monitoring and evaluation.

Design

Insight 1: Build engagement with the community and other funding providers into the design of the fund from the start

• Build community engagement into the design process from the start to identify needs and priorities
• Forge strong relationships and partnerships with Māori to enable Māori leadership in fund design, especially where funds are focussed on Māori outcomes
• Consult early in the design process with funding agencies and providers, with a focus on maintaining or forming partnerships to draw on their expertise
• Where possible, establish a team which is available for the duration of emergency funding to form relationships with providers and recipients
• Allocate funding for the establishment of a team to administer and deliver funding

Insight 2: Keep early fund design simple and focused on emergency needs

• Keep early fund design as simple as possible
• When providing emergency funding in small amounts that needs to be delivered quickly, base it on need and eligibility without extensive application assessments
• Consider reserving a portion of funding to address needs that may not be immediately apparent at the time an initiative is designed

Insight 3: Consider the viability of funding caps based on initiative type and the use of seed funding to test ideas

• Consider larger funding caps for initiatives focused on medium- to long-term outcomes than those providing short-term emergency relief
• Funding limits should be evidence-based where possible
• Consider using seed funding as an opportunity to confirm ideas before a large grant application is made

Insight 4: Assist the sector to plan for the end of emergency funding to support the sustainability of any outcomes achieved

• Design funding in a manner that considers how best to support sustainable outcomes beyond the end of the emergency funding period

Administration

Insight 5: Clearly define fund criteria, terminology, and timing

• Clearly define the fund’s purpose, eligibility criteria and key terminology to ensure the application process is efficient for providers and applicants
• Clearly communicate when a fund will close

Insight 6: Ensure clear communication, transparency, and accountability throughout the funding period

• Clearly communicate at all stages of the funding process
• Ensure that transparency and accountability are built into funding processes

Delivery

Insight 7: Leverage existing expertise and infrastructure where available

• Draw on existing expertise from across the sector to support effective delivery
• Collaborate where possible to leverage each funding partner’s unique strengths

Insight 8: Incorporate culturally informed approaches when delivering funding where appropriate

• Use culturally informed approaches to support the funding process where appropriate
• Ensure providers are supported to deliver initiatives in culturally appropriate ways

Insight 9: Foster collaboration among funding recipients where there is clear alignment in goals

• Create environments where funding recipients can collaborate to identify issues and their potential solutions

Insight 10: Support regional collaborations and target regional solutions where appropriate

• Support regional collaborations and target regional solutions where appropriate

Monitoring and evaluation

Insight 11: Plan monitoring and evaluation early on and allocate adequate resource

• Consider monitoring and evaluation needs during the fund design stage and allocate resources where appropriate
• Ensure monitoring and evaluation are culturally appropriate and collaborate with stakeholders
• Consider whether longer-term impacts are feasible to measure in the given time period

In summary, the CRP was successful in achieving broadly positive outcomes for the cultural sector during a period of unprecedented disruption.

The first two years of the CRP were delivered during a period of instability, characterised by national and regional lockdowns and restrictions, which significantly impacted in-person cultural activities. In the following years, even once restrictions ended, the sector continued to face challenges relating to COVID-19 illness, the cost of living, and climate events such as Cyclone Gabrielle.

Within this context, evidence from funding partners and funding recipients has shown that the CRP was an overall positive endeavour that was successful in addressing the needs of the cultural sector. The CRP protected livelihoods within the cultural sector and supported the sector to continue to provide opportunities for New Zealanders to engage in a wide range of cultural activities. Delivery of the CRP, as a multi-agency and cross-sector endeavour, has increased capability and supported innovation, and fostered strong relationships and partnerships that have continued to grow beyond initiative timeframes. While it is still too soon to understand fully what the lasting impacts of the CRP will be, the insights developed through the past four years of delivery provide an evidence base to guide future investment in an emergency response.

Acknowledgements

Nicholson Consulting would like to thank all those individuals and organisations whose insights, opinions, thoughts and data contributed to this work.

With special thanks to those who gave their time to discuss their experiences in person:

• Creative New Zealand | the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa
• Creative Waikato
• Māoriland Charitable Trust
• NZ Music Commission | Te Reo Reka o Aotearoa
• NZ On Air | Irirangi Te Motu
• Pasifika Festivals Initiative

Nicholson Consulting and Manatū Taonga would also like to acknowledge the work of all the funding recipients, programme participants and the wider arts, culture and heritage sector whose experiences working with the COVID-19 Cultural Recovery Programme are shared in this report.

Introduction

In June 2024, Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage (‘Manatū Taonga’) commissioned Nicholson Consulting to complete the Manatū Taonga COVID-19 Cultural Recovery Programme (CRP) impacts measurement programme by producing this, the third and final CRP Impacts Report. This report focuses on the impacts the CRP has had over the last 2 years of implementation (2022/23 and 2023/24) and provides an introduction of the Regeneration Fund delivered in this period with a first glimpse of the fund’s impacts. This report also synthesises lessons from across the delivery of the programme to help inform future investment in the sector including investment as a response to an emergency.

This section introduces the CRP, provides information on its appropriation and actual spend, the measurement of its impacts, and the in-scope CRP initiatives for this report (delivered between 2022 and 2024). The second section of this report (CRP Impacts) presents findings on the key impacts of the CRP, focusing on the three overarching outcomes: Whakahaumanu Ōhanga | Economic Recovery; He Kuhunga, He Whai Wāhitanga Māmā | Better Access and Participation; and He Rāngai Ngangahau, He Rāngai Auaha | Vibrant, Innovative Sectors. The final section of this report concludes by discussing the key lessons learned from designing, administering, delivering and evaluating the CRP.

This work involved conducting data collection, analysis, and synthesis to assess the impacts of the CRP and to identify key lessons for future investment. Impacts across initiatives have been synthesised and supplemented with valuable insights from interviews with staff involved in designing and distributing the funding, those at partner funding agencies, and those who received funding.

This report includes:

• A synthesised evaluation of the CRP impacts where data and evidence were available for funds active between 2022 and 2024 against the three overarching outcomes.
• Key lessons over the lifecycle of the CRP to inform future emergency investment in the arts. These lessons are grouped relating to the design, administration, and delivery of funding as well as monitoring and evaluation.
• A glossary of Māori translations.
• An appendix detailing the methodological approach for the research and evaluation activities Nicholson Consulting engaged in to complete this project.
• An appendix providing the overview of all initiatives delivered through the CRP.

The COVID-19 Cultural Recovery Programme (CRP)

In early 2020, economic forecasts predicted that the COVID-19 pandemic and any associated restrictions would have negative outcomes for the arts, culture and heritage, and media and broadcasting sectors (‘the cultural sector’). These economic outcomes were expected to hit the cultural sector twice as hard as the whole economy (Manatū Taonga, 2023a).

There were risks to individual employment and organisational viability when the face-to-face interactions, wānanga, performances and events that contribute to much of the cultural sector’s economy could not take place. Restrictions on meetings and gathering sizes also presented risks in the transmission and preservation of mātauranga and taonga and the physical preservation of heritage assets. Core sector activities were cancelled and creatives and organisations needed to adapt their method of delivery to continue to connect with audiences and communities. Revenue streams needed to keep organisations operational were lost through the cancellation of ticketed events, sales and loss of admission fees. Moreover, the media and broadcasting sectors also lost advertising revenue.

As part of Budget 2020 (COVID-19 Recovery Budget), the Government approved a targeted response to assist the cultural sector to recover from the impacts of the pandemic. The COVID-19 Cultural Recovery Programme (CRP), administered by Manatū Taonga, was primarily delivered over five financial years (2019/20 to 2023/24), with some activities continuing into the beginning of 2024/25. The initial approved funding package included the Arts and Culture COVID Recovery Programme ($374 million) the Public Interest Journalism Fund ($55 million) and the Creative Careers Service Pilot ($7.9 million).

Further funding was approved in 2022 to address continued risks and impacts associated with COVID-19, in the form of the Omicron Package and the Budget 2022 Package which together contained up to $132 million to fund initiatives including the Arts and Culture Event Support Scheme (ACESS), the Cultural Sector Emergency Response Fund (CSERF), and topped up the Screen Production Fund and extended the CRP beyond its original three-year timeframe. The total combined value of appropriated CRP funding was $569.3 million (Manatū Taonga, 2021, 2023a).

Alongside the above programmes there were other initiatives funded by the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund (CRRF) and approved in May 2020, that made provisions for the cultural sector. These included a Media Sector Support Package ($50 million) and an expansion to the Creatives in Schools initiative ($4 million). A full breakdown of initiatives can be found in Appendix 2.

The cultural sector is broad and includes a mix of organisations and individuals within the arts, culture, heritage, media and broadcasting sectors. To meet these diverse needs, Manatū Taonga led a suite of over 25 initiatives, which were administered and delivered by the Ministry and a range of funding partners. Manatū Taonga took the lead on some specific emergency funding initiatives (e.g., ACESS and CSERF) that were designed to provide targeted support that recognised the nature of the ‘gig economy’ within the cultural sector, where individuals typically work across multiple short-term contracts, on a casual basis or undertake creative practice in a profit-share environment that relies on ticket sales. As noted by Manatū Taonga, other government response funding was not able to be as responsive to the needs of the sector and these noted working arrangements.

COVID-19 and the cultural sector 2022–24

The first two years of CRP funding were delivered during periods of national and regional lockdowns. This was a period in flux as the country moved between different levels of restrictions. Sometimes no in-person cultural activities could be held; other times these could be delivered but with limited attendance and increased safety measures; or there were times when these activities were postponed/cancelled at short notice due to illness or changing restriction levels. Early data showed audiences were highly concerned about contracting COVID-19, and this was a top barrier to participation in cultural activities in 2020 and 2022 (Manatū Taonga, 2022a).

From April 2022, the whole of New Zealand moved from the red to orange level of the COVID-19 Protection Framework. Events, gatherings, wānanga, performances and programmes could then be held without attendance limits and masks, but there were still some restrictions around vaccine pass use and registration requirements.

At the end of July 2022, New Zealand’s borders were fully opened to international travel and the COVID-19 Protection Framework ended in September 2022 (DPMC, 2023). From this point there were no further restrictions on holding events and New Zealand was open for international artists to tour the country. At this same time, cultural participation began to recover as audiences became less concerned about COVID-19. For example, by 2023, the main barrier to in-person engagement had become cost, with 45% of people recording ‘not being able to afford it’ as the reason why they didn’t engage in cultural activities (double the 26% in 2022), while COVID-19 was no longer a top barrier (see Figure 1; Manatū Taonga, 2022a, 2023b).

Figure 1: Top barriers to in-person engagement with the cultural sector in 2022 and 2023.

Note that lack of personal interest was not a top barrier in 2022, and COVID-19 concerns was not in 2023 (Manatū Taonga, 2022a; 2023b).

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Additional complexities during this time further exacerbated the challenges facing the cultural sector along with the delivery of CRP initiatives and evaluation, including the increased cost of living, illness as COVID-19 spread through communities, and other emergencies such as Cyclone Gabrielle. The CRP was therefore delivered at a time when creative practitioners, organisations, and venues continued to require support to continue operating.

Survive, Adapt, and Thrive

The CRP initiatives were designed to support the cultural sector through different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. This included providing short-term relief to address critical immediate risks, investment to aid in adapting to a post-COVID operating context, and support for the sector to ‘build back stronger’ through transformed practices and relationships (Manatū Taonga, 2023a). In line with these goals, the initiatives can be broadly grouped in three categories:

• Survive initiatives addressed immediate concerns like financial viability, job loss and maintaining operations as well as continuing to provide cultural content and experiences.
• Adapt initiatives helped organisations and businesses to respond to the COVID-19 environment and to build new skills and systems to support longer-term sustainability and resilience.
• Thrive initiatives supported longer-term transformations to strengthen the cultural sector ecosystem over time, such as building relationships and systems, and fostering innovation.

The highest spend was on survive initiatives at $205.3 million (44% of the total $464.8 million CRP spend). Figure 2 presents proportional spend data across the three initiatives spanning the five financial years of the CRP. Over 80% of all survive funding was spent in the first three years of the programme, while in 2022/23 and 2023/24, the survive initiative spend was $35.8 million, 17% of total survive spend.

Adapt initiatives were mainly supported in the first three years of the CRP funding, with 72% of total adapt spend falling in this period. In contrast, 28% of adapt spend fell in 2022/23, and 0% in 2023/24. In total, $102 million (22% of the total CRP spend) was spent on adapt initiatives.

Spending on thrive initiatives was $146.9 million (32% of the total CRP spend), with the majority of the spend (61%) being in the final two years of the programme: 2022/23 and 2023/24. The other 39% was spent across 2020/21 and 2021/22.

Figure 2. Proportion of CRP spend by initiative type and financial year

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Note: An additional 2% of the CRP, not represented in Figure 2. was allocated to ‘Other’ spending such as operational expenditure and evaluation activities and the Creative and Cultural Wellbeing Initiative, administered by the Department of Corrections

Appropriation and actual spend

This section provides details of the funds appropriated and the actual spend for all CRP initiatives over the 5 financial years from 2019/20 to 2023/24. ‘Appropriation’ is the setting aside of specific amounts of money for a defined use, whereas ‘actual spend’ is the amount of funds actually expended and/or distributed to funding recipients and initiatives. Spend is allocated to the financial year that the funds were administered by Manatū Taonga (not the spend by Crown entities or funding recipients, which may have occurred the next financial year).

The appropriated amount for the CRP totalled $569.3 million over five financial years, with the total CRP spend amounting to $464.8 million at 30 June 2024. Table 1 summarises the spend over all CRP initiatives by financial year and by the type of initiative (i.e., survive, adapt, or thrive). The CRP Impacts section of this report focuses on the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years, during which the CRP spend totalled $154.6 million or 33% of the total.

Table 1. Spend ($ million) over all CRP initiatives by financial year and initiative type.

Figure 3 summarises the total CRP spend by financial year (the bottom row in Table 1). The financial year with the highest spend was 2021/22 with $169 million spent, 36% of the total funds. This was followed by 2020/21 with $130.8 million (28%), 2022/23 with $109.5 million (24%), 2023/24 with $45.1 million (10%), and 2019/20 with $10.5 million (2%).

Figure 3. Total CRP spend ($ million) by financial year

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Cumulative spend over all financial years and all initiatives is shown in Figure 4. As the CRP was announced towards the end of the 2019/20 financial year, the spend was low for this period. The spend increased in 2020/21 and 2021/22 before slowing during and after 2022/23.

Figure 4. Cumulative spend ($ million) over all CRP initiatives by financial year and initiative type

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Figure 5 shows the wind down in spending leading to the end of the CRP funding period. The first financial year where the highest spend was not on survive initiatives was 2022/23, with thrive initiatives taking priority for funding. There continued to be some spending on survive initiatives in 2023/24, but the funding in this final year was highly concentrated on thrive initiatives at a cost of $42.8 million.

Figure 5. Spend over all CRP initiatives by financial year and initiative type ($ million)

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The percentage of appropriated funds spent across the CRP was 82%. Adapt initiative funding had the highest percentage of actual spend versus appropriated funding at 100%. The appropriation and actual spend for adapt funding was $102 million. This is followed by thrive initiative funding at 88% where the appropriation was $166.7 million and the actual spend was $146.9 million. Survive initiative funding had the highest underspend primarily due to demand driven funding, with funding being made available if needed. The appropriation of funding for survive initiatives was $290 million, and the actual spend was $205.3 million, 71% of the appropriated amount (see Figure 6).

Figure 6. Appropriation vs Actual Spend ($ million) for all CRP funds

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There were a number of reasons for underspend across the CRP, including: lower demand for funds than what was originally allowed for, projects not being fully completed when the data were compiled (even where appropriation is expected to be fully spent), project delays, and some projects not able to go ahead.

Measuring the impacts of CRP funding

In 2020, Manatū Taonga developed a strategy-based approach to measure the programme-wide impacts of the CRP. This involved setting measures at the initiative level, where deemed appropriate, to report on a range of emerging impacts. These data were then assessed across the CRP as a whole on an annual basis to determine how the CRP was performing against three overarching outcomes: 

1. Whakahaumanu Ōhanga | Economic Recovery – The sectors are economically stable, sustainable and adapting to a post-COVID environment. The sectors make a positive contribution to wider COVID-19 economic recovery.
2. He Kuhunga, He Whai Wāhitanga Māmā | Better Access and Participation – New Zealanders have access to and participate in diverse and rich cultural experiences in a post-COVID environment.
3. He Rāngai Ngangahau, He Rāngai Auaha | Vibrant, Innovative Sectors – The sectors collaborate, adapt and innovate in new ways, enhancing the quality, equity and relevance of content, knowledge, products and services in a post-COVID environment.

The types of impact data collected included:

• Monitoring data e.g., grant reporting and performance monitoring
• Non-programme data e.g., economic data, surveys related to the sector in general
• Research and evaluation findings e.g., fund-related surveys, initiative evaluation reports (Manatū Taonga, 2023a).

In some cases, due to the urgent need for funding to be delivered quickly, impact measures were not able to be set prior to the funding being released.

Manatū Taonga completed impact assessment and reporting for the 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years, with key findings published in the respective 2020/21 and 2021/22 COVID-19 Impacts Reports (Manatū Taonga, 2021, 2023a).

The findings from these reports showed that in 2020/21, the CRP delivered largely positive results for funding recipients and New Zealanders, and contributed to the resilience of the cultural sector by helping it to survive through the initial impact of the pandemic. The benefits highlighted in the results included preserving employment and service delivery, as well as enabling the ongoing supply of cultural content and experiences where conditions permitted (Manatū Taonga, 2021).

In 2021/22, the CRP continued to be effective in addressing the immediate risks of COVID-19 to the cultural sector. The CRP also facilitated continued access to cultural content and services for New Zealanders, as well as new opportunities for participation (Manatū Taonga, 2023a).

This report presents the key findings from the 2022/23 and 2023/24 period. Using a mixed-method approach, Nicholson Consulting initiated an in-depth desktop review of sources provided by Manatū Taonga to research and pull out key quantitative and qualitative data and insights for analysis. This was supplemented by designing and deploying a Regeneration Fund survey to capture data and insights from the recipients of this fund where most projects were due to be completed at the end of June 2024. Additionally, the desktop review was supplemented by ten interviews with CRP stakeholders. A thematic analysis and two sensemaking workshops with Manatū Taonga were then completed to synthesise information and ideas and identify lessons for future investment. See Appendix 1 for more details on the methodology.

Initiatives active during 2022–2024

CRP initiatives were considered ‘active’ if they were still providing funding, had ongoing funding agreements, or were still available to be drawn down on by recipients. The following initiatives were active for either part or all of the two financial years 2022/23 and 2023/24. More details on these funds are available in Appendix 2.

Survive

• Pūtea Tautoko mō ngā Huihuinga Aro Toi 
  Arts Culture and Events Support Scheme (ACESS)
• Cultural Sector Emergency Relief Fund (CSERF)
• Screen Production Recovery Fund
• Screen Sector Indemnity Scheme   
• Creative New Zealand - Retain Core Arts Infrastructure and Deliver Arts Projects in Communities
• Te Puna Kairangi Premium Productions for International Audiences Fund
• Waitangi National Trust *

Adapt

• Creative Careers Service Pilot  
• Public Interest Journalism Fund
• Museum Hardship Fund
• Aotearoa Touring Programme
• Pasifika Festivals Initiative

Thrive

• Mātauranga Māori Te Awe Kōtuku
• Te Tahua Whakakaha Cultural Sector Capability Fund
• Te Tahua Whakahaumaru Creative Arts Recovery and Employment Fund (CARE)
• Te Tahua Whakamarohi i te Rāngai Ahurea 
  Cultural Sector Innovation Fund
• Te Tahua Whakamarohi i te Rāngai Ahurea 
  Cultural Sector Regeneration Fund
• Digitisation of Audiovisual Collections * 

* These funds were not assessed in the high-level impacts analysis for this report due to limitations in data availability.

Cultural Recovery Programme impacts

This section considers the assessed impacts of key funds delivered for the financial years 2022/23 and 2023/24. These insights build on previously reported impacts from the first two years of the CRP published in the two earlier Impacts Reports (Manatū Taonga, 2021, 2023a).

This section discusses each of the three overarching CRP outcomes in turn, and considers the impacts that were delivered under each. A synthesis of findings is included under each outcome as well as a specific example from one of the CRP initiatives to evidence the impact. For each outcome, a larger ‘Impact in Practice’ study narrates how one of the CRP initiatives contributed to the outcome.

As the Regeneration Fund has only been open since 2022, no evaluation of the fund has been previously published. Therefore, following the three outcomes sections, a case study of the Regeneration Fund is presented to document key aspects of the fund, how well it achieved its intended outcomes, and its contribution to the overarching CRP outcomes.

Outcome 1: Whakahaumanu Ōhanga | Economic Recovery

Outcome statement: The sectors are economically stable, sustainable and adapting to a post-COVID environment. The sectors make a positive contribution to wider COVID-19 economic recovery.

Initiatives delivering to this outcome aimed to meet the immediate needs of creatives and practitioners to ensure that organisations remained open, to retain and create employment, and to uplift the skills of those working in the sector to ensure economic resilience and a sustainable future. Despite the reduction and eventual removal of COVID-19 restrictions, an economic downturn, circulating COVID-19 illness, and an initial reluctance of audiences to attend events meant that funding continued to be necessary to maintain organisations and support individuals in the sectors.

To understand how the CRP performed against this outcome, the impact of those funds delivered in 2022–24 were assessed against five areas of impact:

1. Financial viability
2. Preservation and creation of employment
3. Continuation of services and operations
4. Skills development
5. Resilience, sustainability and adaptation

Key findings

From synthesising the available data and insights collected for measuring the impacts of the initiatives delivered by the CRP in 2022/23 and 2023/24, several key findings emerge relevant to Outcome 1: Whakahaumanu Ōhanga | Economic Recovery:

• The CRP continued to support organisations and individuals to remain financially viable and to maintain operations and service delivery where possible during the pandemic.
• The CRP funding maintained existing employment and created new employment opportunities through a mixture of new positions, increased hours for existing positions, and professionalising roles that had previously been unpaid or underpaid.
• In some cases, CRP funding had a positive impact on the community around funded organisations, leading to positive employment outcomes for non-sector businesses.
• The CRP supported organisations to adapt their offerings, including shifting to digital and online, increasing audience reach.
• The CRP uplifted capability and skills training across a broad range of transferable and industry-specific skills that are likely to support longer-term sustainability and resilience in the face of future operating challenges.

The following sections discuss each of the impact areas in more detail.

Financial viability

Loss of income due to the pandemic remained a real issue for the sector from 2022 through to 2024. There was a hesitancy to organise events due to the risk that they would be cancelled because of illness or pandemic restriction measures, and that income would be lost as a result. To encourage activity in the sector there were several schemes supporting organised events, including minimising losses for creatives and supporting crew should events be cancelled. These included the Screen Production Recovery Fund (administered by the New Zealand Film Commission), which offered reimbursement for costs incurred by eligible screen productions disrupted by COVID-19, and the Arts and Cultural Event Support Scheme (ACESS) which covered the costs of cancelled arts and cultural events due to COVID-19 disruption.

The New Zealand Music Commission’s Aotearoa Touring programme was another such initiative, aiming to support New Zealand musicians to perform live music all around the country. The programme sought to keep venues open and supported artists by subsidising the costs of their tours. The New Zealand Music Commission noted the importance of supporting events throughout Aotearoa through the programme:

“This meant that as soon as people were able to go out again, we were running a matched funding scheme where we were supporting 50% of the costs for artists to be able to go out and tour and perform around the country… A big thing for us was work appearing outside of the three main centres, so through the Aotearoa Touring Programme there were 3,100-plus shows and they happened in 164 different towns and cities around New Zealand.”
Funding partner, NZ Music Commission

In other words, the Aotearoa Touring programme directly supported the music industry to host thousands of events throughout Aotearoa that the industry may not have had the confidence to otherwise deliver. The programme is therefore a clear example of the CRP supporting financial viability by providing artists and venues with the confidence to go ahead with events during uncertain times, while also supporting engagement with the cultural sector throughout Aotearoa. As the New Zealand Music Commission further noted:

“[The CRP worked] in terms of keeping artists viable, crew employed and venue doors open. It’s certainly worked up until the last six months. I think it had a very positive impact. Unfortunately, we are now starting to see all the other global and economic impacts really affect smaller venues.” 
Funding partner, NZ Music Commission

Preservation and creation of employment

Employment in the cultural sector can be inconsistent, with many creatives noting the importance of government funding or needing to also conduct work outside the cultural sector (Litmus, 2023). There is a reported lack of employment opportunities, and the field is competitive. COVID-19 exacerbated these challenges by impacting peoples’ ability to conduct their regular work and with businesses shutting down reducing employment opportunities further (Litmus, 2023). CRP funding was used to maintain existing employment opportunities, create new opportunities (both full and part-time), professionalise roles that were previously not paid or underpaid, and increase the paid hours worked by existing employees. CRP funding thus facilitated a variety of employment opportunities at a time when jobs were in jeopardy due to COVID-19, supporting roles for creatives, crew, and strategic and coordination positions.

One example of new employment created by the CRP was in the film sector, through the Premium Productions for International Audiences Fund (“Premium Productions Fund”). The Premium Productions Fund was topped up with CRP funding to assist in the creation of more employment and skill development opportunities in the screen sector (Manatū Taonga, 2023g, 2024d). The creation of new employment opportunities for New Zealanders accounted for 46% of the production costs for nine television series and two feature films made using funding from the Premium Productions Fund.

Another example is Māoriland, an organisation that received CRP funding from several different sources, who noted the substantial role that the funding played in their ability to grow their kaimahi:

“Māoriland has, as an organisation grown exponentially over the past five years, and that’s in large part due to that funding and the impact of that for the community is that we’ve got a really buzzy active community… to put it into context, when we went into March 2020 we had five full time staff, by the end of that year—and it was through a mixture of the COVID recovery funding and another fund … we ended that year with about 20 kaimahi and we’ve been able to maintain that.” 
Funding recipient, Māoriland Charitable Trust

This growth was not only internal to the organisation, with the organisation noting that the events run by Māoriland contributed directly to the economic, cultural, and social prosperity of other businesses and individuals in their local area:

“The café next door, when we do events they do extended hours because they know they’ll do good business. And so after the film festival this year we did a survey, and [nearby businesses] all said that their business had increased by at least 20% over the course of the week and that they’d be doing special initiatives for next year so that they could drum up even more business. Māoriland exists for the social, cultural, and economic benefit of all Ōtaki… the arts is seen like a light fluffy, nice to have, but it’s actually generating economic activity, it’s creating new jobs where there weren’t previously jobs in our community and it’s inspiring our young people to be part of something.”
Funding recipient, Māoriland Charitable Trust

In other words, CRP funding (combined to some extent with other funding) has allowed several organisations to substantially grow their staff numbers, creating new employment opportunities. In the case of Māoriland, this growth has had a positive impact on the community around the organisation, and the newly created roles have largely been preserved.

Continuation of services and operations

Organisations and individuals experienced loss of income for a variety of different reasons related to COVID-19 disruption, including exhibition or site closure, reduced ticket sales, staff illness, and loss of advertising revenue. This income would normally be used to pay bills, maintain buildings, and pay staff. For some organisations to continue to remain open, CRP funding was used to cover operational costs and to offer online services. For example, NZ On Air noted that CRP funding distributed by them (such as the Public Interest Journalism Fund) enabled organisations to continue operating and to shift online:

“At one point we had 1.9 million views of Public Interest Journalism content that had been funded, and I think that was the first year… Even just requiring publishers to put the content online, they found new business models as a result. … if you think about, you know, a little community newspaper that now is online and now is able to engage with its audience that way and attract advertisers that way where they previously wouldn’t even have considered that as being their number one thing to do… we’ve seen news apps and online sites arise as a result.” 
Funding partner, NZ On Air

In considering the benefits of the CRP funding, the interview participant summarised that, ‘In terms of economic recovery, it kept businesses going at a time when they otherwise would have folded’ (Funding partner, NZ On Air). In other words, CRP funding directly contributed to the continuation of services and operations in the journalism sector during COVID-19.

Another example of CRP funding supporting the continuation of services was in the museums sector. The Museum Hardship Fund focused on supporting small to medium-sized museums, galleries and whare taonga to prevent closure and to continue to provide access to collections.

Funding went to 188 museums, 16 galleries, 10 iwi organisations, 4 combined museum and gallery spaces and 1 online museum. In funding rounds 1 and 3, 30% of funding recipients had to close during normal operating hours during the funding period. In Round 2, this number rose to 40%. Of those organisations who could not remain open due to COVID-19 restrictions, many reported using Museum Hardship funding to create or update online offerings. This meant that collections were more accessible online.

Across Rounds 1 to 3, 30% of funding was used to maintain taonga and maintain collections with recipients using funding in the development of a new collection website, new audio guides and cataloguing, digitisation and display of an entire collection. Operational costs such as insurance, maintenance and income-generation planning accounted for 21% of the spend, and infrastructure accounted for 14% of the spend (Manatū Taonga, 2023d).

Skills development

Recruiting and retaining a skilled cultural sector workforce was another challenge exacerbated by COVID-19 and other external disruptions (Manatū Taonga, 2023c). Many CRP initiatives sought to grow a more skilled workforce and to enhance the professionalism of the sector.

Across many CRP funds there were reports of successful workshops, wānanga, and training courses to uplift capability. These covered a broad range of skills; for example, funding has been used to enable people to develop skills to better understand neurodiversity and people struggling with their mental health, to increase te ao Māori understanding and enhance cultural competency, and to pass skills and knowledge onto future generations.

Moreover, longer-term training opportunities became possible in the media and broadcasting sectors as a result of funding. Te Rito Journalism Project (funded through the Public Interest Journalism Fund) was established through a partnership of four media organisations (NZME, Whakaata Māori, Newshub, and Pacific Media Network). The project aimed to address the lack of Māori, Pacific and Diverse Voice journalists in New Zealand newsrooms. The on-the-job, year-long training programme provided upskilling for cadets, and in total 34 journalists graduated from the two Te Rito cohorts, along with four from Te Ia Ka Oho programme, a further six from the Allied Press Journalism Cadet Programme - Te Waraki, and four Chinese-language journalists from Go Global, creating a tangible contribution to New Zealand journalism (NZ On Air, 2024). 

In reflecting on this and other initiatives, NZ On Air noted in an evaluation interview that CRP funding supported greater appreciation for diversity within the sector:

“We weren’t getting a diverse range of journalists coming through that reflected New Zealand, so there was a lack of Pasifika, Māori, pan-Asian, disabled, neurodiverse journalists. So it was quite a monocultural workforce, and the investment in capability building through the likes of Te Rito Journalism programme and a number of other smaller ones has been really notable. … the capabilities side has been huge.” 
Funding partner, NZ On Air

Another example of CRP funding contributing to skills development was the Creative Careers Service. The Creative Careers Service was a two-year pilot that supported creatives to access support to help them develop the skills they would need to be financially sustainable in their own business or practice. The Creative Careers Service was successful in helping creatives identify and develop their creative careers, improve their business skills, link into a network of creatives and provide them the knowledge required to write grant applications. In the post-exit survey, around 75% of respondents agreed the service helped them in these areas, and 43% of the respondents agreed the service helped them source funds for business development (Litmus, 2023).

“If I had to ask for funding [before the service], I wouldn’t know what they were looking for. Now, I would know what to write and include in the proposal.” 
Creative Careers Service participant (Litmus, 2023)

Resilience, sustainability and adaptation

With the cultural sector having to work around disruption and cancellations due to COVID-19, audience hesitancy to participate in events, and cost becoming a barrier to participation, the CRP funding was widely used to invest in the future of the sector, including exploring ways to diversify income generation, develop effective succession planning and developing new systems and strategies. Organisations adapted through continued use and development of technology, making it possible to offer cultural experiences, performances, training and publications through online mediums to engage audiences during COVID-19 restrictions. Others developed strategic plans on how best they could work together to create sustainable futures.

One example of the CRP funding being used to support strategic planning beyond COVID-19 was through Creative New Zealand’s Retain Core Arts Local Government Arts Fund. This funding supported the development of 16 regional post-COVID-19 arts strategies. The strategies were developed through engagement with organisations and individuals to identify a vision, and to develop goals and objectives intended to shape solutions to meet the current needs and challenges of the sector. In some cases, resources were allocated to support implementation of the strategy, and in all cases the strategies were recognised as a starting point to encourage further collaboration across the region (Creative New Zealand, 2024a).

Other, more initiative-specific sustainability and resilience benefits were also evident. For example, one Regeneration Fund recipient noted that they explicitly planned to have a long-lasting impact with the expectation that funding would eventually end:

“It was not just about how do we have more time and connection with people, it was how do we develop more evergreen resources that can be made accessible into the future through online portals and things. This means that if we need to eventually scale back down as the funding ends and we have capacity to employ as many people directly, we can still be in service of our broader community effectively by making those resources accessible through other means. … it really enabled us to strategically serve our communities both within the time period and into the future because of the way we approached it.” 
Fund recipient, Creative Waikato

Even though CRP funding was a specific moment in time, examples such as this provide a clear indication that the funding contributed to long-term sustainable delivery of outcomes in some areas.

However, this finding is by no means universal. While the strategic thinking and long-term planning supported by the CRP enhanced the resilience and sustainability of communities and helped to counteract the direct impact of COVID-19, several evaluation participants noted that the funding was not able to solve many of the sustainability and resilience issues that existed in the sector before the pandemic. For example, one CRP funding partner organisation cautioned about providing a high quantity of time-specific funding to a historically underfunded sector:

“We need to be careful about addressing long-term funding challenges with timebound money. In some instances, organisations received substantial multi-year funding and built their organisational capacity accordingly, only to have the funding came to an end. Organisations then looked to us to fill the gap.” 
Funding partner, Creative New Zealand

Others noted similar points. For example, NZ On Air reflected on the challenges faced by the media and journalism sector in recent months, and the resulting loss in services and employment. Even the Regeneration Fund recipient above—while exhibiting aspects of sustainable practice—acknowledges the need to scale back staff numbers in their organisation when the funding ends. Indeed, one funding recipient explicitly notes that the issues faced by the industry during the pandemic were in many ways only surfaced by COVID-19, rather than caused by it:

“The really interesting thing in reflection on COVID is that from our perspective, what it did was highlight systemic issues that existed anyway and amplified them. So I think that the need of the sector, the kind of underfunding of the sector, the need for increased capability building, the need for increased accessibility existed for years prior to COVID. But COVID shone a really bright light on it and came with some funding to enable some stuff to happen in response. That was a really interesting opportunity to demonstrate what can happen when there is meaningful investment in infrastructure and capability building and kind of community access in the sector.” 
Fund recipient, Creative Waikato

While it was never the purpose of the CRP to mitigate long-standing pre-pandemic sustainability issues in the sector, it is clear that the CRP has contributed to resilience, adaptation, and sustainability during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is too early to tell what lasting impacts the CRP may have on sustainability over the longer term. Assessing such impacts in future would need to consider the wider ongoing, non-pandemic specific challenges affecting the cultural sector over time.

The following section provides an in-depth example to illustrate the contributions an individual CRP initiative has made to this overall outcome.

Impact in practice – Arts and Cultural Event Support Scheme (ACESS) and Cultural Sector Relief Fund (CSERF)

About the initiatives

ACESS was announced in December 2021 and continued to deliver funding until January 2023 through its function as an event underwriting fund. The fund was designed to provide confidence for organisations to commit to deliver events with the knowledge that they would be able to pay venues, employees, and suppliers should the event be cancelled due to COVID-19.

The CSERF for self-employed practitioners was open until May 2022 and distributed an emergency payment for eligible self-employed individuals and organisations. Eligible individuals received a one-off taxable payment of $5000, if they demonstrated they had lost income due to COVID-19 disruption or cancellations. The CSERF for organisations was for those organisations, including sole traders, in the cultural sector which were at serious risk of closing due to economic circumstances.

This section of the report focuses on impacts of funds from the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years. Although CSERF closed in May 2022, it is included here, alongside ACESS, as both funds are considered together to form the emergency relief funding with appropriation from the Delta and Omicron packages.

Impacts

ACESS contributed to the following CRP impacts:

• Financial viability for creatives, crew, event suppliers and venues as they continued to be paid should an event be cancelled.
• Creation and preservation of employment as successfully held events generated income and retained creatives and crew to support them.
• Continuation of venue services and operations as payments supported them to remain open even if no event was held.

CSERF contributed to the following CRP impacts:

• Financial viability with payments to self-employed practitioners and organisations in the cultural sector, who required emergency payments to meet essential expenses.
• Continuation of services and operations with payments to support practitioners and organisations to remain working in the sector.

Events were pre-approved for coverage by ACESS but only paid out if they were cancelled. During 2022/23, 119 events were pre-approved (26% of all pre-approved ACESS events), with 69% (82 events) of those cancelled and therefore requiring ACESS support. This demonstrated the need and ongoing demand for continued insurance and financial support into 2023. The $5.5 million of ACESS funding delivered in 2022/23 made up 17% of the total ACESS spend, with the rest of the spend attributed to the 2021/22 financial year.

The reach of the ACESS fund—supporting crew, venues, event suppliers and creatives—was noted as one of the most important features of the fund:

“It wasn’t just the event organisers, it was the venues, it was the guys who put stages together, it was the health and safety … I think [the ACESS fund] did keep a lot of them afloat and keep them with their hand in the sector, if not continuously employed through that time." 
Interview participant, Manatū Taonga

Results of impact surveys administered by Manatū Taonga indicate that at the time of application/funding, 97% of ACESS recipients felt that the funding was very or somewhat significant to their financial viability. For CSERF individual and organisational fund recipients, survey results indicated that 100% and 90% respectively felt the funding was very or somewhat significant for their financial viability.

Figure 7 shows how survey respondents felt about the financial viability of their practice or organisation was now (at the time of the survey) compared to when they first received the ACESS or CSERF funding. For ACESS fund recipients, almost half felt that they were in a better financial situation in 2023 than when they received the emergency funding. For CSERF recipients, 60% of individuals and 40% of organisations felt that their practice or organisation was in an improved financial situation in 2023 relative to when they received the funding. These respondents noted that the support prevented redundancies, paid staff and operational expenses, provided confidence, and allowed recipients to stay available for work in their field.

Around 40% (36% through to 46%) of ACESS and CSERF individual and organisation recipients felt their financial viability was similar to when they received support, with many noting that support was spent on operational costs, the cost of living, and simply surviving. A total of 6% of ACESS recipients, 4% of CSERF individual recipients, and 20% of CSERF organisation recipients who responded to the survey indicated that their financial viability was worse now when compared to receiving support, noting that their support was also used to pay living costs, bills, and operational expenses.

Figure 7. Percentage of individuals or organisations that responded that they felt that their practice or organisation was in a better, similar or worse financial state than when they first received the ACESS or CSERF funding. 

Number of respondents = 35 (ACESS), 95 (CSERF individuals), 10 (CSERF organisations). Source: ACESS Impacts Survey, 2023.

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Figure 8 shows that over 90% of ACESS and CSERF individual grant recipients strongly or somewhat agreed that the funding helped their practice or organisation to remain in the creative industry. For the 10 CSERF funded organisations that responded, 78% agreed that the funding helped them to remain in the industry. Note, the number of survey respondents in Figure 7 differs from Figure 8 as some survey questions had a lower response rate than others or the individual or organisation responded that the question was not applicable.

Figure 8. Remaining in the creative industry: the percentage of survey respondents who received ACESS or CSERF funding who responded their agreement, neutrality, or disagreement regarding whether the funding helped support them or their organisation to remain in the creative industry. 

Number of respondents = 34 (ACESS), 89 (CSERF individuals), 9 (CSERF organisations). Source: ACESS Impacts Survey, 2023.

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Results and comments from the impact surveys show that recipients of both the CSERF and ACESS funding felt that the funding had resulted overall in a similar or improved financial situation for their practice or organisation since receiving the funding and that they felt supported to remain in the creative industry. For example, when asked about any other benefits of the ACESS funding, one respondent noted:

“Retaining a pool of artists in the industry—we could still plan to work, rather than plan to quit. Retaining suppliers—they could count on us to pay our bills this time and ensure a next time.” 
ACESS Fund recipient

Outcome 2: He Kuhunga, He Whai Wāhitanga Māmā | Better Access and Participation

Outcome statement: New Zealanders have access to and participate in diverse and rich cultural experiences in a post-COVID environment.

Initiatives supporting this outcome aimed to maintain and grow audiences, address barriers to access and participation, and represent and engage more New Zealanders in arts, culture, and heritage.

Following the end of COVID-related restrictions, the new operating environment brought about changes in people’s attitudes towards engagement in the cultural sector. Where earlier data identified concerns relating to COVID-19 as a top barrier to participating in person in cultural activities in 2020 and 2022, by 2023, this was no longer the case (see Figure 1; Manatū Taonga, 2022). As a result, cultural participation rates began to rebound.

In 2023, 82% of New Zealanders preferred to engage with the cultural sector in person, a rise of 5 percentage points over 2022 and 15 percentage points from 2020, indicating a growing preference for pre-pandemic modes of engagement. With the lessening of COVID concerns, other challenges became more prominent in 2023, with the top barrier to in-person engagement being cost, followed by lack of personal interest, and lack of awareness or information. The proportion of New Zealanders preferring to engage online has remained stable at around 11% from 2020 to 2023 (Manatū Taonga, 2023b). With these ongoing challenges and changes in behaviour in mind, the arts, culture and heritage sectors needed to continue to find ways to maintain and increase access to and participation in performances, collections and events.

To understand how the CRP performed in promoting better access and participation, the impact of those funds delivered between 2022 and 2024 were assessed against five areas:

1. Protection and preservation of mātauranga and taonga Māori
2. Increased cultural participation
3. Lower barriers to participation
4. New content, products, services, and delivery
5. Protection and preservation of content, services, and delivery

Key findings

From synthesising the available data and insights collected for measuring the impacts of the initiatives delivered by the CRP in 2022/23 and 2023/24, several key findings emerge relevant to Outcome 2: He Kuhunga, He Whai Wāhitanga Māmā | Better Access and Participation:

• The CRP supported iwi, Māori, and others to protect and preserve mātauranga and taonga Māori in a range of areas, leading to increased access to knowledge, participation in wānanga and other cultural activities, and the intergenerational transfer of skills.
• The CRP supported a wide range of cultural activities to continue and, in some cases, increase despite challenges to delivery
• The CRP lowered barriers to participation in sector activities through supporting new modes of participation (e.g., online delivery), reducing cost, and expanding offerings to new population groups and localities.
• The CRP enabled new content to be developed over a broad range of media, from new approaches to disseminating news media to tools to track the reach and success of content.

The following sections discuss each of these areas in turn.

Protection and preservation of mātauranga and taonga Māori

Māori arts, culture, and heritage are a taonga, the embodiment and expression of the depth and breadth of mātauranga Māori passed down from generation to generation (Aiko, 2024). Mātauranga Māori plays a significant role in strengthening Māori connections to culture, in healing the traumas of colonisation, in understanding the world around us, and in enriching the lives of all New Zealanders. As such, the protection, preservation, reclamation and transmission of mātauranga Māori is essential to support flourishing Māori and Tangata Tiriti futures. Mātauranga is inextricably linked to Māori identity and whakapapa and expressing and sharing arts and cultural forms of mātauranga are critical to Māori ways of being (Aiko, 2024).

Within the sector, the protection and preservation of mātauranga and taonga Māori can involve the transmission of knowledge from person to person through wānanga, demonstrations, workshops, and similar. The preservation of mātauranga and taonga Māori can also take the form of recording waiata and oral histories, caring for physical taonga collections, and the digital preservation of carvings and buildings. The CRP supported iwi Māori to protect and preserve mātauranga Māori and taonga Māori through a range of methods. This was most clearly evident in Te Awe Kōtuku, as discussed in the Impact in Practice example at the end of Outcome 1.

Another example of CRP funding being used to protect and preserve mātauranga was the Cultural Sector Innovation Fund. At the time of the evaluation in 2022, ten projects were selected by evaluators (in agreement with Manatū Taonga) to be subject to a case study, three of which received seed funding, and seven of which received project funding. Six of the ten projects provided measures for safeguarding mātauranga Māori. These six projects noted protecting Māori intellectual property and artefacts, transmitting cultural stories, developing the vocabulary of te reo, preserving traditional methods of art, using social media to engage people in approaches to working with whenua, and telling mana whenua stories through creative projects. Evaluation of the Cultural Sector Innovation Fund’s contributions to protecting and preserving mātauranga was overall favourable, concluding that:

“There is compelling evidence that some of the innovation projects directly enhance, nourish, and/or transmit mātauranga Māori. Specifically, several of the funded kaupapa demonstrated tangible contributions to furthering the storehouse of mātauranga Māori.” 
(Allen + Clark, 2023)

Increased cultural participation

In 2023, 97% of respondents to the Manatū Taonga cultural participation survey had participated in an arts and culture activity in the past 3 months (Manatū Taonga, 2023b). Levels of participation were dependent on the type of activity with sound and screen having the highest levels of participation, and performing arts, festivals, and commemorations and visual arts having lower levels of participation. Between 2022 and 2023 the levels of individual participation over the previous 12 months increased for museum visits, musical, dance or theatre performances, live music performances, Māori performing arts, Pacific performing arts, all festivals, visual art galleries, Māori visual arts and Pacific visual arts (Manatū Taonga, 2023b).

Respondents to the same cultural participation survey highlighted a range of reasons why they engage in cultural activities, including learning and experiencing something new, for social connection, for self-expression, for fun, or even for promoting the creation of other art itself:  

“Just under half (44%) of New Zealanders have created art in the past 12 months. This is much higher amongst New Zealanders who participate in arts, culture and heritage activities.”
(Manatū Taonga, 2023b)

In other words, investing in opportunities for participation creates value beyond the initial cultural activity itself, and may have a range of flow-on effects.  

Many of the CRP initiatives focused on providing opportunities for cultural participation and delivering content for diverse audiences. This was a key focus for many CRP funding partners, as noted below:

“If we come back to audiences, which is what our mission is all about, the audiences, in the end, were served and that is the outcome that we are here for.”
Funding partner, NZ On Air

One specific example of CRP investment leading to increased participation in the cultural sector was the Pasifika Festivals Initiative, which was funded over three years, continuing into 2022/23. This funding allowed the use of high-quality venues for the festivals and for the contracting of professional Pacific entertainment. Many of these events sold out, resulting in large numbers of people getting to experience high quality Pacific arts, as well as Pacific artists being empowered to develop their careers (Creative New Zealand, 2024b). Seven percent of cultural participation survey respondents had participated in at least one Pasifika festival in 2023, compared to 4% in both 2022 and 2020 (Manatū Taonga, 2023b).

One flow-on effect of the Pasifika festivals supporting professional Pacific entertainment and associated roles was the continuity of festival teams which helped develop and scale up events each year. The increased public and funding support led to a number of festivals increasing notably in size and presenting at major venues which they hadn’t been to or been able to access previously. These events marked a milestone for the festivals, signalling within those regions the presence and importance of such events and of Pasifika communities more broadly in those spaces. There were also other festivals which had to seek bigger venues than previous years to accommodate bigger participant and anticipated audience numbers (Creative New Zealand, 2024b).

Lower barriers to participation

People experience a variety of personal barriers to their participation in arts, culture and heritage activities. For example, disability, health (physical and mental), cost, isolation, and age can all impact someone’s ability to participate in such activities (Manatū Taonga, 2022a, 2023b).  

One example of lowering barriers to participation was the Creative Spaces Initiative (an initiative under the CARE Fund umbrella), a partnership between Manatū Taonga and Arts Access Aotearoa over four years. This funding was to ensure creative spaces were able to continue to offer creative opportunities for communities at a time when people were not able to physically attend due to COVID-19 restrictions or personal health reasons. Funding was used to rapidly set up online programmes, and to support innovative ways of ensuring resources were available to those at home, providing new ways for individuals to participate. CRP funding was also used to employ new or additional staff, increase opening hours, and to expand the creative spaces’ offerings to new population groups and geographical areas.

For example, one Creative Spaces recipient noted the flow-on effects to the community resulting from the funding, including that the funded initiative boosted attendance at events by the whānau of participants:

“So first it [the funding] did its basic job of creating access to the arts for young people, but what’s been really special to see is whānau have responded as well... Everybody shows up and I think that’s really special in terms of seeing a whole community knit together around the arts and the kind of the value of creative activities for growing community activity and connection.”​
Funding recipient, Māoriland Charitable Trust

As a result of the additional staff, operating hours, and outreach activities enabled by the CRP funding, 78% of the creative spaces (42 out of 54) saw an increase in participation, notably increasing Māori and Pacific participation by 27% and 34% respectively (Manatū Taonga, 2023c). A Creative Spaces recipient noted:

“We are reaching double the participants each month with that figure growing every month. Being able to remove the barrier of cost has had a huge impact on the uptake of our programmes and has allowed us to support charitable trusts working with our target demographics.” 
Funding recipient (Manatū Taonga, 2023c)

Examples such as those above clearly demonstrate that CRP funding was successfully used to lower barriers to participation in the sector during the pandemic.

New content, products, services and delivery

In some cases, CRP funding was used to top up existing funding for organisations that deliver live, published and recorded content. CRP funding was also available for new and live music, new written content, and for the screen sector to tell New Zealand stories to international audiences.

One example of the contributions to new content, products, services, and delivery is the Public Interest Journalism Fund. Funding for the Public Interest Journalism Fund ended in June 2023, though the outputs resulting from this funding are expected to continue to 2026 (NZ On Air, 2023). In 2022/23 and 2023/24, CRP funding was used to produce 50,800 pieces of content (with 126 million views) and 40,100 pieces of content (with 98 million views) respectively (NZ On Air, 2024), providing stability to the journalism sector during a tumultuous period and ensuring that works of public interest were still able to be produced.

CRP funding also supported NZ On Air to more effectively track the impact of their funding, and in doing so supported an improved model of sector funding delivery. All funded content was required to have an online presence and was digitally coded so that data could be collected on viewing numbers and mode of engagement. However, the technology to track this content engagement needed to be developed, which was achieved through creating a proprietary measurement system using Google Analytics tracking tags for each piece of funded content. Using this tracking tool will become standard for all NZ on Air digital content (NZ On Air, 2023). An NZ On Air interview participant noted that this allowed them to determine in real time what content was successful and where niche content found its audience, and that the approach represented a long-term improvement in their ability to measure impact across their funding streams:

“A number of things are enduring. The first thing is that monitoring data, View, is now an established process that we have embedded into all content. So, we are rolling it out across all of our platforms… it is our intention to have online data for the performance of all content.” 
Funding partner, NZ On Air

Many other initiatives also produced and delivered new content, services, products, or programmes as a result of the funding provided by the CRP. One such example is the funding provided to Māoriland, which a representative from the organisation noted:

“Our innovation project… that’s kind of taken us into a completely new space both organisationally and in terms of what we’re able to do in terms of outreach, training, advocacy … we use that funding to develop some IP and to do a whole lot of training and it’s kind of incredible… the impact of that project, to grow the potential of what Māoriland will be next has been really phenomenal.” 
Funding recipient, Māoriland Charitable Trust

The CRP funding has therefore led to both new content and new ways of delivery in the sector, including for temporary and business as usual funding processes. In several cases, new content, services, products, and delivery will continue to have an impact beyond the immediate funding period of the CRP.

Protection and preservation of content, services and delivery

The COVID-19 pandemic represented a time of substantial uncertainty for much of the sector, with notable risks for revenue and therefore for the ability of planned content to be delivered. For many this required substantial pivots in mode of delivery; lockdowns and capacity restrictions in the first two years of the CRP funding meant that it was necessary for much of the sector to embrace digital tools and online methods to deliver existing services and content.

Even as restrictions lifted, this trend continued into 2022/23 and 2023/24, with organisations discovering the advantages associated with online offerings. As indicated in the analysis of Outcome 1, the Public Interest Journalism Fund helped protect content delivery and services around the country. The Public Interest Journalism Fund also supported Open Justice, which ensured court reporting could continue in regions where reporting had decreased due to lack of available resources in regional newsrooms (NZ On Air, 2023).

In other cases, the CRP funding directly enabled organisations to continue with their planned pipeline of delivery from before the pandemic, as evidenced by one Regeneration Fund recipient:

“Everything that we did was on our plan of work, but was able to happen quicker than if we had none of that funding... The strategic plan that we developed prior to the end of 2019, we continued to deliver the things that were on that plan due to this work.”
Fund recipient, Creative Waikato

In other words, the CRP funding enabled many in the sector to execute against their pre-pandemic strategic planning, while it provided others with the security necessary to continue with business as usual and to adapt to the (largely online) needs of operating in a pandemic.

The following section provides an in-depth example to illustrate the contributions of an individual CRP initiative to this overall outcome.

Impact in practice – Mātauranga Māori Te Awe Kōtuku programme

About the initiative

This $24.5M programme included both direct funding from Manatū Taonga as well as programmes delivered in partnership with service providers, organisational partners, and sector agencies from 2020 to 2024. This was the first time a dedicated fund was made available to support mātauranga Māori in arts, culture and heritage at this scale. Te Awe Kōtuku delivered 18 initiatives, with 3 grants programmes that alone funded 272 community-led projects, which provides an indication of the scale of the overall programme. Activities were delivered across New Zealand, including areas where protection of mātauranga is both challenging and important due to small, isolated populations. This programme aimed to help protect, preserve, revitalise, reclaim, and transmit mātauranga Māori, and has made a positive difference to the lives of practitioners and their communities.

This section focuses on the impacts of some of the initiatives operating between 2022 and 2024. Te Awe Kōtuku funding contributed to the following CRP impacts:

Impacts

Protection and preservation of mātauranga and taonga Māori

Mātauranga and taonga Māori were protected and preserved through hundreds of funded projects. Funding reduced financial pressure on ringatoi Māori, mātanga and tohunga and created space and opportunity for Māori to share mātauranga:

“The [Te Awe Kōtuku] funding helped ringatoi maintain or accelerate momentum, make new discoveries and broaden access to mātauranga. Without this funding, the kaupapa would likely have continued but at a slower pace and with increased hardship.”
(Aiko, 2024)

Examples of protection and preservation include Haumanu Collective’s work to protect and preserve critically endangered mātauranga around taonga pūoro. Podcasts were used as a successful method to share mātauranga (Haumanu Collective, 2023; 2024):

“The continuation of podcast series Oro Rua 2 means that mātauranga is captured with current knowledge holders for present and future reference.”
(Haumanu Collective, 2023)

The Haumanu Collective also protected and preserved mātauranga by publishing a children’s book celebrating taonga pūoro, releasing a music album, and holding wānanga and workshops that brought mātanga and learners together.

The intergenerational transmission of mātauranga and development of leadership skills were also prioritised within funded initiatives, due to the scarce number of expert and learner practitioners in some areas of mātauranga. For example, Te Kiato Limited ran a youth development initiative to share mātauranga around waka whilst also nurturing leadership and resilience. Deep knowledge is held by very small numbers of tohunga and mātanga in tārai waka and this funding offered an opportunity to develop successors and share this knowledge with the next generations in ways that were culturally appropriate (Aiko, 2024).

“We have this accumulation of mātauranga and 20 to 30 years’ worth of mahi that actually speaks for how much we’ve been able to learn, we’ve been able to revitalise in that time and the risk of losing that by just letting it go is probably not something we even want to consider. So moving forward the thousand year strategy is about building those generational bridges and going yep we can hold this and we can keep it going you know.” 
Tohunga, Te Tai Tokerau (Aiko 2024)

Increased cultural participation

Wānanga was the most commonly used approach to enable access and encourage participation in mātauranga. For instance, the grants programme administered by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga for Māori built heritage and ancestral landscapes initiatives recorded 103 wānanga, with 53 marae-hosted events over 31 iwi, and 1476 participants for 65 community-led projects funded. Wānanga are an effective tool for iwi, hapū and whānau to connect and experience mātauranga and were used in many initiatives to enable broad participation. Websites and social media were also used to increase access to mātauranga; for example, Haumanu Collective noted the use of their website to grow their reach:

“Haumanu Collective continues to grow its visibility with the website traffic increasing with over 10K users over the last 12 months as it become as a point of reference for the community to connect.” 
(Haumanu Collective, 2023)

However, there were diverse views on how whānau, hapū, and iwi felt about digitising mātauranga to publish and share versus keeping it secure for those with whakapapa. Digital technology was recognised as a useful tool to support increased access to and participation in mātauranga, but the power to determine the tikanga for how mātauranga was shared and accessed resided with whānau, hapū and iwi (Aiko, 2024).

Another funding recipient, Te Kiato Limited, brought together waka communities to work on carving a waka, further contributing to cultural participation through inspiring local communities:

“We focused on preparing for the Rātā, He Kaha Ki Uta project, coinciding with Te Hau Kōmaru voyaging event. During this period, we brought together skilled craftsmen of tārai waka, voyagers, and paddlers from various waka communities. All the teams involved in the Rātā project were present, and over seven days, we completed the waka that had been partially carved over the past year.” 
(Te Kiato Limited, 2023)

Te Kiato Limited also continued to build national and international collaborations working with national and international waka practitioners (Te Kiato Limited, 2023).

Lower barriers to participation

Te Awe Kōtuku funding made an impact by lowering barriers to participation through increasing digitisation of mātauranga , creating access to whakapapa, mōteatea, and waiata which helped to remove cost barriers, especially for whānau living away from home or overseas (Aiko, 2024). However, digitisation of mātauranga can introduce new barriers to participation, such as needing to build digital capability in communities with small populations and attract investors and technical experts to better understand the realities of living in their communities (Aiko, 2024).

Te Awe Kōtuku funding for wānanga has aided an increase in participation as a result of their lowering the cost of wānanga and therefore increasing financial accessibility. The organiser of one wānanga reported that it had reached capacity within 24 hours of registrations opening and that facilitators made plans to allow an increased attendance (Aiko, 2024).

By the end of two years and across three programmes, Te Kiato reported the emergence of 13 new practitioners of tārai waka, delivery of 15 events, and overall involvement of 394 people (practitioners, participants, whānau and community). All of these people engaged at different levels in the mātauranga: the skills, the learnings from tīpuna and the foundational relationship that tārai waka has with the environment (Aiko, 2024).

New content, products, services and delivery

As mentioned, the protection and preservation of taonga pūoro led to the recording and release of a new album and the publication of a children’s book. Funding was also used to create websites, podcasts and social media to connect with communities and to reach more people. Details and images from events were shared online, and social media was a useful tool for engaging national and international audiences. For example, the Ora Rua Taonga Pūoro podcast increased its traffic by 43% over a single year by increasing listenership through new content creation and resharing of content to maintain their presence (Haumanu Collective, 2024).

Funding was provided to enable an established group, Te Rā Ringa Raupā, a raranga group, to hold wānanga and work together to share patterns, insights and techniques within the group and the community. Further relationships were developed between regions and nationally as a result. In 2022, the group completed the weaving of a full-size replica of Te Rā, the only known customary Māori sail in existence, which has been stored in the British Museum for over 250 years, and had never been fully documented or studied (Aiko, 2024).

“On Dec 14, 1922, a wero was laid down by Te Rangi Hiroa / Sir Peter Buck, torecreate Te Rā (a traditional Māori handwoven waka sail that is in the British Museum as part of Cook’s ‘collection’) and share this mātauranga Māori with the people of Aotearoa. One hundred years later to the day Te Rā Ringa Raupā shared their response to that wero on Dec 14 at the Hihiaua Cultural Centre, Whangarei. Ko Mahere Tū ki te Rangi te ingoa o tēnei rā!” 
(Aiko, 2024)

Protection and preservation of content, services and delivery

Technology and digital tools have been used to protect and preserve content, services and delivery. Whilst websites, apps, social media accounts, digital images and recordings are frequent methods to protect and preserve, the determination of tikanga around how mātauranga should be shared and accessed must reside with the whānau, hapū, and iwi (Aiko, 2024).

Te Awe Kōtuku funding supported the nurturing of mātauranga and transmission of this knowledge to the next generations in ways that made sense to them. However, while funding recipients expressed gratitude for the investment, they cautioned funders on the short-term nature of this funding in regards to the protection and preservation of tārai waka (Aiko, 2024):

“I think people especially the funders get a little frustrated with me because I’m always going, ‘well ...we’ve made some short-term gains but the long-term strategy actually spans a thousand years...that’s how long it takes to grow the kauri that you’re going to need to carve into a waka and I said to them if every 25 years our mātauranga can be certain that the next generation after them has captured what they know and then that generation does the same thing. So every 25 years you’re making sure, yep, there’s the next one, there’s the next one, there’s the next one, there’s the next one.... it’s about quality not quantity. We build the generational bridges and you only need to do that 40 times to span a thousand years that it takes to grow that tree for those mokopuna to carve that waka from that rākau.”
Funding recipient (Aiko, 2024)

Evaluation findings indicated that for mātauranga and taonga Māori, preservation and protection in the sector requires an intergenerational perspective and, therefore, funding that considers future sustainability. Although this was only the first time a dedicated programme had been made available to support mātauranga Māori arts, culture and heritage, Te Awe Kōtuku was found to have been a small but important step towards restoring good faith in the Crown to deliver on its role to actively protect mātauranga Māori (Aiko, 2024).
 

Outcome 3: He Rāngai Ngangahau, He Rāngai Auaha | Vibrant, Innovative Sectors

Outcome statement: The sectors collaborate, adapt and innovate in new ways, enhancing the quality, equity and relevance of content, knowledge, products and services in a post-COVID environment.

Promoting a thriving and vibrant sector whilst in an emergency situation such as the COVID-19 pandemic was, in part, aspirational. By providing funding for initiatives in the Thrive space, the CRP aimed to support sector recovery beyond the immediate emergency of COVID-19. As a result, the CRP provided many funding recipients with the opportunity to accelerate their pursuit of previously held, longer-term and strategic goals.

Outcome 3 focuses on the more transformational, enduring impacts that have resulted from CRP funding. It considers how relationships have been built between Government, funding providers, and organisations; and how organisations have collaborated to deliver successful initiatives.

To understand how the CRP performed against this outcome, the impact of those funds delivered between 2022 and 2024 were assessed against four areas:

1. Increased equity for target groups
2. Supporting iwi Māori relationships and partnerships
3. Innovative practice
4. New effective relationships

Key findings

From synthesising the available data and insights collected for measuring the impacts of the initiatives delivered by the CRP in 2022/23 and 2023/24, several key findings emerge relevant to Outcome 3: He Rāngai Ngangahau, He Rāngai Auaha | Vibrant, Innovative Sectors:

• The CRP assisted in creating employment, leadership, strategic, and participation opportunities that increased equity for target groups in the sector, including Māori, Pacific peoples and people with disabilities.
• Some CRP initiatives empowered Māori to lead projects in a te ao Māori-aligned way, in turn supporting a relational approach that built trust and a strengthened Māori-Crown partnership.
• Innovative practice funded by the CRP helped to engage diverse audiences with the sector, where those audiences may otherwise have not had the opportunity.
• The CRP supported organisations and participants in the sector to build stronger relationships with each other and their communities, while funding processes built stronger relationships between Manatū Taonga and mana whenua, and between funding organisations and the sector.

The following sections discuss each of the impact areas in turn.

Increased equity for target groups

Many programmes funded by the CRP offered training, internships, employment, leadership and governance opportunities for Māori, Pacific peoples, and other target groups. There were also increased opportunities for access and participation in the cultural sector made possible by expansion of services, some of which have been discussed in earlier sections, such as the Pasifika Festivals Initiative (discussed in subsection 2 of Outcome 2), or the Creative Spaces Initiative funding for Māoriland (discussed in subsection 3 of Outcome 2).

An example of where CRP funding led to increased equity for target groups was the Creative Careers Service, an initiative that aimed to support client diversity. Māori participants interviewed considered the service to be responsive and supportive of them as Māori. Pacific participants also reported a positive service experience and valued the connections to broader networks. Participants with a disability likewise considered the service to be person-centred and responsive to their needs, with post-exit survey results of participants showing that 95% of respondents reported the service met their access and learning style needs (Litmus, 2023). Disabled participants reported having online engagement options, and a free service made the service more accessible (Litmus, 2023).

“They’re so good at supporting and going above and beyond for Pasifika and Māori participants. They know what it’s like. They know where we’re coming from and what little resources we’ve grown up with. They’re doing this continually. With the resources, they've got and the talents they have, they’re not just keeping it to themselves.” 
Creative Careers Service participant (Litmus, 2023)

Another example of increased equity for target groups stems from the Creative Spaces Initiative. Throughout the funding period, the Creative Spaces Initiative was able to increase Māori participation in its programmes by 27% (or 1,830 individuals) and Pacific peoples’ participation by 34% (1,108 individuals) in December 2022 compared to July 2021 (Manatū Taonga, 2023c). In contrast, participation for Pākehā increased by 24% (2,375 individuals) over the same period (Manatū Taonga, 2023c).

Over the same timeframe, there was also an increase in employment of Māori paid staff by 49 and of Pacific paid staff by 21, assisting with relationship building and in connecting Māori and Pacific individuals with creative programmes.

Increases in funding for creative spaces also allowed one initiative to further target their offerings for multiple groups, emphasising the benefits for Muslim women in particular:

“We’re more explicitly targeting Māori, Pacific, Muslim, and Rainbow communities and have systems to prioritise referrals. We are reaching more people, [particularly] people with high needs and no access to creativity elsewhere. We have opened up the world of creativity for Muslim women and also provided opportunities for their families and children to be creative.” 
Creative Spaces Funding recipient (Manatū Taonga, 2023c)

They were also able to reach adults with learning or intellectual disabilities, blind and low vision groups, and a physical disability group:

“The funding has enabled us to expand what we do into other sectors of the community. To bring a performance environment to adults who may never have had the opportunity … We have created three new community groups: Introductory Group for adults with learning/ intellectual disabilities, Blind/Low Vision group and a Physical Disability group.” 
Creative Spaces Funding recipient (Manatū Taonga, 2023c)

Examples such as these clearly demonstrate the benefits of CRP funded initiatives for improving access to the sector among a diverse range of target groups.

Supporting iwi Māori relationships and partnerships

In 2011, the Waitangi Tribunal released the Ko Aotearoa Tēnei report which recommended reforms to laws and policies affecting Māori culture and identity. It called for the Māori-Crown relationship to move beyond grievance to a new era based on partnership (Waitangi Tribunal, 2011).

Strengthened iwi Māori relationships and partnerships were one of the four impact measures selected by participating agencies as priorities to measure across the Te Awe Kōtuku programme. The evaluation of Te Awe Kōtuku concluded that government support for mātauranga was effective when delivered through high-trust relationships that support Māori leadership. Supporting and investing in kaimahi and ringatoi Māori across the sector exemplified tino rangatiratanga and reflected a Māori-Crown partnership approach. This relational approach, plus efforts to reduce administrative burden on ringatoi, helped to build further trust for a longer-term partnership with the Crown (Aiko, 2024).

Another example of supporting iwi Māori relationships and partnerships occurred in the implementation of the Innovation Fund. This fund used an alternative approach to support the application process, hosting a series of 17 events throughout the country and online called Te Urungi. In different regions, mana whenua participated in supporting the event. Around 1000 potential applicants attended one of the events (Allen + Clarke, 2023). The events were designed to provide a welcoming and supportive environment for members of the cultural sector, facilitating the development and translation of innovative, creative ideas into a funding application. Following Te Urungi, the Innovation Fund received 529 applications, of which 182 were approved (Allen + Clarke, 2023). 

Māoriland (a Māori-led CRP funding recipient organisation) discussed how the funding enabled them to build stronger relationships with local businesses, and noted their ongoing work supporting local iwi and hapū:

“Ōtaki is a really tight community. A lot of our kaimahi are whānau. We do a lot of work with our iwi and hapū, the five hapū around Ōtaki, there’s always different kaupapa that we’re contributing into, like supporting the recording of local claims and other mahi like that, and so we work kind of in an interconnected way. At the same time there is always room for those connections to be strengthened.”
Funding recipient, Māoriland Charitable Trust

While this work can not necessarily be attributed solely to the CRP funding, it is likely that the strong growth in kaimahi numbers at Māoriland (noted earlier in this report) enabled the organisation to more reliably support iwi and hapū alongside other work, in turn supporting positive relationships.

Other CRP funding contributed to more positive relationships with Māori more broadly. For example, NZ On Air noted that the Public Interest Journalism Fund promoted greater awareness of Te Tiriti and of Māori rights more broadly:

“There are some lasting legacy things from the PIJF… you know there was a lot of work through the PIJF that was done to increase diversity not just in newsrooms but in understanding Te Tiriti and ensuring that Māori are respected.”
Funding partner, NZ On Air

Innovative practice

Examples of innovative practice stemming from the CRP funding are difficult to pinpoint precisely. While the Innovation Fund provided support to many projects aiming to do something new, Allen + Clarke (2023) note in their evaluation that the lack of a consistent and shared understanding of ‘innovation’ was an issue; this lack of a working definition of innovation in turn makes it difficult to identify innovative practice concretely. Many CRP funding recipients may have innovated through creating new products, delivering new initiatives, or developing new systems. These have already been discussed to some extent in Outcome 2.

In the context of a pandemic emergency, innovation is further complicated by its overlap with adaptation. Nearly all organisations operating during the pandemic (within or outside of the sector) needed to embrace new ways of working in order to continue with their daily operations. As such, ‘innovative practice’ was in some respects the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic. Regardless of these issues in identifying truly innovative practice, there is nonetheless some compelling evidence of new approaches to funding developed by Manatū Taonga, as well as of innovative project content being delivered.

CRP funding was successful at creating spaces and opportunities to test new or innovative ideas to determine whether they are (or could be) successful or not. Innovation, often accompanied by collaboration, was required for organisations and creatives to maintain financial viability during COVID-19, as one funding partner highlighted:

“It allowed a lot of organisations to try something new that they maybe had not done before and had not had the opportunity to do before and we saw collaborations, as well, that created some really nice new synergies that hopefully will last as well.”
Funding partner, NZ On Air

One fund recipient described being able to reach new audiences through performance in novel settings such as artists doing pop-ups, a poet in a church, and a pounamu carver stationed outside the public library – the aim being to engage with diverse audiences that might not otherwise have the chance to be exposed to such an experience (Allen + Clarke, 2023).

In terms of delivery, regarding the Innovation Fund’s Te Urungi events mentioned earlier, funding applicants, including those who had applied for other forms of creative funding, found this approach to be ‘radically different to most funding opportunities in the arts’. Not only was this fund about supporting innovative projects, but delivery of the fund itself via Te Urungi was innovative in itself. It represented a shift away from the written funding application processes typical of the sector and towards more relational approaches (Allen + Clarke, 2023).

I thought it was a unique way to approach funding. I loved the fact that the Fund was set up for innovation, for innovative funds, and the way that it was administered was very innovative.
Innovation Fund applicant (Allen + Clarke, 2023)

New effective relationships

Strong relationships were formed across the sector during the CRP funding period and were essential to project success in several cases. For example, strong relationships were developed between mentors and creatives through the Creative Careers Service initiative and were noted as being integral to the success of the service (Litmus, 2023). Likewise, Te Awe Kōtuku funded many wānanga where successful protection and preservation of mātauranga could occur because of the strength of relationships that were formed (Aiko, 2024).

Another initiative where relationships were a particular strength was Creatives in Schools, administered by the Ministry of Education. The Creatives in Schools initiative required a creative practitioner working with a kaiako or teacher alongside ākonga or students for a minimum of 80 hours contact time to complete a creative project. The duration of the project offered an opportunity for the creative to establish strong relationships with both the kaiako and the learners. While the Creatives in Schools programme had multiple benefits, the performance rating by evaluators on the extent to which the Creatives in Schools programme helped ākonga and students develop relationships with peers was rated ‘Excellent’, while the rating for developing quality relationships with kaiako and teachers and creative practitioners was ‘Very good’ (Oakden & Spee, 2024). As Oakden and Spee (2022) highlight:

“Creatives in Schools is highly engaging for ākonga and students. The projects create a space for creatives, kaiako and teachers to connect with the ākonga and students in ways not previously possible... Creatives in Schools has successfully provided opportunities to create and strengthen school-home partnerships. Creatives in Schools supports real-world learning, involving the community and engaging whānau and parents.” 
(Oakden & Spee, 2022)

In addition, Manatū Taonga worked with mana whenua to create the Te Urungi event series, which encouraged the formation of meaningful relationships between the Ministry and potential funding recipients for the Innovation Fund. The evaluation of this fund highlighted the successes stemming from relationships developed through the process and emphasised the broadly positive feedback from participants, including from those who did not receive funding (Allen + Clarke, 2023).

Relationships were not only developed within funded projects but were also built at the funding provider level as well. For example, NZ On Air noted the goodwill that they gained across multiple industries as a result of the funding being available:

“Through the delivery of the COVID relief through whatever form it was… we built new relationships and we got a lot of goodwill in existing relationships through being able to say ‘hey, we’re here for you, we’re going to be able to help you in this way because we’ve got this additional funding’, so that’s a lasting legacy—we wouldn’t have had those relationships into the news media the way that we did, and the broadcast platforms certainly appreciated the Screen Production Relief Fund assistance as well, and the music industry as well for helping them in times of need. So, it created goodwill.”
Funding partner, NZ On Air

In summary, the CRP funding directly contributed to stronger relationships within communities through funded programmes. Funding enabled organisations to create or strengthen ties with business and whānau in their local area, while funding providers were able to use the CRP funding opportunity to develop deeper and more effective relationships with key organisations in their industries.

The following section provides an in-depth example to illustrate the contributions of an individual CRP initiative to this overall outcome.

Impact in practice – Pasifika Festivals Initiative

About the initiative

The Pasifika Festivals Initiative was a collaboration between Manatū Taonga, Creative New Zealand and the Ministry for Pacific Peoples. Creative New Zealand administered the Pasifika Festivals Initiative and worked closely with the other agencies involved, the Pacific Business Trust, as well as leaders and representatives from the Pasifika festivals community across the country. The initiative was funded over three years via four ‘waves’ (rounds). From the outset, the Pasifika Festivals Initiative was focused on how to remain sustainable once the CRP funding ended.

In this section we focus on how the impacts of the Tolu and Fa waves, delivered throughout 2022 - 2024, contributed to the impacts of Outcome 3 of the CRP.

The third round of funding, the Tolu Wave, focused on funding festivals in 2022 and 2023 with an emphasis on building capability for festival organisers to strengthen future festivals. The fourth round, the Fa Wave, had a focus on broadening a wide range of skills and on developing resources related to strategy, governance and strengthening the national ecosystem for Pasifika festivals (Creative New Zealand, 2024b).

Impacts

Increased equity for target groups

The Initiative used a ‘kaupapa Pasifika’ approach in its design and delivery. This meant supporting Pacific peoples to lead the response for the community, and utilising processes that were rooted in Pacific ways of being and founded on a shared understanding of collective community values. The contribution of Pacific leadership was noted by those involved in the initiative:

“the final thing of the Fa Wave, which is what we're at now, the outcome is a stronger ecosystem in place led by Pacific leaders, ready to move forward.” 
Funding partner, Creative New Zealand – On the Pasifika Festivals Initiative aligned with the Pacific Arts Strategy

Funded capability workshops were open to creatives at all career stages. These workshops aimed to provide Pacific creatives with the knowledge and skills required to maintain sustainable careers (Creative New Zealand, 2024b). Festivals that received funding in the Tolu wave represented many Pacific nations and cultures, while relationships between cultures were enhanced through many festivals inviting non-Pacific communities to perform and participate at the festivals as well (Creative New Zealand, 2024b).

Innovative practice

Several festivals chose to livestream their festivals in 2022; an innovative approach at the time that enabled them to reach wider audiences, and which enabled people to engage from home if they were concerned about COVID-19 (Creative New Zealand, 2022). Given the success of livestreaming in 2022, it was also offered in 2023, demonstrating the potentially long-term benefits of this initial innovation.

Moreover, the Pasifika Festivals Initiative itself was an innovative way of working together to create a sustainable ecosystem. To achieve this there had to be a coordinated upskilling of the community, conducted using strategic Fa wave investment:

“Not just putting on events, but thinking about capabilities like technology, governance, thinking, strategic planning, financial planning, sponsorship, fundraising, all these things, having a strong leadership structure... the tools they’ve learnt and built in that period has been very, very valuable for long-term.” 
Funding partner, Creative New Zealand – On the Pasifika Festivals Initiative aligned with the Pacific Arts Strategy

As the festivals became larger and more visible in 2023, newfound skills in website design, social media, marketing and public relations became important to further promote the festivals. These skills were innovative in their application to the Pasifika festivals sector. There was an appetite to pilot and try new approaches, such as:

• Trialling drop-in sessions where applicants could attend a session to ask questions, listen to others’ queries or write their application
• Trialling of a new assessment approach by Creative New Zealand, using a Lalaga (weaving) framework
• Amending the funding assessment process to create a space that enabled talanoa (a process of inclusive, participatory, and transparent dialogue) between the assessor and applicant, whilst maintaining necessary confidentiality
• Changing assessment criteria from traditional scores to assessment statements.

These approaches together provided applicants with more specific feedback and insights on how their application was perceived by the assessor. This meant that even if the applicant was unsuccessful in terms of funding, the guidance and feedback received through the application process would support their development for future endeavours (Creative New Zealand, 2024b).

New effective relationships

The success of the Pasifika Festivals Initiative was based on the formation of effective relationships. These were created at the funding level through a collaboration between Ministries and Creative New Zealand, partnering with Pacific Business Trust to assist with economic development, and through the formation of a network of festivals by linking the organising committees around the country. Those involved in the initiative highlighted that this relationship building harnessed the strength of a Pacific way of working:

“So that was kind of like our superpower, a Pacific way of working, which is to bring the agencies together, to collaborate and work side by side with the leaders of the Pasifika festivals community.”
Funding partner, Creative New Zealand – On the Pasifika Festivals Initiative aligned with the Pacific Arts Strategy

As festivals grew, the organising committees also developed stronger working relationships with regional Councils, who were able to support in accessing suitable venues. The connections between festivals continued to grow during the Fa wave with shared resources and capability building (Creative New Zealand, n.d.). This culminated in the development of a national peak body, Pasifika Festival Aotearoa Incorporated. The incorporated society was allocated ringfenced funding to hire two FTE roles, develop a website, conduct research on Pasifika festivals in Aotearoa, and support festivals in the development of strategic workstreams owned by the society (Creative New Zealand, n.d.). The society’s aspirations include strengthening relationships with tangata whenua; building sustainability, capability and capacity; contributing to education, training and curriculum development; developing workforce and career pathways, diversifying income and providing opportunities for partnerships and sponsorships, and sharing knowledge, experience and resources to support festivals to be successful (Creative New Zealand, n.d.). As one interview participant noted:

“Three to four years later with all the work and with that $12 million, we can say one of the outcomes that the government had been looking for, is that we now have a national arts infrastructure ecosystem and network of Pasifika festivals.” 
Funding partner, Creative New Zealand – On the Pasifika Festivals Initiative aligned with the Pacific Arts Strategy 

The Cultural Sector Regeneration Fund – a case study

About the initiative

The Cultural Sector Regeneration Fund (the Regeneration Fund) was a new fund opened in September 2022. As such, it was not within the scope of prior impact measurement. This section provides assessment of the outcomes achieved through the fund, with direct links with each of the overarching CRP outcomes.

The Regeneration Fund replaced planned funding rounds of the Capability, CARE, and Innovation funds, and was designed based on sector feedback from these original funds. The Regeneration Fund thus represented a culmination of the organisational learning achieved through earlier implementation of the CRP, with a focus on strategic, sector-led initiatives that would have longer-term, more transformational outcomes than earlier funds. At the same time, consolidation of remaining investment into the Regeneration Fund provided a means to simplify the portfolio of Manatū Taonga administered funds (Manatū Taonga, 2022).

The Regeneration Fund was designed around five intended outcomes. These aligned with the three overarching CRP outcomes, and funded projects were selected for having the strongest potential to contribute to at least two of the fund outcomes:

• Improved access and participation in arts, culture and heritage sectors (Access and Participation)
• Improved safeguarding of Mātauranga Māori and support of Toi Māori (Mātauranga Māori)
• Increased use of arts, culture and heritage as a tool to improve wellbeing (Wellbeing)
• Improved sustainability and resilience of the arts, culture and heritage sectors (Sustainability)
• Increased employment and skill development opportunities (Employment and Skill Development).

The Regeneration Fund application process involved applicants and Manatū Taonga staff working together to assess the likely relevant and realistic contribution a proposed project would make to the chosen fund outcomes. This process included identifying who would benefit from funding (e.g., creative practitioners, sector organisations or audiences) as well as how long the impact of the funding would be expected to endure, and the depth of impact expected.

Following this assessment, applicants that proceeded with a full proposal then submitted applications, which were evaluated in four rounds. Applicants could reapply in subsequent rounds if unsuccessful in the first instance. Manatū Taonga staff provided feedback on projects that were unsuccessful in a round or did not strongly meet the fund criteria to support applicants for greater success in future rounds. This also enabled applicants to withdraw at any stage of the process, to avoid spending time and effort on an application that was unlikely to be successful.

The application stage also included a Sector Feedback process which sought feedback on applications directly from the public. This process allowed for peer-to-peer feedback and the ability for individuals or organisations to record support for applications they thought would benefit the sector most. Over 14,000 pieces of feedback were received from individuals and organisations through this process and provided a useful data point in decision making (Manatū Taonga, 2022).

Funds were awarded to 86 projects, the majority of which had completed delivery by June 2024 (Manatū Taonga, 2024c). A quarter of all Regeneration funded projects were primarily focused on Māori arts and culture, with projects spanning various other focus areas as well (see Figure 9).

Figure 9. Percentage of funded Regeneration Fund projects by primary project type

Source: Consolidation of Outcomes – All successful project reporting (17th July 2024).

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Figure 10 summarises the percentage of Regeneration Fund projects associated with each of the above outcomes. The most common outcome associated with projects was Sustainability (100% of projects), followed by Wellbeing (86%). A quarter of projects (24%) had an outcome focussed on Mātauranga Māori.

Figure 10. Percentage of funded projects contributing to each Regeneration Fund outcome

Projects can contribute to more than one outcome. Source: Consolidation of Regeneration Fund outcomes reporting (21st August 2024). 

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This subsection briefly introduced the Regeneration Fund and the intended outcome areas of its funded projects. The following section discusses the impacts of projects delivered under the Regeneration Fund outcomes, and how this links with the overall CRP impacts. Figures included below are based on reporting received for 65 of the 86 funded projects (76%), who had submitted outcome reporting at the time of writing (August 2024).

Improved access and participation in arts, culture and heritage sectors

Achieving better access and participation was a shared outcome between the CRP as a whole and the Regeneration Fund specifically. Regeneration projects contributing to this outcome sought to address barriers to access and participation, grow audiences and actively represent or engage more New Zealanders in arts, culture and heritage.

Regeneration Fund projects aligned to this outcome contributed to the following CRP impacts:

• Lowered barriers to participation by funding activities for disabled people and underrepresented communities, those who are isolated and those facing financial exclusion
• Increased cultural participation including workshops, websites and events
• Development of new content, products, services and delivery including delivery techniques like digital storytelling and new music, dance and film.

Figure 10 shows that 33% of funded projects had Access and Participation as one of their outcomes. Figure 11 provides the main focus areas for addressing barriers in projects with an Access and Participation outcome. Addressing financial exclusion and isolation was the most common focus at 52%, followed by addressing barriers due to disabilities, and ‘other’ both at 38%.

Figure 11. Delivered projects with an Access and Participation outcome, broken down by barrier categories.

Percent of projects (n = 21). Source: Consolidation of Regeneration Fund outcomes reporting (21st August 2024).

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Of the 28 projects funded with Accessibility targets, 21 projects had fully delivered at the time of writing, with 90% of those projects reporting that they fully met their intended targeted impact. One recipient noted that without the financial exclusion barriers addressed for capability development, participants would not have been able to engage, while another noted that the Regeneration Fund was crucial to build participation in live performance at scale:

“As this project offered free and subsidised capability building, participants were impacted long term. Participants (artists and creatives) cannot fully cover costs for mentoring, workshops and professional development, this work requires structural support and funding… They couldn’t otherwise access the program if it was not free or subsidised.”
Regeneration Fund recipient (Nicholson Consulting, 2024)

“The project was partly developed in response to the pandemic as an opportunity to try to reach the community again, provide accessible performances and getting people back together. We would have proceeded without Regeneration Funding; however, it wouldn’t have been able to be to the same scale and level of impact.”
Regeneration Fund recipient (Nicholson Consulting, 2024)

Improved safeguarding of mātauranga Māori and support of toi Māori

Within the CRP outcomes, initiatives focused on the preservation and protection of mātauranga Māori were considered under the broader Better Access and Participation outcome. The Regeneration Fund included a separate Mātauranga Māori outcome. Projects contributing to this outcome sought to safeguard vulnerable mātauranga through initiatives that strengthen taonga tuku iho and toi Māori infrastructure (including people, places, systems and tools).

Regeneration Fund projects aligned to this outcome contributed to the following CRP impacts:

• Protection and preservation of mātauranga and ngā toi Māori by funding the recording of traditional knowledge or skills, infrastructure to safeguard mātauranga Māori and transmitting or sharing traditional knowledge and skills
• Increased cultural participation including workshops, websites and events
• Development of new content, products, services and delivery.

Regeneration Fund projects often had more than one area of intended benefit under an outcome. Figure 12 shows the types of mātauranga and taonga tuku iho that funded projects sought to protect under this fund outcome. Almost 90% of funded projects had traditional knowledge as a benefit category, with te reo being the next most common at 56%, and toi Māori and traditional skills following at 44% and 33% respectively. Most Mātauranga Māori projects intended these impacts to be felt long term, and more than half anticipated these impacts to be significant.

Figure 12. Delivered projects with a mātauranga Māori outcome, broken down by protection categories.

Percent of projects (n = 9). Source: Consolidation of Regeneration Fund outcomes reporting (21st August 2024). 

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Of the 21 projects funded with Mātauranga Māori outcomes, nine projects had fully delivered at the time of writing and 100% of those projects reported that they fully met or exceeded their intended impact. This shows that there was significant engagement and safeguards delivered through Regeneration Fund projects across multiple areas. One recipient noted how the project provided space for intergenerational sharing of knowledge:

“Something common to all facets of the project through workshops, waananga, and training sessions was whakapapa and the hononga the iwi have to the whenua, maunga and awa. Another benefit was whakawhanaungatanga – all aspects and activities for the project involved whānau learning more about each other and growing those connections (multigenerational – kaumātua, pakeke, rangatahi and tamariki).”
Regeneration Fund recipient (Nicholson Consulting, 2024)

Increased use of arts, culture and heritage as a tool to improve wellbeing

While not an explicit focus of the initial CRP outcomes, Wellbeing was solidified as a priority outcome in the development of the Regeneration Fund. Projects were funded that aimed to provide Wellbeing outcomes for all New Zealanders and/or to strengthen the arts, culture and heritage sector’s ability to deliver wellbeing initiatives in the future.

Regeneration Fund projects aligned to this outcome contributed to the following CRP impacts:

• Skills development, with a focus on enabling creatives to be confident and successful in their careers
• Increased cultural participation including workshops, websites and events to build a sense of belonging and new effective relationships
• Increased engagement and equity for target groups.

Creative Waikato have also reported that there are wellbeing benefits for those with high levels of engagement with arts, culture and creativity and have highlighted the benefit of participants experiencing the feeling of living in a vibrant community and having strong relationships with both like-minded and diverse people (Creative Waikato, 2022). Social connectedness has separately been identified as one of the key drivers of wellbeing and resilience (MSD, 2018).

Figure 10 showed that 86% of projects had Wellbeing as one of their outcomes. Of the 74 projects funded with Wellbeing targets, 58 projects had fully delivered at the time of writing, with 87% of those projects reporting that they had fully met their intended impact.

Regeneration Fund projects with a specific Wellbeing outcome often contributed to more than one Wellbeing benefit category as demonstrated by Figure 13. The knowledge and skills category was the most prevalent Wellbeing benefit category at 72%. This was followed by subjective wellbeing at 64% and cultural capability and belonging at 41%. 

Figure 13. Delivered projects with a Wellbeing outcome, broken down by wellbeing benefit categories.

Percent of projects (n = 58). Source: Consolidation of Regeneration Fund outcomes reporting (21st August 2024).

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Nearly all organisations that responded to the Regeneration Fund survey ‘Agreed’ or ‘Strongly Agreed’ that the funded initiative provided cultural wellbeing benefits (97%). All felt their initiative provided social wellbeing benefits (100%). Many also felt that their initiative provided whānau or family wellbeing benefits (71%), while a 58% noted environmental wellbeing benefits (Nicholson Consulting, 2024).

“Our initiatives are also broadly focussed on increasing the wellbeing of society more generally so included connections for tamariki, rural communities, and non-sector specific workplaces.” 
Regeneration Fund recipient (Nicholson Consulting, 2024)

Improved sustainability and resilience of the arts, culture and heritage sectors

This fund outcome directly aligned with both the Economic Recovery and Vibrant, Innovative Sectors CRP outcomes. Projects with this outcome sought to improve the sustainability of their sub-sector or discipline through sustainable changes that uplift capability and address barriers and needs. Projects delivered a new system, tool, approach, technology or process that would be wide reaching to address a strategic need.

Regeneration Fund projects aligned to this outcome contributed to the following CRP impacts:

• Increased financial viability by developing alternative income sources
• New and preserved employment through funded projects
• Continued and redesigned services and operations
• Building resilience, sustainability, and adaptation through longer-term transformational outcomes
• Innovative practices and approaches through systems, relationships and delivery.

Economic Recovery outcomes were noted in comments from those who received Regeneration funding. One organisation noted the impact that the funding had on remaining viable, while another noted how it had prepared them for the future:

“MCH [Manatū Taonga] funding stopped our organisation closing. Simple as that. We would not have survived.” 
Regeneration Fund recipient (Nicholson Consulting, 2024)

“It has allowed our organisation and team to gain confidence and valuable experience that strengthens our kaupapa and clarifies our future priorities.”
Regeneration Fund recipient (Nicholson Consulting, 2024)

Figure 10 showed that 100% of funded projects had Sustainability as one of their intended outcomes. Of those who had reported, 92% of funded projects had met their Sustainability impacts. Figure 14 shows that 88% of reported projects delivered benefits to their own organisation through the delivered project. 78% of projects benefited sector practitioners (10,093 individuals), and 45% reported Sustainability outcomes for other sector organisations who support practitioners.

Figure 14. Delivered projects with a Sustainability outcome, broken down by benefitting parties

Percent of projects (n = 65). Source: Consolidation of Regeneration Fund outcomes reporting (21st August 2024).

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Increased employment and skill development opportunities 

Projects funded through this outcome aimed to create new or support existing roles to be sustainable. Projects also sought to provide capability building and skills development in key areas to support practitioners. This outcome aligns directly to the Economic Recovery CRP outcome.

Regeneration Fund projects aligned to this outcome contributed to the following CRP impacts:

• Creation and preservation of employment through funded projects
• Skills development, including specific capability development in a project relevant discipline, mātauranga Māori, and project and practice related skills.

Figure 10 showed that 50% of projects had Employment and Skills Development as an intended outcome. Of those who had reported, 100% of ‘Employment’ projects and 90% of ‘Skills Development’ projects had met their intended impacts.

Figure 15 provides a breakdown of this impact across the 65 projects who had completed reporting at the time of writing. It shows that over 5000 people benefitted from capability building in a specific discipline and over 2000 benefitted from mātauranga Māori skills development through Regeneration Fund projects. Almost 800 people found employment through Regeneration Fund projects, while skills development that would benefit organisations and individuals in the long term (such as engagement, governance, collaboration, and networking) were also supported, with over 2700 people taking part in development in these areas.

Figure 15. The reported number of people benefitting from employment and skills development through delivered Regeneration Fund projects.

Source: Consolidation of Regeneration Fund outcomes reporting (21st August 2024). 

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One organisation noted the long-term benefits that funding for capability building will have into the future: 

“Capability building workshops that were developed in the most recent Regeneration Fund, they don’t stop because the funding stops. They will remain accessible for the next 5 years, I would imagine, because we have designed them to be that way.” 
Fund recipient, Creative Waikato

Conclusion

The Regeneration Fund sought to replace discrete individual funding rounds with a more flexible and collaborative approach in an effort to support the cultural sector through the recovery period and into the future. The Fund had a focus on longer-term, sustained impacts that moved beyond immediate survival into the ‘thrive’ phase. This investment was successful in achieving all five outcomes, with a high percentage of projects delivering their intended benefits. As the majority of Regeneration projects were completed just recently, the lasting impacts of the fund have yet to be fully realised.

Lessons for delivering future investment in an emergency response

This section of the report presents lessons on what has worked well during the CRP and where delivery could be improved to inform investment in the event of an emergency response or other complex programme delivery context in the future. Due to the duration of the CRP funding, the nature of the funding evolved as processes were put in place. Over time, relationship pathways grew and the needs of the sector were better understood. The following sections discuss a set of 11 insights, framed as recommendations, that have emerged relating to the CRP’s design, administration, delivery, and monitoring and evaluation. These lessons have been synthesised from the evidence and insights collated during the course of the desktop review, Regeneration Fund survey, interviews with key stakeholders and sensemaking workshops held with Manatū Taonga.

Design

The CRP was designed to provide short-term relief to address critical immediate risks, longer-term investment to aid in adapting to a post-COVID operating context, and support for the sector to ‘build back stronger’ through transformed practices and relationships. This section discusses several practice insights for fund design arising from the evaluation of the CRP.

The focus of initial CRP funds was on enabling organisations to pay bills and salaries, and to maintain jobs and infrastructure. It should be acknowledged that even a well-designed fund is unlikely to wholly address systemic issues within a sector where the purpose of the fund is to respond to a crisis with time-limited investment.

Insight 1: Build engagement with the community and other funding providers into the design of the fund from the start

Build community engagement into the design process from the start to identify needs and priorities. This includes engaging with sector organisations and experts, iwi Māori, and other target communities to understand specific needs and priorities and to test ideas. This engagement should be done early as it can take time to reach the appropriate organisations and individuals and to build meaningful trusting relationships. Good practice includes creating a clear plan regarding who to engage with and on what.

Within the CRP, there is evidence of good practice in terms of community engagement. For example, in the design of the Capability, CARE and Innovation Funds, a series of workshops were held with diverse stakeholders to identify needs and seek feedback on the purpose and scope of the funds. This feedback was then incorporated into the final design of the funds.

There is also evidence of areas where practice could be improved in future. For example, regarding the Innovation Fund’s Te Urungi events, some applicants felt that while Manatū Taonga had appropriately and successfully engaged with iwi and hapū, engagement should have happened earlier in the design phase, so that the fund outcomes better reflected or aligned with iwi and hapū cultural priorities (Allen + Clarke, 2023). This emphasises that it is important to engage with iwi and hapū robustly and early on; doing so will help ensure that the desired outcomes of funds support iwi aspirations and align with their existing strategies.

“At a fundamental level [Manatū Taonga] needs to do a bit more work to engage with iwi face-to-face, and uplift iwi strategies, especially within [what is deemed] valuable [and of] historical or cultural [importance]”. 
Key Informant (Allen + Clarke, 2023)

Forge strong relationships and partnerships with Māori to enable Māori leadership in fund design, especially where funds are focussed on Māori outcomes. This includes supporting Māori to lead both the strategic and operational design of funds. Within the CRP, many of the funds followed this practice. These partnerships allowed funding providers to understand what is required for the effective and sustainable protection, preservation, revitalisation and transmission of mātauranga and taonga Māori. Te Awe Kōtuku is an example of good practice within the CRP in this regard. The fund built partnerships across seven agencies from across Government and the cultural sector, who hold strong and knowledgeable relationships with iwi, hapori and ringatoi Māori and who understand the value and mastery of tohunga and mātanga (Aiko, 2024).

Consult early in the design process with funding agencies and providers, with a focus on maintaining or forming partnerships to draw on their expertise. Manatū Taonga had close relationships with a number of existing funding providers and were able to use these relationships in designing funding processes. For example, Manatū Taonga had existing relationships with Arts Access Aotearoa, which proved to be essential for the successful delivery of the Creative Spaces Initiative, designing and delivering a training and development programme, and monitoring the funding (Manatū Taonga, 2023c).

Through the Government’s CRP investment and prescribed mechanisms, Manatū Taonga was required to deliver a proportion of the CRP funding itself. In a future situation, early consultation should be explored in the design and delivery stages to provide options for collaboration, including exploring funds being distributed through existing funding agencies with well-established structures and the capacity to stand up responsive funding. One funding partner highlighted that this could avoid process duplication for fund delivery infrastructure:

“[One of] the key lessons would be work with existing structures and systems. Talk to the people who know the sectors best and work with them.” 
Funding partner, Creative New Zealand

There is evidence of good collaborative practice in the development of the CRP. Several of the funds were designed by Manatū Taonga working alongside other key agencies, with collaborative design examples including Te Awe Kōtuku (Manatū Taonga, 2023c), Creatives in Schools (Oakden & Spee, 2020; 2021; 2022; 2023), the Creative Careers Service (Litmus, 2023), and the Pasifika Festivals Initiative (Creative New Zealand, n.d.).

Manatū Taonga also participated in open engagement sessions with sector organisations for the Regeneration Fund on criteria, funding, and constraints. This enabled the design of the fund to meet the needs of sector organisations and practitioners. The resulting fund was more flexible and encouraged more collaboration than any of the funds that had preceded it. Manatū Taonga received positive feedback from the sector for this fund design (Manatū Taonga, 2024c).

“We also learned a lot about co-design and a lot about what the sector needed and what it was finding frustrating about what had gone before. And that’s when we designed the Regeneration Fund, which built on the lessons learned from those first two years and basically wrapped everything up into a very transparent fund process.” 
Interview participant, Manatū Taonga

Robust engagement may not always be feasible when responding to an emergency situation, especially when immediate action is required to protect lives and livelihoods. However, any future fund design processes where time allows – including in emergency contexts – would do well to learn from the Regeneration Fund model.

In addition, where multiple organisations are working across the sector for an extended period, clearly establishing roles and responsibilities between Manatū Taonga as the funder, funding providers and funding recipients will help to ensure a consistent approach. Memorandums of Understanding and Terms of Reference were used in the delivery of CRP funding. These tools are useful to establish expectations, communication pathways and reporting requirements when multiple parties are involved in funding processes (Manatū Taonga, 2023d).

Where possible, establish a team which is available for the duration of emergency funding to form relationships with providers and recipients. Strong, high-trust and consistent relationships between Relationship Managers at Manatū Taonga and partner agencies were noted as a reason for successful delivery across multiple funds. It was also noted that the mentor relationships in the Creative Careers Service Pilot were essential for completing the service (Litmus, 2023).

“For the last two funds, so the Innovation Fund and the Regeneration Fund, we had the same relationship manager throughout essentially... there was a crossover point at the beginning of Innovation, but kind of from there all the way through. And that was really good because you had one person across both contracts, really easy to communicate… the consistency was great and the openness to support us to navigate what we needed to navigate.” 
Fund recipient, Creative Waikato

“We ended up with a new relationship manager who was from the sector and so she had very strong relationships and understanding of what everyone’s work was. So that kind of made it easier.”
Fund recipient, Māoriland Charitable Trust

Allocate funding for the establishment of a team to administer and deliver funding. Several evaluation interview participants noted that there should be resources attached to funds to allow the establishment of a team to administer and deliver the funding. This resource should have adequate provision of personnel. Where existing resources are used to deliver new funding, this may risk other priority activities not being completed (Manatū Taonga, 2023d). These new FTE resources could, by necessity, be in the form of contractors on short-term contracts. Due to capacity constraints at the time of the pandemic, the CRP funding could not have proceeded without the contractors initially hired by Manatū Taonga to deliver the funding. As the CRP became more established, Manatū Taonga was able to replace staff on short-term contracts with permanent and fixed-term staff where appropriate.

Insight 2: Keep early fund design simple and focused on emergency needs

Keep early fund design as simple as possible. Having three different funds (Capability, CARE and Innovation) designed in the early stages of the CRP, with multiple funding streams under each, added complexity to the early CRP funding rounds. Organisations were able to apply for all three funds, which was neither time-efficient for the organisations applying nor for Manatū Taonga to assess the applications.

Evaluation participants highlighted that for emergency funding, it is likely best to keep things as simple as possible at first to deliver funding to recipients quickly. The focus of immediately available funds should be on paying core costs and salaries to maintain jobs, keeping organisations operational, and maintaining service delivery, including caring for collections. As one funding partner highlighted:

“Crisis funding should be focused on addressing the crisis and not some broader vision.”
Funding partner, Creative New Zealand

The Regeneration Fund (delivered during the last two financial years of the CRP) was stood up to replace planned rounds of three other different funding initiatives in an effort to simplify the portfolio of Manatū Taonga administered funds. This provided internal capacity to take a more relational approach with applicants. Manatū Taonga staff involved in the funding process noted:

“We had a team of 10-11 people assessing those [Regeneration Fund] applications, forming direct relationships with the organisations, which we could do because we consolidated down to one fund so we could use our people in a more kind of relational way. And they quality assured those self-assessments. The other big advantage we had with that fund is we split it across four decision panels so that people could come back for a second, third or fourth go.” 
Interview participant, Manatū Taonga

However, as with any funding round, good experiences were not universal. Some organisations involved in repeated funding round applications found the multi-step process more difficult to navigate than others, as noted by one successful funding recipient:

“We were fortunate enough to be ready for the first round and allocated funding in the first round. So, we didn’t have to go through that kind of ongoing iterative process that I heard from others that they may have found frustrating or kind of difficult to navigate. So, it seemed relatively easy for us to navigate.” 
Fund recipient, Creative Waikato

When providing emergency funding in small amounts that needs to be delivered quickly, base it on need and eligibility without extensive application assessments. When small amounts of funding are being delivered, simple processes should be designed that meet the requirements of transparency and accountability without being complex and time-consuming. CSERF was an example of good practice in this regard, as self-employed individuals were provided a fixed amount of funding; $5,000 to all eligible individuals who evidenced a loss of income due to COVID-19 disruption and cancellations. Funding was demand driven and a large amount of funding was secured in case it was needed, with unused funds later returned to the Treasury.

Consider reserving a portion of funding to address needs that may not be immediately apparent at the time an initiative is designed. Reserving some funds should be considered when there is a possibility that there are complex needs that may not be met through traditional contestable funding rounds or may be identified later in the funding programme as relationships are formed and initial needs are met. After the first round of the Capability Fund had been delivered, the need for reserved funding to support regional capability development and sector capability development in future rounds was identified. The importance of supporting both and determining an appropriate balance/split between the two was noted. However, it was not clear from available data if this was achieved for the Capability Fund (Manatū Taonga, 2024a).

Insight 3: Consider the viability of funding caps based on initiative type and the use of seed funding to test ideas

Consider larger funding caps for initiatives focused on medium- to long-term outcomes than those providing short-term emergency relief. Funding caps are the maximum amount of funding that can be granted per application. Collaborative, long-term, and/or transformational projects require larger funding caps than short-term emergency funding initiatives (e.g., salary support or building maintenance). However, when planning appropriations for emergency funding, the value of the appropriation should be over-estimated, such as with CSERF and ACESS, to account for demand-driven need without having to expand the programme after inception.

Funding limits should be evidence-based where possible. The Capability Fund review session identified an area of opportunity to change the initial funding limits that had been set. The upper limit of the Capability Fund was considered by the review to be too high at $750,000, resulting in many partial funding offers being made (Manatū Taonga, 2024a). In contrast, the Museum Hardship Fund threshold of up to $25,000 in funding was considered appropriate for the target recipients of small to medium sized organisations without creating funding dependency and enabling distribution to over 200 organisations (Manatū Taonga, 2023d). Funding caps were removed from the Pasifika Festivals Initiative application process to make the process more mana-enhancing and to reduce stress for applicants (Creative New Zealand, 2024b) across the multi-year period.

Consider using seed funding as an opportunity to confirm ideas before a large grant application is made. In principle this approach could lead to more robust and well thought out proposals for future funds. The Innovation and Capability funds offered seed funding of $20,000 for the development of an idea that could later become a proposal for larger funding (Manatū Taonga, 2024e). Over 90% of Innovation seed funding recipients confirmed the opportunity or problem they set out to identify, and 90% noted that they would seek further funding for their projects, though this was not necessarily through the CRP (Manatū Taonga, 2023f).

It is important to note that success in future applications based off seed funding is not guaranteed, and emergency funding contexts may mean there is not adequate time to pursue full funding once the seed project has concluded. In practice the conversion of success in seed funding recipients securing later CRP funding was very low due to the short time period between Innovation Fund rounds and the Regeneration Fund. Ensuring appropriate timing for recipients to undertake their seed project before future rounds would be a useful approach for future funding. Further research or evaluation work could explore why conversion rates in the CRP were not more positive, or whether seed funding recipients managed to secure funding for full projects outside of the CRP.

Insight 4: Assist the sector to plan for the end of emergency funding to support the sustainability of any outcomes achieved

Design funding in a manner that considers how best to support sustainable outcomes beyond the end of the emergency funding period. Emergency funding is generally time limited. While the long-term sustainability of immediate funding responses (such as investment in salary or infrastructure maintenance during the initial COVID-19 lockdowns) may be a lesser concern, there is a need for funding providers and recipients to consider how they will sustain any growth achieved with emergency funding when the funding is no longer available.

Several funding partners noted that funding recipients were struggling to identify new sources of funding as the CRP was drawing to a close, emphasising that shifting back to the relatively funding-scarce, pre-pandemic context was proving challenging for many organisations and individuals in the sector, and this situation was likely compounded by emerging post-pandemic economic challenges. One funding partner noted the need to carefully plan for the future to support funding recipients to manage the drop-off in funding as the emergency response period ends:

“Be mindful about managing the comedown… Don’t inflate a sector in a way that leads to a significant drop as that has implications for people and organisations.”
Funding partner, Creative New Zealand

In future investments, Manatū Taonga and partners can show leadership when delivering time-bound funding by helping to broker conversations between funding recipients and other funding agencies to plan for a transition to alternative funding streams where possible. One example of good practice in this space is Arts Access Aotearoa, which assisted creative spaces to source longer-term funding by brokering conversations with other Crown funding providers, corporations and philanthropic organisations (Manatū Taonga, 2023c).

Administration

In an emergency situation, individuals and organisations need to know quickly which new funds they are eligible for,  to secure funding in a timely and resource-efficient manner. In addition, funders are often under notable time and resource pressure themselves so need to minimise ineligible applications to ensure that they can operate within capacity.

The CRP was operating in an ever-evolving environment throughout its lifecycle to meet changing circumstances. The design, administration, and delivery of multiple funds occurred concurrently to reach different areas and to address the different needs of the sector. This created a large administrative workload for Manatū Taonga and partner agencies administering funding that could be mitigated in future emergency contexts.

Insight 5: Clearly define fund criteria, terminology, and timing

Clearly define the fund’s purpose, eligibility criteria and key terminology to ensure the application process is efficient for providers and applicants. The eligibility criteria for a fund should clearly state any documentation required for proof of eligibility, and how to assess whether the applicant’s proposal adequately meets the purpose of the fund. Doing so will ensure that those in need of funding are best set up for success, and that their funding application efforts are focused productively.

For example, some organisations applying for the Museum Hardship Fund found it difficult to prove hardship, especially for those with volunteer staff or those who did not routinely collect visitor numbers. A comprehensive definition of hardship applicable to people, businesses and organisations would have been useful to help potential applicants to determine their eligibility. Moreover, demonstration of not-for-profit status proved difficult for some organisations, such as those operated by local councils, who were considered ineligible but able to apply through an associated charitable body. Some organisations were not able to find an appropriate body to apply through (Manatū Taonga, 2023d).

In another example, the Capability Fund, Round 1 was open to organisations described as ‘Cultural Sector Leadership Organisations (CSLOs)’. In the eligibility criteria, the definition of CSLOs was not communicated well by Manatū Taonga or well understood by applications, leading to a high number of ineligible applications (Manatū Taonga, 2024). Similarly, evaluation findings on the Innovation Fund noted that a clearer explanation of what Manatū Taonga was aiming to achieve through ‘innovation’ funding (as well as a consistent working definition of the term more broadly) would have helped applicants to target their applications to be more successful (Allen + Clark, 2023).

Clearly communicate when a fund will close. Communicating where there may be factors that could limit application or fund timeframes will help to manage expectations and prepare applicants should circumstances change. For example, the availability of funding from CSERF was linked to alert levels in the COVID-19 Protection Framework. Some fund applicants felt that the fund closed without prior warning; however, the fund’s closure was related to changes in the COVID-19 Protection Framework level and so was outside the control of Manatū Taonga (Manatū Taonga, 2024b).

Insight 6: Ensure clear communication, transparency, and accountability throughout the funding period

Clearly communicate at all stages of the funding process. This helps to maintain goodwill from the sector while ensuring that funding recipients have all the information they need to work towards positive outcomes. Good communication requires robust processes to be in place to determine how individuals and groups receive messaging from the fund provider, and how the fund provider can receive messages from the sector. These processes should consider how the messaging is structured and must ensure accessibility for all communities. Clear communication is required throughout the funding administration process, including when informing the public about funding opportunities, acknowledging receipt of applications, updating applicants throughout the assessment process, and outlining reporting requirements.

Some examples of good practice in communication arose throughout the CRP that could inform future fund administration. For example, the Pasifika Festivals Initiative created a ‘speak to an adviser’ booking page where people could make an appointment directly to meet with a funding advisor, an approach that could be adopted for future funding delivery to create an additional communication pathway (Creative New Zealand, 2024b).

While online communication methods are appropriate for many, pandemics or other emergency situations can also present new challenges for engaging with organisations or individuals suffering from digital exclusion. For example, some of the more remote collections under the Museum Hardship Fund did not have strong email capability (Manatū Taonga, 2023d). As such, consideration should be given to how to communicate with hard-to-reach communities in the sector in future emergency contexts.

Ensure that transparency and accountability are built into funding processes. This may include, for example, informing applicants early in the process that they will not be eligible for funding, or building assessment panels containing sector and subject matter experts to assess applications.

Providing feedback on unsuccessful (and successful) applications is particularly essential for strengthening capability in the sector. Manatū Taonga explored several approaches to giving feedback to unsuccessful applicants, including allowing a proposal to be resubmitted in a future round with feedback addressed, as in the case of the Regeneration Fund (2024c). Manatū Taonga noted that providing feedback supported applicants to address panel concerns, improve on and resubmit applications for future rounds.

The Regeneration Fund also provided a strong model for transparency, by enabling communities to offer feedback on project proposals. While views on this level of transparency were mixed, with some applicants fearing bad actors or rival funders acting in bad faith, the approach overall represented a move to greater funding transparency for the general public while also identifying initiatives with strong community support. The Regeneration Fund thus provides a strong model for future investment in terms of accountability and transparency. Future approaches to funding would do well to learn from the accountability and transparency benefits of the Regeneration Fund, while also working to mitigate concerns regarding bad faith actors.

Delivery

There was a requirement that a portion of the CRP be delivered by Manatū Taonga, as the CRP was too large and the scope too broad for one organisation to distribute on their own, particularly with the unique needs of the sector and the ‘gig’ economy, and the capacity required to deliver the funding. Manatū Taonga did not previously have a large direct funding role and thus looked to develop its own processes to deliver funding as well as collaborate with other Government departments and funding agencies. This section discusses the insights arising from the experience of these organisations in delivering the CRP.

Insight 7: Leverage existing expertise and infrastructure where available

Draw on existing expertise from across the sector to support effective delivery. This is especially important where the responsibility for an emergency response is given to an organisation without mature delivery processes in place. Manatū Taonga is uniquely positioned to understand the national arts, culture and heritage contexts in Aotearoa, and brings a breadth of subject matter expertise to sector funding that is not available to the same extent within more industry-specific funding organisations. In terms of the CRP, this breadth of knowledge allowed for a whole-of-sector view to funding delivery that could target parts of the sector who may not normally be eligible for funding through any one industry-specific organisation. However, the funding delivery capabilities of Manatū Taonga were relatively poorly developed at the outset of the CRP in comparison to those same industry-specific partners, many of whom had well-established funding delivery infrastructure.

Collaborate where possible to leverage each funding partner’s unique strengths. Adopting the proven effective infrastructure of organisations that are already involved in funding delivery allows organisations newer to funding delivery to roll out funding processes at pace in an emergency context while also drawing on their deep subject matter knowledge of the broader sector. There are also opportunities to learn from other Ministries operating in similar funding contexts during the emergency (e.g., the Ministry of Social Development, who delivered the Creative Careers Service in partnership with Manatū Taonga) to avoid inventing new delivery methods when that time might be better used elsewhere.

Working with partner organisations to reach out to those in their networks with relationships to existing funding processes and procedures can further help to speed up delivery. There is evidence of good practice in coordinated approaches to communication within the CRP:

“[It was important to have] a collective view on what we were telling the sector and artists, that we were all aligned with what was going on, and it gave us the ability to reach thousands of people across the music community very quickly because we were all distributing the same information at the same time… We coordinated a lot of messaging, including what was happening with business relief, what was happening with specific individual relief.” 
Funding partner, NZ Music Commission

Some organisations or individuals may not have engaged previously with the Ministry or existing industry-specific funding agencies. Manatū Taonga took a thorough approach to identifying as many in-scope funding recipients as feasible. To reach those not currently receiving funding by current delivery pathways, Manatū Taonga took the time to engage broadly, collecting a distribution list of 4,000 to 5,000 people and organisations that could be used for future communication purposes.

This insight is particularly important to reflect on in preparation for any similar emergency context in the future. While Manatū Taonga built up strong internal capability in funding provision during the CRP, interview participants at the Ministry noted that capability was diminishing (and would likely continue to diminish) now that the CRP funds have closed and the organisation is once again largely uninvolved in direct funding delivery. Manatū Taonga and other similar organisations can therefore not rely on such institutional knowledge to be retained. As a result, learning and borrowing from other organisations with experience will likely be just as important in future emergency contexts as it was for the COVID-19 response.

Insight 8: Incorporate culturally informed approaches when delivering funding where appropriate

Use culturally informed approaches to support the funding process where appropriate. Culturally informed approaches, such as kaupapa Māori or ‘kaupapa Pasifika’ (a term used in the Pasifika Festivals Initiative) support positive experiences for funding applicants and recipients, and strengthen the projects at all stages of the funding process, regardless of applicant background. Forming strong relationships, identifying communication channels, engagement and collaboration are important to all.

Manatū Taonga used some specifically kaupapa Māori informed approaches to inform applicants about available funding, collaboratively support proposal writing and measure outcomes. The Te Urungi events held for the Innovation Fund, as previously discussed, followed a kaupapa Māori model with immersive weekend wānanga, and in the design of the assessment panel presentations. These events were used to grow and develop project applications with significant value added by kaiāwhina support and development tools. Partnering with iwi to deliver the wānanga was well received and the kaupapa Māori environment at these nationwide wānanga supported Māori applicants and provided a safe and appropriate context for all participants to consider innovation in an Aotearoa context (Manatū Taonga, 2023e).

However, there were some challenges operating in a te ao Māori way when the application process still relied on some aspects of traditional funding processes:

“Manatū Taonga put on a very tikanga-aware/forward event. … It was great that mātauranga Māori was championed in the outcomes of the Fund. … [But] filling in forms and applications wasn’t a very ‘Māori’ experience: it was still ‘forms’. For the panel pitch, … it didn’t feel like a Māori or indigenous process because you had five minutes and then you had to move on because the next person was coming in for their five minutes. … Afterwards, one of the panel members came and found me and gave me some more feedback because within the five minutes there wasn’t enough time for a reciprocal exchange.” 
Funding recipient (Allen + Clark, 2023)

As such, there is room for improvement in application processes to better align with te ao Māori and therefore to more readily support project applications that stem from a te ao Māori context. Given that the more recent Regeneration Fund focused on a more relational approach to funding applications (through multiple rounds of feedback and gaining sector input on project proposals), it is likely that some of the issues highlighted by the above quote were partially addressed in later CRP funding rounds. 

Ensure providers are supported to deliver initiatives in culturally appropriate ways. Kaupapa Māori informed delivery approaches are vital for the preservation and protection of mātauranga Māori. In Te Awe Kōtuku, ringatoi Māori, mātanga and tohunga determined how best to deliver their project. Wānanga is a traditional method to engage in kaupapa and was a common and effective method used across all of the initiatives. Wānanga reach was extended through the sharing of resources and ongoing discussions within attendees’ homes and communities (Aiko, 2024). The way whānau participated in wānanga enabled new learning and exchange of knowledge through generations being present to listen, share and debate what they knew, and draw from each other to sense-check and build understanding (Aiko, 2024).

Another delivery model employed by initiatives was to focus on growing arts, cultural and heritage ringatoi Māori to sustain mātauranga through a peer-to-peer approach. Small groups of tohunga, mātanga and ringatoi worked together, to teach and learn and/or contribute to a shared project in their rohe (Aiko, 2024). Practice-based arts and cultural heritage festivals were important in terms of celebrating identity and connection to culture and provided enriching experiences for Māori and non-Māori alike (Aiko, 2024).

Insight 9: Foster collaboration among funding recipients where there is clear alignment in goals

Create environments where funding recipients can collaborate to identify issues and their potential solutions. This collaboration should occur within a strategic context with the aim of developing partnerships between individuals and/or community organisations. This collaboration between organisations was difficult to achieve when organisations felt that they were competing for funding, and in some cases were presenting similar ideas. More explicitly fostering collaboration between applicants— or funding recipients after funding is awarded—to share knowledge and to collectively solve issues (potentially through differing means) will help to build goodwill within the sector while also likely reducing funding overlap and funding delivery burden.

Fostering collaborations among recipients would likely be most beneficial for funding delivery that seeks to build high impact and sustainable projects over the longer term. Shared knowledge and shared outcomes may result in joint funding applications even beyond emergency contexts and could encourage more impactful projects with further potential reach.

The CRP demonstrates some examples of good practice in fostering such collaboration; environments that can be created to identify opportunities and solutions include communities of practice or linked ecosystems of organisations. For example, the Pasifika Festivals Initiative created an ecosystem of linked festivals to share ideas and experiences and strengthen the connections between festivals (Creative New Zealand, n.d.). Creative New Zealand noted thinking explicitly about creating spaces for relationship building and knowledge sharing through the initiative:

“So it was building and building and building the ‘va’, the relationship, that ecosystem, the methodology and understanding of the context of what we were doing... So we were really focused from the first phase on how we could strengthen the ecosystem and build the relationships. How can we do knowledge sharing?”
Funding partner, Creative New Zealand – On the Pasifika Festivals Initiative aligned with the Pacific Arts Strategy

Insight 10: Support regional collaborations and target regional solutions where appropriate

Support regional collaborations and target regional solutions where appropriate. While the COVID-19 pandemic was a national emergency, the impacts of it were in many cases geographically specific. Solutions to these local or regional issues are best formed when drawing on locally or regionally embedded knowledge. This insight spans both funding design and delivery.

Collaborations in regions should be encouraged as they may result in capability strengthening and operational efficiencies for the broader region rather than just for single organisations. For example, Te Awe Kōtuku kaimahi engagement connected ringatoi communities and created operational efficiencies by holding regional training sessions, where different groups of ringatoi Māori could share knowledge and connect while working on similar kaupapa (Aiko, 2024).

Another example of striving for best practice in promoting regional collaboration was the Innovation Fund Te Urungi events, which were held nationwide to encourage regional collaborative applications. However, these did not result in as many collaborative applications as hoped, potentially due to the nature of contestable funding and the challenge in identifying shared issues and solutions in a short timeframe (Manatū Taonga, 2023e). Prioritising this collaborative regional approach during fund design and delivery may help to promote more effective local cooperation on solutions, while providing more time. Moving away from highly competitive contestable funding models in the sector may facilitate more willingness to collaborate in the first place.

One interview participant noted that the Regeneration Fund moved towards a more locally conscious model of funding through the community feedback mechanism, and that letting communities play an even greater part in funding decisions around investment in their local creative sectors may help to build community resilience for future emergency events:

“We were a couple of steps removed geographically from the place… so that’s what the feedback mechanism designed into the Regen[eration] Fund was to help mitigate, but I do think kind of a local response to local issues beats a Lambton Quay response most times… You know, at the end of the day a town needs places where things can happen and people who make things happen, and if we could just fund those things directly, when we come to these events and crises—it’s a bit like your marae structure—when the disaster hit you’ve got that existing infrastructure that everything can just revolve around.”
Interview participant, Manatū Taonga

Regional solutions may therefore be desirable not only when national solutions are not possible due to transport restrictions and lockdowns, but also during non-emergency contexts to build greater resilience in the sector. National decision makers can still play a key role in any regional and community-driven approach to funding by ensuring that funding is distributed equitably both between and within regions in response to need.  

Monitoring and evaluation

Monitoring funding involves ensuring that funds are spent on their nominated purpose, tracking and maintaining records of expenditure, ensuring reporting requirements are met, and assessing performance against agreed upon expectations. Evaluation examines the impact of activities against the intended outcomes of the fund and any change that has occurred as a result of the activities (summative or impact evaluation); and identifies what has worked well and what could be improved in future in the delivery of the fund (formative or process evaluation).

A combination of a short timeframe to establish funds and lack of an established culture of evaluation prior to COVID-19 meant that measuring outcomes was not considered consistently in the design of CRP initiatives. An outcomes framework and impact measurement programme were introduced by Manatū Taonga in 2020/21. As funds were implemented, where possible and deemed appropriate, impact measures and reporting schedules were set at the initiative level. In fulfilling the impact measurement requirements, there was disparity in funded organisations’ capability, capacity and data infrastructure to support this measurement. This created challenges in combining different types of data and analysis.

Understanding impact attribution was also a challenge due to the wider operating context, as well as in terms of the combination of funding new activities versus those that were ongoing prior to funding from the CRP. More consistent data collection and an introduction of a system for managing the data from an early stage was identified as an improvement in processes during the funding period.

Insight 11: Plan monitoring and evaluation early on and allocate adequate resource

Consider monitoring and evaluation needs during the fund design stage and allocate resources where appropriate. Evaluative activities should be fit for purpose and consider the design, size, duration and complexity of funding. Ideally, an appropriate portion of funding will be earmarked specifically for the impact and process evaluation of overall funds, and funding recipients will be supported to consider their evaluation needs and include them in project budgets. Funds should ensure that adequate systems are in place from the outset to receive, store, analyse, and act upon the collected data.

In measuring the impacts of the CRP, data collection and analyses required significant time and capacity, along with managing relationships across the many organisations delivering funding. Where evaluations were commissioned externally, capacity and resources were required for evaluation design, procurement, contract and project management and quality assurance.

In some cases, a high-trust model which requires less reporting and/or evaluation may be more appropriate. Circumstances where this was the case in the CRP included when small amounts of funding were administered, where impacts were clearly identifiable through grant monitoring (such as maintaining financial viability or employment), and where reporting would have been overly burdensome for funding recipients when considering their capability, capacity, wellbeing, or cultural context. As one evaluation participant noted:

“It’s not that you need to have data on every single thing. Rather, a conscious decision needs to be made about the purpose and role of data collection—what you are (and are not) collecting data for.” 
Interview participant, Manatū Taonga

Monitoring and evaluation expectations should focus on approaches that are robust without being too onerous, especially for smaller organisations, and funders should work to uplift capabilities in these areas for less experienced funding recipients.

Ensure monitoring and evaluation are culturally appropriate and collaborate with stakeholders. This includes engaging early and directly with diverse communities to understand their needs and how outcomes are best measured. The definition of success and measurement of successful outcomes often varies between populations and communities. Engaging early and broadly will assist in defining needs, determining what support is needed, what success looks like and how this can be measured. For example, one funding partner reflected on the challenges of evaluation in a Pacific cultural context:

“How do we measure whether we’ve delivered the outcomes we’ve come out with? The language – outcomes, impacts is it data or evidence? But I think the key thing for Pacific measurement for Pacific is actual engagement, is the number of audience reached. We use ‘va’ as a relational trust value system. If we count the number of kids and number of lives, number of schools, number of people, number of participants. So the evaluation system is the biggest challenge, I feel. What does success like for Pacific is a question for Pacific based on the value system.”
Funding partner, Creative New Zealand – On the Pasifika Festivals Initiative aligned with the Pacific Arts Strategy

Ensuring that relevant cultural worldviews are adequately understood and reflected in monitoring and evaluation planning is essential for ensuring that these activities are culturally appropriate. Evaluation from a non-Western worldview may require greater investment to ensure cultural capability is resourced adequately, and to support different ways of working.

Within the CRP, there is evidence of good practice relating to culturally-informed evaluation. For example, for Te Awe Kōtuku, an impact measurement plan was collaboratively developed with the seven delivery agencies in the Te Awe Kōtuku steering group to set shared impact measures (Aiko, 2024). An in-depth kaupapa Māori-informed evaluation was also commissioned by Manatū Taonga and overseen by the steering group (Aiko, 2024). This evaluation used a mātauranga Māori-based evaluation framework, and incorporated kaupapa Māori methodologies in data collection and analysis. In both the impacts measurement and evaluation, however, additional time and resources were required to support collaboration and the methodologies used.

Consider whether longer-term impacts are feasible to measure in the given time period. Funds or projects with transformational aspirations are more complex to measure and impacts may only be evident beyond the funding period. Evaluating the impact of emergency funding for initiatives that aimed to help the sector survive the initial pandemic period or adapt to the new pandemic context was relatively straightforward within the funding period, as outcomes such as maintaining jobs or service delivery can be measured relatively easily in the short term. However, measuring the impacts of more aspirational or transformational projects aimed at long-term change is far more challenging during a funding period of only a few years, as one Manatū Taonga interview participant noted:

“Focusing on longer-term impacts is important, but there needs to be an understanding that the more complex outcomes can be difficult to evidence. So, oftentimes when you’re investing in those things, it needs to happen in good faith.”
Interview participant, Manatū Taonga

In such cases, funders may have to accept that only indicative impact evaluations are possible and should support funding recipients to conduct these as robustly as feasible within resource constraints.

There were also challenges in evaluating the collective impact that multiple projects may have had on a sector or a region. The collection of insights across all funded initiatives and multiple providers was an extensive undertaking and required identifying specific and common priority outcomes for each project, and the breadth of the CRP meant that implementing a single impact measurement framework was complex. As a result of this evaluation activity, Manatū Taonga now has stronger insights relationships with some of the organisations involved in funding delivery that can be built on in the future, provided that this internal institutional knowledge is protected.

References

Aiko. (2024). Mātauranga Māori Te Awe Kōtuku COVID Cultural Recovery Programme Evaluation Report. Ministry of Culture and Heritage.

Allen + Clarke. (2023). COVID-19 Cultural Recovery Programme. Evaluation of Te Tahua – Āki Auahatanga Cultural Sector Innovation Fund: Final Report (unpublished).

Creative New Zealand. (n.d.). Fa Wave Report- Final Draft (unpublished).

Creative New Zealand. (2024a). Retain Core Arts CNZ Reporting 2023_24 (unpublished).

Creative New Zealand. (2024b). Tolu Wave Funding Insights Report (unpublished).

Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC). (2023). Proactive Release: Timeline of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Significant COVID-19 Events and Key All-of-Government Activities.

Haumanu Collective. (2023). Full Report 2023 (unpublished).

Haumanu Collective. (2024). Report 2024 (unpublished).

Litmus. (2023). The Creative Careers Service Pilot Process Evaluation Report. Ministry of Social Development.

Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. (2021). COVID-19 Response Impacts Report 2020/21.

Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. (2022). New Zealanders' Cultural Participation in 2022, Including Impacts of COVID.

Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. (2023a). COVID-19 Cultural Recovery Programme Impacts Report 2021/22.

Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. (2023b). New Zealanders’ Cultural Participation in 2023.

Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. (2023c). Creative Spaces Impact of Manatū Taonga Cultural Recovery Funding.

Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. (2023d). Arts and Culture COVID-19 Recovery Programme Museum Hardship Fund Closure Report (unpublished).

Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. (2023e). Arts and Culture COVID-19 Recovery Programme. Te Tahua Āki Auahatanga – Innovation Fund Closure Report (unpublished).

Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. (2023f). Results – Innovation Seed & CI&E survey results (unpublished).

Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. (2023g). Premium Productions for International Audiences – Impact Measurement Plan (unpublished).

Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. (2024a). Arts and Culture COVID-19 Recovery Programme Te Tahua Whakakaha Cultural Sector Capability Fund Closure Report (unpublished).

Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. (2024b). Cultural Sector Emergency Relief Fund (CSERF) Survey Responses(unpublished).

Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. (2024c). Arts and Culture COVID-19 Recovery Programme Cultural Sector Regeneration Fund Report (unpublished).

Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. (2024d). Premium Productions for International Audiences – Impact Measurement Plan (unpublished).

Nicholson Consulting. (2024). Regeneration Fund Evaluation Survey Summary Report (unpublished).

New Zealand Royal Commission COVID-19 Lessons Learned | Te Tira Ārai Urutā. (2024). Whītiki Aotearoa: Lessons from COVID-19 to prepare Aotearoa New Zealand for a future pandemic – Summary report Pūrongo Whakarāpopoto.

NZ On Air. (2023). Te Puna Whakatongarewa. Public Interest Journalism Fund Interim Report 2021–2023.

NZ On Air. (2024). Public Interest Journalism Fund Reporting 2022/23 and 2023/24 (unpublished).

Oakden, J. & Spee, K. (2021). Creatives in Schools Programme Evaluation Report: Round 1, November 2020.Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga – Ministry of Education. 

Oakden, J. & Spee, K. (2022). Creatives in Schools Programme Evaluation Report: Round 2, 2021. Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga – Ministry of Education.

Oakden, J. & Spee, K. (2023). Creatives in Schools Programme Evaluation Report: Round 3, 2022. Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga – Ministry of Education. 

Oakden, J. & Spee, K. (2024). Creatives in Schools Programme Evaluation Report Round 4, 2023. Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga – Ministry of Education.

Ripple. (2023). Ngā kaiwhakaoho ahurea Cultural Activators Pilot & Community of Practice. Final Evaluation Report  (unpublished).

Te Kiato Limited. (2023). 2022/23 Year End Report – Te Kiato Limited. Overview of Outcomes and Activity. Year end June 2023  (unpublished).

Waitangi Tribunal. (2011). Ko Aotearoa Tēnei: Report on the Wai 262 Claim Released. [Press release]. Wai 262 Claim.

Glossary

Ākonga: Student, learner

Haahi: Religion

Haka: Haka performance, ceremonial dance

Hanga whare: Home building

Hapori: Community

Hapū: Kinship group, clan, tribe, subtribe – section of a large kinship group and the primary political unit in traditional Māori society

Hīkoi: To step, stride, march, walk

Hīnaki: Eel trap, wicker eel basket, wire eel pot

Iwi: Tribe: a large group of people descended from a common ancestor and associated with a distinct territory

Kaiāwhina: Helper, assistant, contributor, advocate

Kaimahi: Worker, employee, clerk, staff

Kāinga: Home, address, residence, village

Kaitiaki: Custodian, guardian, caregiver, keeper

Kaiako: Teacher

Kākahu: Cloak, garment, clothes

Kapa haka: Māori cultural group, Māori performing group

Kaumātua: Elderly women or man, person of status

Kaupapa (Māori): Māori initiatives and/or approaches

Korowai: Cloak – in modern Māori this is sometimes used as a general term for cloaks made of muka

Mahinga kai: Practise of cultivating food

Mana whenua: Customary authority exercised by an iwi or hapū in an identified area

Māra kai: Garden

Marae: The complex of buildings around the marae

Marae hapori: Community of marae

Mātanga: Experienced person, expert, specialist

Mātauranga (Māori): Māori knowledge

Mātāwaka: Kinship group

Mokopuna: Grandchildren, grandchild

Mōteatea: Lament, traditional chant

Ngahau: Entertainment, dance, amusement, enjoyment, concert

Pā harakeke: Flax bush, generations – sometimes used as a metaphor to represent whānau

Pākehā: English, foreign, European, exotic-introduced from or originating in a foreign country

Pakiwaitara: Legend, story, fiction, folklore

Poi: A light ball on a strong of varying length which is swung or twirled rhythmically to sung accompaniment

Pūkenga: Skill, expertise

Pūrākau: Stories

Pūtea: Fund, finance, sum of money

Rākau: Tree, stick, timber, wood, spar, mast, plant

Raranga: Weaving

Ringatoi: Artist

Rohe: Boundary, district, region, territory, area, border (of land)

Rōpū: Group, advisory, committee, category, organisation

Tangata Tiriti: People of the treaty (non-Māori)

Taonga: Treasure: applied to anything considered to be of value including culturally or socially

Taonga pūoro: Traditional musical instrument

Tārai waka: Waka, or canoe building

Te ao Māori: Māori worldview, emphasise the importance of relationships between nature and people

Te Rā: A customary sail

Te reo Māori: Māori language

Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Te Tiriti): The Treaty, referring to the te reo Māori version of the Treaty of Waitangi

Tikanga: The customary system of values and practices that have developed over time and are deeply embedded in the social context

Tino rangatiratanga: Self-determination, sovereignty, autonomy, self-government

Tohunga: Renowned and chosen expert, cultural and spiritual leader

Toi Māori: Māori arts

Toi moko: Art of tattooing

Toki: Axe, hatchet or also karakia used during the kawa ceremony

Tōtara: Largest forest trees

Uri: Descendant, relative, kin

Wāhi tapu/wāhi tūpuna: Sites of ancestral significance

Waiata: Song or chant

Waka: Canoe or vessel

Waka tīwai : Dugout canoe without attached sides

Wānanga: A forum to meet, discuss, debate, learn, build knowledge

Whakapapa: Genealogy, lineage, descent and connection

Whānau: Extended family, family group, a familiar term of address to a number of people – the primary economic unit of traditional Māori society

Whare: House, building, residence, dwelling

Whare taonga: Museum

Wharenui: Meeting house, large house – main building of a marae where guests are accommodated

Whenua: Land

Appendix 1: Methodology

Desktop review

Manatū Taonga provided Nicholson Consulting with existing key sources of data and evidence on:

• Funding
• Impact
• Outcomes
• Evaluation reports
• Eligibility criteria
• Intervention logic
• Employment and activity in the creative sector

Nicholson Consulting undertook a desktop review of these sources to research and pull out key quantitative and qualitative data and insights for analysis into an Excel spreadsheet for synthesis across the funds to create a holistic picture of the CRP fund.

Regeneration Fund survey

The Regeneration Fund Survey drew upon the initial stages of the desktop review and consisted of the following steps:

• Identifying survey participants with input from Manatū Taonga
• Designing the question set in SurveyMonkey
• Conducting internal pilot testing and question quality assurance
• Deploying the survey via a SurveyMonkey link
• Cleaning the survey data in preparation for analysis.

The survey was designed to use mixed methods, with both qualitative and quantitative questions. Questions focused on the key evaluation outcomes and addressed information that was not already adequately captured in existing documentation. Nicholson Consulting also aimed to reduce participant burden and unnecessary duplication of information where possible.

Outputs of this stage of the evaluation included producing a cleaned version of the survey dataset (numeric and text-based version), the question set, as well as a brief report summarising the survey findings.

Semi-structured interviews

The semi-structured interviews drew upon the desktop review and consisted of the following steps:

• Identifying the interview participants (key Manatū Taonga staff and stakeholders from partner organisations or funded entities) with assistance from the Ministry. Some interviews were conducted in groups of two or three participants where appropriate, others were interviewed 1-on-1.
• Designing the interview questions, information sheet and consent form, and interviewer guide.
• Conducting ten semi-structured interviews with participants using Microsoft Teams with recording and automatic transcription.
• Cleaning the interview transcripts in preparation for analysis.
• Analysing the interviews for impacts, outcomes, and learnings regarding the delivery of the CRP.
• Confirming quoted statements with interview participants.

Thematic analysis and sensemaking

The thematic analysis and sensemaking stage of the evaluation involved the synthesis of the results from the various evaluation methods to feed into the evaluation report.

Concurrent survey and interview analysis allowed for key issues arising through either stream to be investigated in the other. The prior desktop review allowed for the survey and the interviews to be designed and analysed with existing findings in mind, and for a rounding out of the evidence base for this report.

The thematic analysis was directed by the key evaluation outcomes, with themes from the interviews and qualitative survey responses compiled relevant to each of these outcomes. Any other themes beyond the evaluation outcomes that frequently arose in the collected data were also noted.

The high-level themes arising from the analysis and synthesis were documented in a PowerPoint presentation and tested across two sensemaking workshops allowing for revision between the delivery.

Research limitations

The mixed-method research approach undertaken to deliver this report combines a desktop review of existing documentation (provided by Manatū Taonga), interviews with several relevant stakeholders (including fund recipients, funding agencies, and Manatū Taonga staff), a Regeneration Funding recipient survey, and thematic analysis and sensemaking workshops.

The desktop review provided the largest source of evidence across the different initiatives, with the other methodologies providing further context. The sheer range of CRP initiatives (and availability of information on them) means that this report will not fully reflect the impacts of all initiatives. Initiatives had varying levels of data availability, with not all funds being subject to impact measurement and/or evaluation. As such, the findings in this report will be skewed more towards initiatives with more complete evaluation documentation.

There was an additional lack of available data that allowed for determining if impacts reported were directly attributable to a specific CRP initiative or the CRP in general. Attribution could not be ascertained with certainty as fund recipients may have been receiving additional funding that Manatū Taonga was unaware of, or even if aware had not surfaced in a usable manner for this research.

The findings of this report largely draw on self-reported information from funding recipients, Manatū Taonga staff, or other partner funding providers. Gathering further information from others not directly involved in the funding distribution or receipt (e.g., from those individuals or communities who were ultimately served by the funded initiatives) may provide additional insights not covered here.

Time is another limitation. The CRP was delivered over five years with initiatives being implemented and delivered at varying times over those years, ending in the 2024/25 financial year. While there has been insufficient time to measure the long-term impacts of the programme, further evaluation efforts could investigate to what extent the impacts of CRP funding have been long-lasting.

Appendix 2: Overview of initiatives

Total

COVID-19 Cultural Recovery Programme (Total)

Purpose: 
The COVID-19 Cultural Recovery Programme (CRP) was a series of investments administered by Manatū Taonga over five financial years. The CRP is comprised of:

• The Arts and Cultural COVID Recovery Programme 
  ($374.3 million)
• Delta and Omicron emergency relief funding ($132.1 million)
• Related initiatives include the Public Interest Journalism Fund 
  ($55 million) and the Creative Careers Service Pilot ($7.9 million).

Alongside the above programmes there were other initiatives funded by the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund (CRRF) and approved in May 2020. These included a Media Sector Support Package totalling $50 million and an expansion to the Creatives in Schools Initiative of $4 million, increasing the initiative total to $11.6 million.

Total investment: 
$569.3m allocated. 
$464.8m spent as at 30 June 2024.

Survive initiatives

Addressed immediate concerns like financial viability, ‘keeping the lights on’, preserving employment, covering operational costs, and continuing to provide cultural content and experiences.

Pūtea Tautoko mō ngā Huihuinga Aro Toi Arts and Culture Event Support Scheme (ACESS) 

Purpose:
This scheme, administered by Manatū Taonga, made funding available to help organisers of arts and cultural events have confidence to commit to and deliver events under the COVID-19 Protection Framework by providing up to $300,000 to cover non-recoverable financial losses for events that meet eligibility requirements. The Scheme was boosted as part of the Omicron package in April 2022 to plan and deliver events through to the end of January 2023. However, only $32.1m was required due to a lower demand of events impacted than allowed for. A portion of the remaining underspend was redistributed to other funding programmes.

Total investment: 
$87.5m allocated. 
$32.1m spent as at 30 June 2024

Cultural Sector Emergency Relief Fund (CSERF)

Purpose:
Funding of up to $40.5m was administered by Manatū Taonga. This fund of last resort supported cultural sector organisations, as well as self-employed individuals, at clear risk of no longer operating viably. $5m was provided under the Delta package which was increased by $35.5m in the Omicron support package. An underspend was also recorded due to lower demand from eligible organisations and individuals than allowed for. A portion of the remaining underspend was redistributed to other funding programmes.

Total investment:
$15.0m allocated
$10.1m spent as at 30 June 2024.

Te Puna Kairangi Premium Productions for International Audiences Fund

Purpose:
This fund was for the New Zealand screen sector to tell our stories to international audiences and recover from the impacts of COVID-19. Developed in partnership with Manatū Taonga, funding was delivered by the New Zealand Film Commission, NZ On Air and Te Māngai Pāho.

This initiative has not fully concluded as at 30 June 2024. Additionally, not all funded productions went ahead or required the full amount allocated.

Total investment:
$50m allocated
$47.6m spent as at 30 June 2024.

Creative New Zealand— Retain Core Arts Infrastructure and Deliver Arts Projects in Communities

Purpose:
Funding of $25m was administered to Creative New Zealand (in 2020/21, however, distributed by Creative New Zealand in 2021/22) to support the creative sector through their Emergency Response Package. $16m was to ensure the retention of critical arts infrastructure, keep arts institutions open and retain staff. Top ups totalling $27m from funds reprioritised further increased this support through the Delta and Omicron phases of the pandemic.

Total investment:
$52.0m allocated and fully expended as at 30 June 2024.

Screen Production Recovery Fund

Purpose:
Funding was provided to productions already invested in by the New Zealand Film Commission or NZ On Air that had been affected by COVID-19 restrictions. The fund was established with $23.4m and extended as part of the Delta Relief Fund ($12.1m) in September 2021. As part of the Omicron support package, a further $15m was provided to extend the Screen Production Recovery Fund until 30 June 2023. This initiative was underspent due to lower demand from productions impacted by COVID-19 than originally allowed for. A portion of the remaining underspend was redistributed to other funding programmes.

Total investment:
$38.2m allocated
$16.2m spent to 30 June 2024

Screen Sector Indemnity Scheme

Purpose:
This scheme provided insurance cover to domestic screen productions that might experience delays or abandonment due to COVID-19.

Total investment:
$0.9m allocated and fully expended as at 30 June 2024

Retain Core Capability of selected Crown funded agencies

Purpose:
Funding was provided to some agencies that were reliant on revenue streams impacted by COVID-19. This aimed to address cost pressures due to disruption and effects from COVID-19 and associated restrictions. The below was distributed:

• $2.6m Antarctic Heritage Trust
• $5.4m Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga
• $2.0m Royal New Zealand Ballet
• $2.4m Te Matatini
• $24m Te Papa Tongarewa.

Total investment:
$36.4m allocated and fully expended as at 30 June 2024.

The Waitangi National Trust - further funding agreed Omicron

Purpose:
Initial funding of $4m was provided to ensure that the Waitangi Treaty Grounds remained open to the public following COVID-19 disruption. A further $6m was provided through the CRP up to 30 June 2024 to ensure Waitangi Treaty Grounds remained open while tourism returned post-pandemic, and to preserve the cultural assets held at the grounds.

Total investment:
$10.0m allocated and fully expended as at 30 June 2024.

Adapt initiatives

Helped organisations to adapt to COVID-19 and be more sustainable and resilient in the short- to medium-term, including developing new skills, new employment opportunities, new content/services and delivery mechanisms.

Creative Careers Service Pilot

Purpose:
Administered by Te Manatū Whakahiato Ora Ministry of Social Development in partnership with Manatū Taonga, this pilot provided $7.9m over four years to administer a free career development service in Auckland, Waikato and Nelson for creative jobseekers, recent graduates outside the benefit system and creative sector workers who had lost income due to COVID-19 disruption. It aimed to develop participants’ skills and knowledge in the non-creative skills needed to gain employment or to grow and thrive in the creative sector. Top-up funding to complete the pilot of $2m was transferred from other elements of the CRP in 2023.

Total investment:
$9.9m allocated and fully expended as at 30 June 2024.

Museum Hardship Fund

Purpose:
Administered by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, this fund made $4m available through multiple funding rounds over three years to address the impact of forced closures and reductions as a result of COVID-19. The fund was open to any non-profit, community-run or volunteer museum, whare taonga or gallery of small to medium size, or whānau and hapū through a relevant iwi organisation. The original $2m allocated in Budget 2020 was boosted by $1m as part of the Delta package in September 2021, and another $1m in Budget 2022.

Total investment:
$4.0m allocated and fully expended as at 30 June 2024.

New Zealand Music Recovery Initiatives

Purpose:
Aotearoa Touring Programme – The programme administered by the New Zealand Music Commission provided $5m over two years for New Zealand artists to perform original live music on tour in New Zealand.

New Music – Administered by NZ On Air and the New Zealand Music Commission, the fund boosted NZ On Air’s New Music Programmes by $7.178m over two years to commercialise New Zealand music during the COVID-19 crisis while live touring was restricted. Funding supported music creatives to create new content during difficult conditions for artists and music label co-investment.

New Zealand Music Venue Infrastructure Fund – Administered by the New Zealand Music Commission, the COVID-19 Delta Relief Package round of the NZ Music Infrastructure Fund supported small live music venues (with capacity under 1,000) where the venue had a track record of original New Zealand music performances. The level of support each venue received reflected the number of original New Zealand music performances they were confirmed to host which had been impacted due to the pandemic.

Total investment:
$21.1m allocated and fully expended as at 30 June 2024.

Pasifika Festivals Initiative

Purpose:
This initiative supported Pasifika festivals with $12m over three years to recover from the immediate and ongoing impacts of COVID-19. In 2021/22, the Tasi ’21 and Lua Wave funding rounds supported organisations to remain financially viable, continue operations, and develop skills in four key areas: governance, leadership, digital capacity, and festival staffing. The third round of funding, the Tolu Wave, focused on funding festivals in 2022/23 with an emphasis on building capability for festival organisers to strengthen future festivals. The fourth round, the Fa Wave, had a focus on broadening a wide range of skills and on developing resources related to strategy, governance and strengthening the national ecosystem for Pasifika festivals. This initiative was administered by Creative New Zealand. It was developed and co-designed with Manatū Taonga and the Ministry for Pacific Peoples using a joint approach based on Kaupapa Pasifika and Teu Le Va cultural concepts.

Total investment:
$12.0m allocated and fully expended as at 30 June 2024.

Public Interest Journalism Fund

Purpose:
Administered by NZ On Air, the $55m fund provided transitional support to media organisations to preserve public interest journalism that would have otherwise been at risk or lost due to the impact of COVID-19 on newsrooms. It supported New Zealand’s media sector to continue to produce stories that keep New Zealanders informed and engaged, and support a healthy democracy. The package was made up of $10m in 2020/21, $25m in 2021/22 and $20m in 2022/23.

Total investment:
$55.0m allocated and fully expended as at 30 June 2024.

Thrive initiatives

Supported longer-term sector transformation, such as working more collaboratively, building relationships, improving equity, increasing access and participation, transforming operating models, or fostering innovation.

Te Tahua Whakahaumaru Creative Arts Recovery and Employment (CARE) Fund

Purpose:
Administered by Manatū Taonga, the CARE Fund was designed to support the cultural sector to adapt to the COVID-19 environment by funding projects that enhanced access to and participation in the cultural sector, and created employment and skill development opportunities. It included contestable initiatives and projects in partnership with other agencies.

The Creatives Spaces Initiative will continue to December 2024.

Ngā Wāhi Auaha Creative Spaces Initiative – This initiative was designed to increase participation in creative activities for people experiencing barriers to participation and create employment for creative professionals. Funding was available for organisations or groups providing access to art-making activities and creative expression for people who experience barriers to participation, which include intellectual or physical disabilities, neurological conditions or mental illness, age-related vulnerability (seniors or youth), or cultural or social isolation or poverty. Creative spaces could apply for up to $150,000 a year, for a total of up to $450,000 over the three years. Through two rounds of funding, 54 organisations received a total of $17.12m.

Ngā Kaiwhakaoho Ahurea Cultural Activators Pilot – This pilot funded eight organisations for a total of $1.44m to host cultural activators in eight communities for one year to increase access and participation in cultural activities. Established cultural sector practitioners collaborated with their communities to tell their stories, build their creative skills, and connect them with opportunities in the wider cultural sector.

Ngā Puninga Toi ā-Ahurea me ngā Kaupapa Cultural Installations and Events – This initiative was designed to create employment and skill development opportunities for cultural practitioners and allow more people to participate in our cultural sector. Funding was for free events in easy to access spaces, such as community hubs, shopping malls, parks, beaches, marae, churches, reserves, or along a waterfront. Through this fund, 73 installations and events received a total of $1.21m.

Total investment:
$22.3m allocated
$21.3m spent to 30 June 2024.

Te Tahua Whakamarohi i te Rāngai Ahurea Cultural Sector Innovation Fund

Purpose:
Administered by Manatū Taonga, this fund supported innovative projects that aim to improve the sustainability and resilience of the cultural sector, provide commercial opportunities, or improve access and participation. Projects that safeguard mātauranga Māori were also prioritised. The application process utilised a new approach to arts funding: a nationwide event series called Te Urungi: Innovating Aotearoa. Individuals could apply for seed funding of $20,000 or project funding for greater amounts. Over the total duration of the fund, Manatū Taonga delivered 17 Te Urungi events across New Zealand, granting funding to 185 projects. This fund is underspent as some projects are to be completed in 2024/25, while others have returned funding in part or whole.

Total investment:
$22.3m allocated
$21.3m spent to 30 June 2024.

Te Tahua Whakamarohi i te Rāngai Ahurea Cultural Sector Regeneration Fund

Purpose:
This fund was designed to support the arts, culture and heritage sectors to recover from the impacts of COVID-19. Reprioritisation of the remaining funds from the Te Tahua Whakakaha Cultural Sector Capability Fund, Te Tahua Whakamarohi i te Rāngai Ahurea Cultural Sector Innovation Fund and Te Tahua Whakahaumaru Creative Arts Recovery and Employment (CARE) Funds and emergency relief funding made $28.3m of funding available. The fund opened in September 2022. 86 initiatives were funded with all due to be completed by the end of 2024.

Total investment:
$27.9m allocated
$28.3m spent as at 30 June 2024.

Mātauranga Māori Te Awe Kōtuku

Purpose:
This programme provided $24.7m over three years to fund at least 18 diverse initiatives which supported iwi, hapū, whānau and Māori communities to safeguard at-risk mātauranga. Initiatives were delivered through Manatū Taonga and six agencies: Creative New Zealand, Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, Te Matatini, Te Papa Tongarewa, and Te Tari Whenua Department of Internal Affairs.

Initiatives administered by Creative New Zealand

Toi Ake – Mātauranga Māori Te Awe Kōtuku Fund – This fund provided funding to support marae, hapū, iwi, whakapapa-based rōpū and mātāwaka to protect, cultivate and retain mātauranga Māori related to heritage ngā toi Māori (Māori arts) and foster the distinctive arts and cultural practices and knowledge of hapū and iwi.
Protection and retention of critically endangered artforms – Tārai Waka – Led by tohunga and mātanga Tārai Waka and collectives of senior and emerging practitioners, this initiative promoted the retention and revitalisation of Tārai Waka (waka building knowledge), a critically endangered artform through employment and training programmes that support the retention of practitioners who hold the mātauranga, tikanga and technical skills required to build waka and provide effective succession planning, alongside programmes that give greater public access to waka knowledge through community engagement events. 
Protection and retention of critically endangered artforms – Taonga Pūoro – Led by the Haumanu Collective, a national body of practitioners who work with Taonga Pūoro (traditional Māori musical instruments), this initiative supported the revival which started in the early 1980s led by the late Dr Hirini Melbourne and many others to ensure the mātauranga, cultural and artistic practices associated with Taonga Pūoro can be retained and revitalised to flourish. The initiative has supported the retention of knowledge of taonga pūoro making, performance, composition and use in healing and the building of infrastructure to support artistic development opportunities and greater public access and engagement with taonga pūoro music and practitioners.
Te Tairāwhiti Arts Festival – This initiative provided support for Te Tairāwhiti Arts Festival to protect, nurture and grow distinctive ngā toi Māori and mātauranga toi within Te Tairāwhiti, with a specific focus on working with, pūkenga and emerging practitioners from the rohe. New artworks were developed through artist wānanga, Te Pūtahi workshops, concept development and commissions. Artworks were presented as part of the Festival’s Te Ara i Whiti multi-media installation of light sculptures and projections, alongside artist panel talks.
Toi Ngāpuhi – This initiative provided support for Toi Ngāpuhi to retain at-risk mātauranga related to whakairo and to build a foundation of pūkenga and practitioners of Te Taitokerau who hold this knowledge and mātauranga o ngā hapū o Ngāpuhi, including whakapapa, natural resource use and maintenance, and cultural practices and technical skills. Toi Ngāpuhi worked across Te Taitokerau in the Far North through its broad networks to protect and revitalise the distinctive Ngāpuhi-nui-tonu cultural heritage, expressions and identity; improve hapū wellbeing through cultural expression; establish benchmarks of cultural integrity and authenticity; and foster talent and opportunity.

Initiatives administered by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga

Revitalising Māori Built Heritage Conservation Mātauranga – This programme focused on joint projects with iwi, hapū, marae hapori, tohunga, pūkenga and kaitiaki to support and revitalise vulnerable areas of mātauranga. These included place-based hanga whare mātauranga and practice (traditional arts and whare building construction), taonga and mātauranga related to mahinga kai, māra kai and waka. The programme has included expert gatherings (Pouhere Wānanga), expert-led wānanga through a co-design process with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, two trainee internships and contestable grants of up to $25,000 for community-led initiatives. 
Revitalising Mātauranga Māori in Ancestral Landscapes (Wāhi Tapu and Wāhi Tupuna) – This programme focused on joint projects with iwi, hapū, marae hapori, tohunga, pūkenga and kaitiaki to support and revitalise vulnerable mātauranga areas relating to wāhi tapu and wāhi tupuna. Through pūkenga-led wānanga, project participants explored the use of publications, on-site interpretation, cultural mapping and hīkoi to revitalise ancestral landscape histories, pūrakau and pakiwaitara and contestable grants of up to $25,000 for community-led initiatives.

Initiatives administered by Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision

Community Digitisation Wānanga of At-Risk Audio-Visual Taonga – This wide-reaching community digitisation project was designed to save at-risk audio-visual material stored on magnetic media, which degrades over time. Ngā Taonga provided training and field kits that iwi across the country could use to preserve their own audio-visual mātauranga for future generations.
Application of Traditional Knowledge Labels to National Documentary Heritage Collections – In partnership with Whakatōhea, Ngā Taonga supported a pilot programme applying Traditional Knowledge (TK) Labels to taonga Māori held by Ngā Taonga and other cultural heritage institutions. TK Labels are an internationally recognised archiving tool developed by Local Contexts, designed to help Native, First Nations, Aboriginal and Indigenous peoples assert their intellectual property rights; add important context to cataloguing; and ensure appropriate use of and access to their mātauranga and taonga. 
Preservation and Digitisation of Tangata Whenua Film Series – Ngā Taonga undertook the preservation, digitisation and description of the iconic six-part television series Tangata Whenua (1974), as well as preserving and compiling the non-broadcast interviews footage. This project was delivered in consultation with relevant kaitiaki, whānau, hapū and iwi.

Initiative administered by Te Matatini

Kapa haka regional wānanga – Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Te Matatini Herenga Waka Herenga Tangata Festival 2021 was postponed to 2023, leaving a gap in the kapa haka calendar. This gap limited opportunities for transmission of mātauranga Māori amongst kapa haka communities. This initiative enabled Te Matatini to provide financial support to the teams who qualified for the 2022 national festival. This funding supported each team to host a series of wānanga to maintain momentum in their practise and the transmission of mātauranga through waiata, mōteatea, poi and haka, as well as support continued community participation and connectivity. This initiative complemented funding allocated directly to Te Matatini to support a programme of 12 regional kapa haka ngahau (non-competitive) events in 2021.

Initiatives administered by Te Papa Tongarewa

Taonga Conservation Wānanga Programme – Te Papa Tongarewa coordinated taonga conservation wānanga with iwi, marae, hapū, whānau and Māori conservators from the museum sector. The initiative empowered iwi Māori as kaitiaki of their taonga and promoted succession planning for the small pool of Māori conservators who work directly with iwi, hapū and marae.
Wānanga Series on Endangered Mātauranga Māori Practices – Te Papa Tongarewa held a series of wānanga for tohunga and emerging artists on endangered mātauranga Māori related to taonga in Te Papa collections, including toi moko, taonga raranga, toki, hīnaki and kākahu. This initiative improved access and connection for iwi Māori to their taonga and mātauranga and supported the revitalisation of these endangered artforms.
Virtual Capture, Access and Tour of Taonga – Te Papa Tongarewa supported three Iwi in Residence to develop and produce a virtual tour of their exhibitions, starting with Rongowhakaata and the exhibition Ko Rongowhakaata Ruku i te Pō, Ruku i te Ao. The initiative produced a digital record of the taonga and mātauranga in the exhibitions which will be provided to the Iwi in Residence, so that uri (descendants) can access the taonga and kōrero from their exhibitions wherever they reside, beyond the term of the Iwi in Residence.
Recording and Sharing of Taikura Kapa Haka Regional Performances – Taikura Kapa Haka is an annual celebration of haka and waiata, performed by kaumātua from across New Zealand. Usually held at Te Papa Tongarewa during Matariki, COVID-19 had provided uncertainty for this live event. This joint project between He Kura Te Tangata Trust, iwi and haahi groups instead allowed for performances by participating Taikura rōpū to be filmed at their respective kāinga, for broadcast during Matariki in 2021 and 2022.

Initiative administered by Te Tari Whenua Department of Internal Affairs

Marae Ora – This contestable fund provided just over $9m over three years to support iwi, hapū and whānau with 162 projects to protect and revitalise mātauranga and taonga on marae. A wide range of revitalisation and conservation activities were supported, including wānanga, hīkoi, cultural mapping, the development of conservation plans for whare and wharenui arts, the establishment of harvest areas for cultural materials such as pā harakeke and tōtara, and the preservation of taonga such as waka tīwai, korowai and photographs,  the creation of archives, whare taonga or publications as a way to both preserve and provide access to taonga and mātauranga on marae.

Cross-agency initiative

Cultural Agency Internship Programme – A number of internships as well as the Te Pūranga iwi professionals’ network were supported in partnership with Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, the National Library of New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, and Te Papa Tongarewa. Other internships were created in partnership with Te Matatini to support preparations for the national kapa haka festival.

Total investment:
$24.5m allocated
$24.7m spent as at 30 June 2024.

National Fale Malae

Purpose:
The Fale Malae Trust was allocated $10m to support the establishment of a New Zealand national Fale Malae. As at June 2024, the majority of funds have not been spent as the initiative is still in the initial planning phase.

Total investment:
$10m allocated
$2.7m spent as at 30 June 2024.

Digitisation of Audiovisual Collections

In Budget 2020, funding was allocated to support the digital preservation of Crown-owned audiovisual heritage material. This included video and sound tapes and some magnetic sound on film, all of which physically deteriorate over time. Without digital preservation, over 95% of at-risk content could be lost in less than a decade. In addition, the playback technology for these formats is on the verge of obsolescence. There was a limited window to ensure that these taonga were preserved for future generations. As at 30 June 2024 the digitisation of records was mostly complete. The last items are expected to be completed in 2025.

Total investment:
$31.8m allocated
$24.5m spent to 30 June 2024.

Turnbull House Business Base

Funding was provided for a business case for the seismic strengthening, conservation and adaptive reuse of Turnbull House in Wellington. As a purpose-built house and library, it is one of Wellington’s most architecturally distinct buildings.
The business case was accepted and funding for the project was awarded in 2022. As at 30 June 2024 the build phase of this project was underway.

Total investment:
$0.3m allocated and fully expended as at 30 June 2024.

Note - funding may be administered by Manatū Taonga in a certain financial year but be distributed by Crown entities at a later date (and within the next financial year).