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This week’s speaker was our own Jonathan, and was a follow-on presentation from his recent discussion with the club about the J R McKenzie Trust. Jonathan Usher and Grant Chirnside (pictured above) who alongside another Rotary Dunedin member Neville Caird, have collectively served 60 years with the JR McKenzie Trust. Jonathan was formally congratulated for his 20 years of outstanding service to the trust at a function in Wellington last week. As Jonathan steps down from his role on the JR McKenzie Trust Board, Grant will join as a trustee. Grant has already spent 10 years administrating the JR McKenzie Youth Education Fund in our Rotary District. President Katie introduced Jonathan's topic by telling us that (the tongue twisting term) Participatory Philanthropy is the philosophy of centering community leadership, wisdom, and voices in grant making. Jonathan spoke us about the grandson of Sir J R Mckenzie, Peter McKenzie. Peter had been brought up being inspired by conservation and his 21st birthday gift was a substation parcel of Rangatira Ltd shares. He made a gift of one third of those shares to form a Nature Reserve Trust. This Trust purchased land near Waikanae and developed the Nga Manu Nature Reserve. In addition, Peter also established the Jayar Charitable Trust, wanting to make a substantial difference to New Zealanders lives. In 2011 Peter McKenzie seeded the idea of spending all of its funds on one focus over a period of up to 20 years. Following Peter’s death in 2012, the Trust was renamed the Peter McKenzie Trust and the vision of the Trust is - Imagine an Aotearoa New Zealand where all our children, young people and mokopuna flourish. With 28% of Kiwi children living in low income households where their caregivers are struggling to provide the basics, the Trust wants to ensure tomorrow’s children do not suffer the effects of living in poverty. The Trust called for ideas to support its vision and of the 259 ideas received, nine projects were developed in partnership and funded. Johnathan explained that participatory philanthropy has been used, i.e. sharing power - money is power. Sharing power is a further step in the Trust’s journey towards trying to build a healthier, more equitable and effective ecosystem. He showed a number of diagrams to demonstrate how participatory approach works, and finished with a quote that Peter McKenzie liked: “If everything you back succeeds, you haven’t taken enough risks” Click on the link below to head to the JR McKenzie Trust website for more stories, news and informative resource materials from this organisation. |
David now lives in Palmerston North where he is a senior scientist at AgResearch. He is a past president and a current member of the Rotary Club of Papaioea (
Rotary International Convention, Singapore, 25-29 May 2024.
