Families are going backwards. That cannot be our legacy.

Three years or three generations?

A joint statement from Aotearoa’s family philanthropic foundations.

Family foundations don’t usually speak up during election campaigns. We are doing so now because of what we are hearing from the families and community organisations we work alongside.

Parents working hard and still struggling to put food on the table. Grandparents stretching their own budgets to keep their families afloat. Young people uncertain about what their futures hold. Community organisations doing everything they can, with more people turning to them and fewer resources to respond.

One in seven children in Aotearoa (14.3%) now lives in material hardship. That is more than when the Child Poverty Reduction Act was passed in 2018. Too many families are spending everything they have, financially and emotionally, just to get through the week.

How can families build a better future for their children when they are struggling to get through today?

As family foundations, we have the privilege of thinking and investing across generations. Many of the whānau we work alongside do not have that luxury.

We believe every family deserves the chance to leave something better for those who follow. Our shared legacy should be a country where children grow up safe, knowing where they belong and proud of who they are. A country that honours Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and where healthy whenua and waterways sustain our mokopuna.

We all have a responsibility for the future we leave behind.

As funders, we accept our share of that responsibility. We will continue to use our resources, relationships and voices to back communities and invest in lasting change. But we know the limits of philanthropy.

We can invest in a better future, but we cannot undo the consequences of decisions, by governments of any stripe, that leave families worse off.

Three years or three generations?

This election, we invite voters to think about the children, grandchildren and whānau they love. What kind of lives do we want them to have? What sort of country do we want them to inherit?

We ask every political party to look beyond the next three years and explain what its decisions will mean for the next three generations. What are they prepared to do today to leave our families, communities and whenua in a better place?

Our children should inherit more than the struggles of the generations before them.