Money, money, money
Published on July 30, 2025 by Chloe Spedding
Kia ora koutou,
Check out this update which should cover a lot of FAQs about all things money-related! A lot of you have had questions about submitting expenses and grant applications recently, so hopefully this helps answer those!
Money Coming In
Check out this update which should cover a lot of FAQs about all things money-related! A lot of you have had questions about submitting expenses and grant applications recently, so hopefully this helps answer those!
Money Coming In
Donations may come in in two different ways - either via grants or via individual donations.
Grants
If you wish to apply for grants, we suggest the following process:
1. Choose the fund you wish to apply for (either with the help of Fundsorter, or through your own research)
2. Check with the funder that they're happy to work with fundholders - a quick call or email to them should answer this. Also ask them if they'd prefer the application to come directly from you, as the group doing the mahi, or from us, as the legal entity.
3. Write your draft application and send it to [email protected]. We need this copy so that we can check that we are represented correctly, and so we can track which group has which application in, so we know which Collective to attribute funds to when the money lands in our account. If the funder would prefer us to submit the application, we will also do this at this point.
4. Keep us in the loop with any communications you receive from funders - let us know if you're successful and send us any grant agreements that we may need to sign. If the funder requires an invoice drawn up, we can do that too, just email [email protected]. Please send us remittance advice too. We won't add the funds to your balance until we've seen proof.
Donations
Individual donations should be made through the Open Collective platform, in the Contributions section. There, your donors will have two payment options - they can either pay with credit card directly through the platform, or they can pay into our account. The platform provides them with a reference number to include when they do so - this is important - please make sure your donors include this, or we won't know to allocate the funds to your account.
Money Going Out
Gift Collective does not operate like a bank account - you can't draw money out any day of the week. You can access your funds by submitting expenses through the Open Collective platform. Our pay run is a weekly operation - it happens every Wednesday. Please submit any expenses you wish to be paid in any given week by the end of Tuesday. We'll then do our due diligence on them on a Wednesday (checking that it meets NZ charity law requirements, and that you are doing the kaupapa you said you'd do when you signed up with us). If everything looks ok to us, we'll process the payment and the payee can expect the money to land in their account on a Thursday.
Things to keep in mind when you submit expenses
- The platform is designed for you to enter your own details for payment, not someone else's. You can invite someone else to submit an expense, and they can fill in their own details, and you can, of course, create expenses for yourself. You can't pay a third party without them being part of the process though, unless you contact Chloe to set them up as a vendor first (providing her with full legal name, bank account and contact details for the person or organisation). You'll then be able to select them from a list of vendors when you submit an expense.
- We can't pay out any expenses that haven't got the right documentation uploaded. For reimbursements, please make sure you upload a receipt, or other proof of payment, such as a screenshot from a bank account, rather than the initial invoice you received.
- If something is not right with your expense, we may do one of two things: we could remove the expense from the pay run and let you know what we need from you in order to pay it out, or, if the error is minor, we could edit and reapprove the expense ourselves, meaning you'll still receive some of the money that week.
- Please remember that we can only pay out expenses when there is enough money in your budget to do so. There is a $1.38 processing fee on each expense (more if it's an international payment) that you need to allow for.
Ngā mihi,
Chloe