Lottery Grants NZ 2026: The New Lottery Fund Guide

Grantsights' own grant tools cover US funding only, so this page points you to DIA's Community Matters service and other New Zealand sources rather than anything we sell. To hear if we add New Zealand coverage, leave your details on our New Zealand list.

How Lottery Grants Work in NZ in 2026

The Lottery Grants Board allocated $398 million of lottery profits in 2024/25, one of its highest totals on record, according to the Board's annual report. It doesn't make every grant itself. The money goes 2 ways:

• Statutory bodies named in the Gambling Act 2003 get a fixed share: in 2024/25 Sport New Zealand received $79.9 million, Creative New Zealand $59.9 million, the New Zealand Film Commission $26.0 million and Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision $2.0 million. If you're an arts group or sports club, some Lottery money reaches you through those bodies, not through DIA. Our Creative NZ funding guide covers the arts side.
• Lottery distribution committees decide grants to community organisations. For 2025/26, the Board allocated $235.9 million to these committees, per DIA's committee allocations page (archived 3 February 2026).

The 2024/25 report says DIA received 5,648 applications asking for $572 million that year, 19% more requests than the year before. Demand outruns the money every year.

The 2026 restructure. In April 2026 DIA announced a new committee structure, saying the old one had stayed largely unchanged for over 20 years. A Gazette notice dated 1 May 2026 (opens in a new tab) established 7 new committees from 1 July 2026, and a second notice dated 15 May 2026 (opens in a new tab) disestablished the 19 old ones, including Lottery Community Facilities, Environment and Heritage, Health Research, Individuals with Disabilities, Outdoor Safety and Oranga Marae.

DIA's Lottery Grants Board page (archived 11 October 2026) adds 3 details: DIA assigns each application to a committee based on where the benefit will be; the Minister's Discretionary Fund won't operate in 2026/27; and from 2027/28 a national sub-committee will also distribute online casino gambling duty.

The New Lottery Fund: What It Pays For and When

Sport New Zealand's 28 July 2026 update (opens in a new tab) sets out what DIA had confirmed about the new Lottery Fund by then. It's the clearest public summary we could read live, and it lists 5 areas the fund can support:

1. community self-reliance, capacity building and stability
2. opportunities for participation and reducing barriers to participation
3. community and environmental health
4. arts, culture, heritage and national identity
5. sport and recreation

According to the same update, there are 4 funding rounds a year, applications are received and administered centrally before being assigned to a committee, and that includes requests that used to go to the Community Facilities Fund. Round 1 closed on 18 August 2026. The Lottery Fund page (opens in a new tab) and the funding calendar (opens in a new tab) on Community Matters hold the current guidance and dates; Grantsights read the live Lottery Fund page in a browser on 29 October 2026. It gives round 3 as open from 6 January 2027 to 2 February 2027, lists four application types (community support services, community projects, community facilities, and equipment for people with a disability), and asks first-time applicants to talk to a Community Advisor on 0800 824 824 first. Applications must show benefit in at least one of five areas: community self-reliance and capacity, participation, community and environmental health, arts, culture, heritage and national identity, and sport and recreation.

What DIA said would stay the same. DIA's May 2026 question-and-answer page on the restructure (archived 13 June 2026) says applications still go through the online grants system, the questions and supporting information will be similar to the old committees', DIA staff assess each request and recommend to the committee, and the committee decides. It also says the changes don't reduce the amount of funding available. Single-year grants already paid aren't affected, and DIA said it was working with the Board on how to honour existing multi-year agreements.

What's still unclear. DIA didn't publish new grant ranges, a cap for unregistered groups or a new rule for individuals with disabilities in any page we could read. Under the old Lottery Community rules (archived 6 June 2026), unregistered groups could ask for grants under $10,000, multi-year funding of up to 3 years needed a legal entity at least 2 years old, and capital works were limited to projects costing $50,000 or less. Treat those as the last published rules, not a promise for the new fund.

What 1,253 Lottery Community Grants Show

Grantsights analysis of the 12 Lottery Community committees' records of grants for 2025/26 round one (applications closed 9 August 2025, decisions by 5 November 2025) counts 1,253 grants worth $53.3 million. The median grant was $24,137 and the middle half ran from $10,000 to about $50,000.

Data: DIA Community Matters "record of grants" pages for 2025/26 round one, all 12 Lottery Community committees, read from Internet Archive copies made February to June 2026. Amounts are as published. 183 grants (15%) are marked as multi-year, and their published amount appears to cover the whole term.

Multi-year grants pull the totals up. The 183 multi-year grants had a median of $75,000 and made up $19.7 million of the $53.3 million. The 1,070 single-year grants had a median of exactly $20,000, the same as in 2024/25.

Where you are makes a real difference:

Otago/Southland made the second-most grants but had the lowest median, $10,000, so it spread its money thinly. Waikato made fewer, larger grants. The new regional committees merge some of these areas, so expect their habits to shift.

Who got the money. The largest grants in the round were $600,000 to The Polyfest Trust (Auckland) and $600,000 to Nga Whare Whakaruruhau O Aotearoa National Collective of Independent Women's Refuges (national), both multi-year, followed by $480,000 to Kindness Collective Foundation (national). A case in point at the typical end: Access Community Radio Auckland and Acorn Autism Charitable Trust each got $30,000 in Auckland, and Men's Shed Waimea got $15,000 from the West Coast/Nelson/Marlborough committee. By name, 109 grants (9%) went to organisations whose names include marae, hapū, iwi, whānau, kōhanga or rūnanga, 71 to organisations with "sport" or "club" in their names, 30 to churches and other religious organisations (Board policy allows social services run by religious groups), and 21 to councils. These counts come from organisation names only, so treat them as a rough guide.

Repeat winners are rare inside a round. Only 25 of 1,226 organisation names appear more than once, which fits DIA's old rule that a second request in the same year is lower priority.

Approval Rates by Committee: The 2024/25 Annual Report

According to the Lottery Grants Board's 2024/25 annual report, every committee publishes how many requests it considered, how many it approved and how much it gave. Grantsights analysis of those tables shows the 12 community committees approved 83% of requests but only 34% of the dollars asked for.

Source: Lottery Grants Board Te Puna Tahua annual report for the year ended 30 June 2025, committee tables. Rates and shares are Grantsights calculations. The specialist committees in this table were all disestablished on 1 July 2026.

Among the regions, Waikato approved the lowest share of requests (65%, 201 of 311) and Manawatū-Whanganui the highest (95%, 286 of 302). Auckland approved 574 of 692 requests and gave $26.7 million of the $87.1 million asked for, 31% of the dollars.

The report also names examples. The Community Facilities committee's largest grant was $550,000 to Te Kohanga Reo o Te Namu Society Incorporated towards a whare tāpere in Ōpunake, and it gave $300,000 to The Waka Pacific Trust in Manukau for a 16-metre climbing frame and $200,000 to Hornby Community Care Trust to refit the former Hornby Library.

A check on the records. For 2024/25, the published records of grants list 2,829 grants across rounds one and two (without West Coast/Nelson/Marlborough round one). Counts are close to the annual report (National: 293 in both; Auckland: 562 listed against 574 approved), but listed dollar totals are higher because multi-year grants appear at their full value, while the report counts each year's spending.

Who Can Apply, and What Lottery Money Won't Pay For

Lottery money is for community purposes only, and that rules out more applicants than people expect. The old Lottery Community page (archived 6 June 2026) funded not-for-profit organisations with a community or social service focus, and the Gambling Act 2003 requires committees to have regard to the needs of Māori and, as appropriate, older people, Pacific people and other ethnic communities, women, youth and people with disabilities. DIA's Lottery Grants Board page says that's not automatic preference: every application is still judged on its merits.

The Board's "does not fund" list (archived 19 May 2026) rules out 10 things:

• alcohol and similar substances, including kava
• capital investment such as property, shares or trust funds
• commercial aims with the sole purpose of profit, including business initiatives
• political advocacy or campaigns to change legislation
• religious activities (social services run by religious organisations are fine)
• work already finished before you hear the decision
• debt repayment, loans, deposits or underwriting
• overseas aid or overseas disaster relief
• medical expenses, operations or treatments
• money to pass on to a third party, or requests from fundraisers on someone else's behalf

Paid fundraisers. You can use one, but the request must show they're paid a flat fee or hourly rate whatever the outcome, and you can't pay their fee from the grant. A fundraiser can't accept the terms and conditions, be a signatory or complete your results report.

Lower priority, even if eligible. The Board's outcomes framework says activities that don't advance equity or serve the groups named in the Act, such as grants to wealthy communities or well-resourced organisations, are unlikely to be funded, along with facilities people must pay unaffordable fees to use and animal welfare work such as rescues or desexing.

Schools and councils. According to Sport NZ's July 2026 update, DIA confirmed that state and state-integrated schools and territorial authorities can apply for Community Projects or Community Facilities funding if the activity has a clear public community benefit and is additional to their usual publicly funded responsibilities.

What DIA's Community Matters Site Doesn't Tell You

Grantsights compared DIA's pages with the annual report and 4,082 published grant records, and 5 things stand out.

You'll probably get funded, and probably get less. The community committees approved 83% of requests in 2024/25 but gave 34% of the dollars asked for. Ask for what the project needs, but your best bet is a plan that still works at half that amount. A common mistake is a budget with no fallback, which leaves you unable to accept a partial grant.

The median single-year grant is $20,000. In both 2024/25 and 2025/26 round one, the middle single-year grant was exactly $20,000. Requests well above that need a strong case or a multi-year track record.

Your region's committee has habits. Otago/Southland's median was $10,000 in 2025/26 round one; Waikato's was $41,042. The new committees combine regions, and nobody can yet say whose habits will win. Read your new committee's first published records before your second application.

The old specialist funds are gone, but not their money. DIA says the restructure doesn't change the amount of funding available. If you used to apply to Community Facilities, Environment and Heritage or Oranga Marae, your request now competes in a regional or national committee against social services. Show community benefit in the same terms they do.

"Lotto grants" for individuals mostly don't exist. Apart from the old disability fund, Lottery committees don't fund individuals or medical costs. Any text or email saying you've won or been selected for a Lotto or lottery grant is a red flag. DIA's online scams page (opens in a new tab) describes a text campaign offering discounted Lotto tickets that leads to a page asking for credit card details; it says never to click links in spam and to check with Lotto NZ through its official contact details. Report scam texts and emails to scam@reportspam.co.nz.

How to Apply for a Lottery Grant

Applying takes 5 steps through DIA's online grants system, and the last 2 take months, not weeks.

1. Set up your logins. You need a RealMe login and an organisation profile in DIA's grants management system (opens in a new tab), with bank account, GST and contact details up to date. DIA's May 2026 guidance told applicants to do this before rounds open.
2. Talk to a Community Advisor. DIA's number is 0800 824 824 and its email is community.matters@dia.govt.nz. If you're using a paid fundraiser, DIA recommends the fundraiser has an initial conversation with an advisor.
3. Prepare your evidence. The old Lottery Community rules asked for a budget showing income and expenditure for requests of $20,000 or more in any year, and a quote no more than 6 months old for minor capital works. Expect similar requirements.
4. Submit before the round closes. Check the funding calendar (opens in a new tab) for your round. Don't start the work: the Board won't fund activities finished before you're told the decision.
5. Wait for the decision, then report. Under the old Lottery Community calendar, round one of 2025/26 closed on 9 August 2025 with decisions by 5 November 2025, about 3 months. DIA aimed to pay approved grants within a fortnight, and you'll have to file a results report on how the money was used, or return what you didn't spend.

Audits happen. DIA's guidance says the Board runs a grants audit programme and selects some recipients each year, so keep receipts and records for the whole grant.

Other Funding to Pair With a Lottery Grant

A Lottery grant rarely covers everything, and committees like to see other funders. In New Zealand the usual partners are gaming trusts and community trusts:

• Gaming trusts: our guides to NZCT grants, Pub Charity grants, The Lion Foundation and the Four Winds Foundation cover the main class 4 funders.
• Community trusts: Foundation North (Auckland and Northland), Trust Waikato and the Rātā Foundation (Canterbury, Nelson, Marlborough and the Chatham Islands) fund in the same regions as several new Lottery committees.
• Businesses: Lottery money can't fund a business. See small business grants in NZ for what government offers instead.

If you also work across the Tasman or in the UK, gaming and lottery money works differently there: compare Queensland's Gambling Community Benefit Fund, ClubGRANTS in NSW and the UK's National Lottery Community Fund.

Sources Checked

Read on 29 October 2026, either live or through the Internet Archive copy dated in brackets:

• Department of Internal Affairs, Community Matters: Lottery Fund (opens in a new tab) (read live in a browser)
• New Zealand Gazette, Establishment of a Lottery Distribution Committee, 2026-go2340 (opens in a new tab) (published 1 May 2026, live) and Disestablishment of Lottery Distribution Committees, 2026-go2846 (opens in a new tab) (published 26 May 2026, live)
• Sport New Zealand, More information now available on Lottery Fund changes (opens in a new tab) (28 July 2026, live)
• Department of Internal Affairs, Community Matters: Lottery Grants Board (opens in a new tab) (archived 11 October 2026), Changes to Lottery Grants Board committee structure (opens in a new tab) (archived 13 June 2026, content updated 22 May 2026), Lottery Community (opens in a new tab) (archived 6 June 2026), Lottery Grants Board does not fund (opens in a new tab) (archived 19 May 2026), committee allocations 2025/26 (opens in a new tab) (archived 3 February 2026), funding calendar (opens in a new tab) (archived 21 January and 27 March 2026), What Lottery grants have been made in the past? (opens in a new tab) (archived 19 May 2026) and each committee's linked record of grants pages
• Lottery Grants Board Te Puna Tahua, annual report for the year ended 30 June 2025 (opens in a new tab) (archived 11 October 2026)
• Department of Internal Affairs, Online scams (opens in a new tab) (live)
• Gambling Act 2003 (opens in a new tab), the Act under which the Board and its committees operate (legislation.govt.nz blocked automated requests; the Act's requirements are quoted from DIA's pages)