With Christmas just around the corner, how can businesses support charities that are caring for New Zealand’s most vulnerable communities? Milford Foundation General Manager Lucy Doyle talks to Ryan Bridge about some practical ways business can engage in philanthropy, and outlines the Foundation’s own Christmas Campaign – Every Child Deserves A Christmas.

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Bridge talks Business: 10 November 2026
Episode Transcript

Ryan Bridge
Kia ora and welcome to episode 101 with Bridge talks Business with Milford. While we wait on those votes and the formation of a new government, you may have noticed something else creeping into your news feeds, Christmas. Tis the season for giving. Many businesses like to donate either time or money or both to charities at this time of year. But what is the best way to go about it and how can businesses add the most value when helping others? That’s our sit down interview topic today. First, here’s your top five business bits from the last seven days.

    1. The New Zealand election. A national-led government looks most likely, but it’s not yet settled. Will they need Opportunity? Full results on the 27th. There will be a new finance minister that much is sure with Nicola Willis out, she’s list only.
    2. New Zealand jobs data was a shocker. Employment fell over the quarter. Even though more timely indicators had pointed to improvement, unemployment rose to 5.7%, supporting the RBNZ’s call to keep interest rates on hold.
    3. Across the Tasman, the RBA hiked, but it was close. The bank raised rates in a tight vote. Markets think this is likely the peak for their cycle.
    4. US jobs much stronger than expected, hiring beat forecasts, and even the three month running average well above the pace needed to keep unemployment steady.
    5. US CPI is the focus this week. Markets will be looking to assess the likely path forward for US rates off the back.

All right, it is time for our feature interview. This week we’re sitting down with Lucy Doyle, General Manager at the Milford Foundation, to talk about giving at Christmas. Just a reminder, this segment is informational only and should not be considered financial advice. Lucy, welcome back to the podcast.

Lucy Doyle
Hi, Ryan, it’s nice to see you.

Ryan Bridge
Great to have you back. Our viewers, our listeners will remember last time we spoke about the Milford Foundation, the great work that it does. But I wanted to get you back to ask, in all of your extensive experience in charity and philanthropy, how can businesses most or best add value to their giving?

Lucy Doyle
Well, obviously funding really helps, but I think it’s really important for business to think beyond that. And Milford is a really great example. We’ve got extensive networks, we’ve got great staff, and we can actually add a lot to charities beyond just the money, and it’s really important to be thinking like that.

Ryan Bridge
So kind of supercharging, or making use of what you’ve already got – your existing resources.

Lucy Doyle
Absolutely, absolutely.

Ryan Bridge
You’re putting some of that thinking into practice, and the Foundation has a Christmas campaign this year. Tell us about that.

Lucy Doyle
Well, I’m really proud of this Christmas campaign. Every year, the Milford Foundation has run a Christmas campaign, but this is our biggest campaign to date, and it’s called Every Child Deserves Christmas. And first off, we’re donating $500,000 to five really hardworking charities who are working directly with children and young people this Christmas. We’re also fundraising. So we are putting this out into the public, and we are asking New Zealanders to join us. And we have an incredibly generous Milford Foundation supporter that has agreed to match all donations this week, up to $100,000 towards those charities. And those charities are Kindness Collective, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Nourish Trust in Wellington, The Village Trust here in West Auckland, and Foster Hope.

Ryan Bridge
Wow, so this week, up to $100,000, it’s gonna be matched by one of our donors. That is incredible.

Lucy Doyle
Correct, it is incredible.

 Ryan Bridge
And good to know we are gonna hear from those charities just in a few minutes’ time. But just tell me what you’re hearing about the need at this time of year for families.

Lucy Doyle
Oh, it’s really tough out there. The cost of living crisis is putting a lot of pressure on families, and it’s just getting worse. And you think about those families that are already doing it tough, and then you lay a Christmas on top. So if you’re a family that’s already struggling to get food on the table and pay your essential bills, the idea of Christmas and pulling that all together for your kids is just something that can be really tough for some families. And during the campaign, I’ve had the chance to speak to these five charities, and they’ve shared some stories with us. The Village Trust in West Auckland, for example, they run youth events, and they offer free sausages. And they know that families come, because often that’s just dinner for some of those families. And the Kindness Collective have also shared with us that they’ve often referred families who are experiencing material hardship for their services. And those families turn up on their doorstep, and they say, “Actually, give it to somebody else who’s doing it even harder than us.” And I think those stories really illustrate how hard things are for some families. And like I said, Christmas just exacerbates that.

Ryan Bridge
Lucy, everyone wants to give at this time of year and businesses have the best of intentions. Are there some things that they get wrong when trying to give?

Lucy Doyle
Yeah, I think that businesses, you’re absolutely right. They do have the best intentions, but I think sometimes we forget that the charity is the expert. They’re the ones that work with community day by day, that are journeying alongside families. And like you said, businesses do have really great goodwill, but I think sometimes they come in with a fixed sense of what’s actually needed. And I think a better place to start is by listening to what charities need. And I’ll just give you a couple of examples that I’ve seen time and time again in my career. A business will offer volunteering to their staff and to a charity, but what the charity actually needs is quite a specific skill. Another example is a business will offer a one-off donation of goods, which is really helpful, but what the charity does need is a longer, steadier source of funding. And it’s not to criticise these forms of giving because they’re really valuable. Volunteering is valuable and donated goods can definitely play a really important role. But the first important thing to do is to ask the charity what they need and be responsive to that.

Ryan Bridge
You’ve been doing this a long time, as we’ve said, but every time you hear new stories, I’m sure they must have an impact on you every time you hear a new story, like the ones you’ve been describing to us. Do you still get stories that kind of stop you?

Lucy Doyle
Oh my gosh, yes, all the time. I’m the mother of two young kids, and I don’t think you ever become immune to those stories. Foster Hope is one of our charity partners, and they told a story when we met with them for the campaign, about a young girl who was given some household essentials as she was going into foster care for the first time, and that included a toothbrush. And she just looked at the toothbrush and she said, I get to use it first. And that’s just really tough. I have never once thought about the privilege of being able to use my toothbrush first.

Ryan Bridge
This campaign is called Every Child Deserves a Christmas, and we thought, what better way to explain it than to show you and have you listen to some of the stories, check it out.

Video transcript
Lucy Doyle: Christmas should be a special time when you’re a child, but for many families, Christmas is also really tough.

  • Sarah Page (Kindness Collective): As we get closer to Christmas, the pressure for families increases. Especially this year, it’s getting tougher and tougher for people to be able to make ends meet and put food on the table.
  • Jessica Meates (Tui Glen School, supported by Nourish Trust): I believe that Christmas time is an amazing time of year, but it can be stressful and it can worry people. It worries households and it can worry our students as well when you’re thinking about, “Is there going to be enough for us over the Christmas break?”
  • Louise Burnie (Foster Hope): Christmas can be a really hard time for children. Often they go into care at Christmas time, domestic violence, spikes, alcohol spikes. Everything comes to a head at Christmas time. The pressures on families often break them and children go into care.
  • Lady Maliena Jones (The Village Trust): For many families, we know that Christmas can be just another day. It’s not necessarily a day full of celebration.
  • Caleb Jackson (Make-A-Wish NZ): Christmas can be, well, when going through a tough time, can be good and bad. Also, when going through something tough, you have to deal with that, as well as everything that you’re already dealing with.
  • Lucy Doyle: At Milford Foundation, our purpose is to back young New Zealanders, no matter what their circumstances are. So this Christmas, we wanted to do something really practical to support young people.
  • Meghan Mappleski (Kindness Collective): For a moment, it becomes not about what they can’t afford, but about giving Christmas for their kids.
  • Gabrielle Ralph (Nourish Trust): Knowing that families in our community can sit down together and enjoy Christmas with their cupboards full is just what Nourish is all about.
  • Anne Fitisemanu (Make-A-Wish NZ): A wish is medicine. So now we have medical specialists who say that a child actually has moments of wellbeing whilst they’re on this journey towards their wish.
  • Marlene Smith (Grandmother raising her grandchildren, supported by Foster Hope): The children feel loved, cared for, they have a sense of belonging. That’s what it’s about.
  • Sir Michael Jones (The Village Trust): It’s those little things that really matter, and I think we should never underestimate as New Zealanders how much even the smallest gift can go so far and make such a big difference.
  • Sarah Page (Kindness Collective): We want everyone to know that they can make a difference. It doesn’t have to be much. It doesn’t have to be to us. But you can lend a hand and bring joy to another family this Christmas.
  • Lucy Doyle: We would love New Zealanders to get behind the campaign. Every dollar that is raised goes directly to those charities that are supporting children and young people this Christmas. We think every child deserves Christmas. Donate to the campaign and join us.

 

Ryan Bridge
Wow, that’s some inspiring stories for five amazing charities that Milford’s working with.

Lucy Doyle
Yeah, it was so awesome to hear from those charities. So that was Make-A-Wish New Zealand, Kindest Collective, Nourish Trust, Foster Hope, and The Village Trust here in West Auckland.

Ryan Bridge
Fantastic stuff. So what should businesses do? They wanna give, they wanna help out. How do you do it?

Lucy Doyle
So the first thing that businesses should do is have a look beyond funding what you can actually provide. So that could be super simple. It could be the skills. As businesses, we have skills in marketing, IT, legal, finance, sometimes these are skills and services that charities just cannot afford. Think about your clients and your suppliers. Think of the networks that you have at your disposal. How can you actually connect your networks with some of the work that the charities are doing? And then sometimes it’s really simple. It might just be a meeting room in your office space. It could be a vehicle. It could be some equipment. It could be using your platform, your ability to actually share the stories of charities with a wider audience. So first of all, have a think about what it is that you can offer. Then pick yourself a charity that you really connect with, that your business connects with and ask them for a conversation. Not a pitch. Don’t ask the charities to pitch just yet, just a conversation. Ask the charities what they actually need and where your business could really deliver some extra value. And then once you’ve done that, keep talking to the charity and keep looking at what you’ve got that you can actually give to the charity. And the other thing that I would really urge is think long term. Charities need to plan for the future. So it’s much more valuable for a charity to have a long term commitment to support than just a one off kind of exercise. And look, let’s be honest, it might be money. It might be that the charity just needs the funding, but they might need something else. And until you have that conversation, you won’t actually know. So that should be a good starting point if you’re interested in giving.

Ryan Bridge
Fantastic advice. Lucy, thank you so much for coming back on and Merry Christmas.

Lucy Doyle
Thank you, Merry Christmas to you.

Ryan Bridge
That was Lucy Doyle from the Milford Foundation. You can donate and please do this week to supercharge your donation. You can do that by going to christmas.milfordfoundation.co.nz to donate now. That’s christmas.milfordfoundation.co.nz. Until next week, don’t forget to invest in yourselves and others.

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