Disability Grants FAQs

• Consumer leadership development grant
• Training grant

Criteria for each grant is set by Whaikaha – Ministry of Disabled People, who provide the funding and set the priority areas. However, Te Pou is responsible for ensuring applicants adhere to the specific criteria of a grant.

• Disability Support Service (DSS) providers who hold a contract with Whaikaha Ministry of Disabled People’
• Disabled Persons Organisations (DPOs) that are part of the DPO coalition.
• Disabled people, whānau/family who are eligible for DSS.
• Organisations that do not hold a DSS contract with Whaikaha Ministry of Disabled People’ can be sponsored by organisations that do hold a DSS contract.

Yes, the training grants can be used up to three months after the grant has been awarded.

No, it is up to the applying organisation to make the required citizen or residency checks for any staff or individual applied for.

Travel and accommodation costs can be included in the application only for staff or participants with a disability.

This will be considered on a case-by-case basis. We suggest you provide rationale for bringing in facilitators from overseas in the learning activity section of your application. You can also provide supporting information about costs in the budget section of your application.

Our grants can only support the costs of training delivered in New Zealand. Please refer to the eligibility criteria.

The grants portal is only able to accept self-registration from organisations with email addresses that have organisational domains, such as tepou.co.nz. It will not accept self-registration from organisations that use emails from the following domains: gmail, hotmail, ihug, xtra, Vodafone and email domains outside of New Zealand. If your organisation uses one of these domains, you will need to email grants@tepou.co.nz and we will arrange your registration for you.

Once you have signed up on the portal an automated email will be sent to the email address that you used to sign up. If you have not received an email, check your spam or junk mail.

Email us at grants@tepou.co.nz and we will let you know what to do.

Your username is the email address that you used to register or set-up your account on the grants portal. You can reset your password by going into the portal login page and clicking on the 'Forgot password' link.

Please check that the username you are entering is the email address that you used to register on the portal. You can reset your password by following the prompt on the login page.

It is preferred that organisations/individuals self-manage their own access to the grants portal.

An existing Organisation Administrator can add or remove users on an organisational account. If they have forgotten their username or password, their username is their email address that was used to register or set up their account. Passwords can be reset by going into the portal login page and clicking on the “Forgot password” link.

Email us at grants@tepou.co.nz if you need further help.

No, the grants portal is designed to be self-managing for users. It is preferred that organisations self-manage their own access.

Only one registered account per organisation is permitted. You will need to use the login details associated with your organisation’s account. If you do not have access to this, email us at grants@tepou.co.nz for further assistance.

You can only have one registered account per organisation. First, check with other staff in your organisation in case someone already has access to your organisation grants portal account. If you cannot find anyone who has access, please contact us at grants@tepou.co.nz.

Yes, an existing organisation administrator can add or remove users themselves.

To remove a user:

Login to the portal > settings > users > click on the user whose access needs to be closed > close account > confirm account to be closed.

To add a user:

Login to the portal > settings > users > add > enter person’s name and email address.

Yes, any organisation administrator can update their account/profile name. Login to the portal > account information > update name.

Yes, organisation administrators can reopen accounts.

Go to settings and then users. Click on the closed user account in the list of users. Click on the restore account button on the bottom right.

You will receive an email with an account verification link. The account will need to be verified before you can log in to the portal.

No, applications can only be completed and submitted via the online grants portal. An editable Word document with the application questions is available for the Consumer Leadership Development Grant and can be downloaded. Answers can then be copied onto the application.

That’s okay - if you are an approved DPO coalition organisation we don’t require these numbers from you. Just put ‘DPO’ in place of these numbers when asked.

We aren't able to provide the application form prior to the round opening. However, an outline of the type of information you will need to provide in your application is provided in these FAQs - see What kind of questions will be asked? An editable Word document with the questions is available for the Consumer Leadership Development Grant and can be downloaded. Answers can be copied and put onto the online application.

• Information to show you satisfy the eligibility criteria.
• Details of the speciality of services you provide (organisations only).
• Your Whaikaha Ministry of Disabled People details (organisations only).
• The primary contact person for your application.
• Details of the learning activity.
• Details of the costs associated with the learning activity.
• Details of every participant that will undertake the learning activity.
• Delivery of the learning activity (method, location, etc).
• Details of the organisation support for participants to undertake the learning activity.
• Outline of opportunities that will enable the participant to apply the skills and knowledge attained from the learning activity to benefit disabled people/sector.
  • Background of facilitator in the disability sector (organisations only).Involvement of disabled people in the development/ facilitation of the training (organisations only).
• How the learning activity aligns with Enabling Good Lives approach and the United Nations Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

An editable Word document with the questions is available for the Consumer Leadership Development Grant and can be downloaded. Answers can be copied and put onto the online application.

The Excel spreadsheet is an easy way to add participants to your application, particularly when there are many of them. The spreadsheet won’t upload if new columns have been inserted or if the drop-downs haven’t been used. Just add the names and use the drop-downs to select demographic information.

The demographic information about participants is collected for Whaikaha Ministry of Disabled People in order to identify and report on trends. Individuals are not identified, and information is anonymised. For more information about this see the grant terms and conditions.

Your organisation may not meet the eligibility criteria. Your organisation must hold a current Disability Support Service contract with Whaikaha Ministry of Disabled People or you must be part of the Disabled Peoples Organisation (DPO) coalition.

For the consumer leadership development grant and workforce development grant, we aim to complete the moderation process and notify you with an outcome a few weeks after the round closes.

For the training grant, you will know the outcome within a few working days from the application submission date.

All unsuccessful applicants receive an email notifying them of the outcome. However, as stated in the grant terms and conditions, we are not obligated to provide individual feedback to unsuccessful applicants.

Yes, you are welcome to use the funds for another person to do the same training. If a suitable replacement cannot be found please let us know at grants@tepou.co.nz

We understand that due to unforeseen circumstances changes to start or completion dates of the learning activity may occur. You will need to email us at grants@tepou.co.nz to let us know the new dates. We will advise you if the new dates are acceptable.

Send us an email at grants@tepou.co.nz to let us know. We will then let you know the next steps.

Keep track of who completed the training. After the training is completed you will be sent an email from the grants portal asking you to complete a final report. At that stage, you can let us know who completed, who withdrew and if you need to you can add additional people.

When you go into the report you will need to first enter a training completed date. You can put in the current date. Then you will be able to complete the rest of the report and indicate the person as withdrawn. This will trigger a clawback process and you will receive instructions for returning the funds within a few days.

The terms and conditions of your grant state that we require you to report to us at the end of the learning activity. We use this information to understand how effective the training was and several other measures. We also need to know if all the grant funding was spent.

You need to submit your final report a month after the last participant has completed the learning activity, unless an extension was requested and approved.

Send us an email at grants@tepou.co.nz with the grant number, the reason for the delay, and what the expected completion date will be. We will let you know if that is acceptable and notify you of the new reporting date.

Once your grant is active you will be able to see the questions, but you won’t be able to submit your report until after the learning activity is completed. You will have a month after the learning activity is finished to complete the report.

Yes, you can download a copy of the report from the portal. Once logged in > completed tab > select the grant the report was completed for > download.

No, only invoices uploaded to the grants portal can be accepted. Uploading an invoice to the grants portal is very similar to attaching an invoice to an email. When uploading, browse to the location on your computer where the invoice is saved, select the document, then click upload. If you upload the wrong document don’t worry, you can try again.

We require you to invoice us for the full amount used - but no more than the granted amount. If you don’t end up spending all of your grant you can tell us later - you may be required to return unused funds.

You can invoice for less than the amount granted, but not more. However, once you have invoiced for less you can’t claim the rest later.