New Zealand's community trusts gather in Waitangi, Bay of Islands, from 3–5 November 2026 for the Combined Community Trusts Conference, hosted by Foundation North under the theme 'Te Rau Mahi Tahi — Partnering for Impact: 2040 and Beyond'.
New Zealand's community trust sector converges on the Bay of Islands from 3 to 5 November 2026 for the Combined Community Trusts Conference, the sector's recurring national gathering. The official site (communitytrusts.org.nz) lists the location as Waitangi, Taitokerau, in Northland, and carries the theme "Te Rau Mahi Tahi — Partnering for Impact: 2040 and Beyond". Award-winning broadcaster Julian Wilcox (Ngāpuhi, Te Arawa) is confirmed as master of ceremonies.
The 2026 edition is hosted by Foundation North, the community trust for Auckland and Northland, with conference management handled by Composition. Hosting duties for the gathering rotate among New Zealand's regional community trusts. The event brings the country's community trusts together to share practice across grant-making, governance and regional impact.
The conference is aimed at community trust trustees, board members and staff, alongside philanthropic professionals and organisational leaders working in local, national and international philanthropy. Its stated purpose is to inspire, provoke and challenge delegates to consider what partnering for impact means in a changing regional, national and global environment.
The organiser has confirmed the Waitangi location but, as of this writing, had not yet publicly named the specific hotel venue, noting that a fuller programme would follow. The Copthorne Hotel & Resort Bay of Islands is the area's main conference property and sits on Tau Henare Drive, Waitangi, on an absolute beachfront adjacent to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. As factual context, the hotel has 140 guest rooms; its Waitaha Events Centre runs to roughly 529–674 square metres and seats up to 500–600 delegates, with the ground-floor Treaty Rooms seating up to about 180. The nearest airport is Kerikeri / Bay of Islands Airport, around 15 km away; the Bay of Islands is roughly a three-hour-plus drive north of Auckland.
The Combined Community Trusts Conference is a nationally significant association gathering that moves a concentrated, multi-day delegation of trustees and philanthropic leaders into a regional destination. Siting the 2026 edition in Waitangi — a location of deep constitutional and cultural significance for New Zealand — ties the sector's partnering-for-impact theme to its surroundings and underscores the Bay of Islands' standing as a Northland business-events destination capable of hosting a conference of this scale.
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