Post Christchurch’s earthquake in 2011, SGL was asked by the central government redevelopment agency (CERA) and then by Christchurch City Council, to recommend the most appropriate philanthropic strategy to help support the City’s development. As a pre-cursor to the Foundation’s establishment, SGL with subcontractor John Leuthart also developed a corporate or ‘Partner framework’ for the city, and in particular to address some of the funding requirements for the new Central Library, Turanga. This partnership approach was based on a shared vision-based and values-based approach. This type of approach embraces the principles of ‘co-design, co-invest and sometimes co-deliver’ – together looking at the best way to address certain community needs which may be much more than money, and also because there are common goals the emphasis can often be less about the benefits provided and more about has the joint community outcome been achieved.
