Central’s youth-led bullying prevention charity, Sticks ‘n Stones, is top of the table in a new nationwide giving campaign, which will benefit New Zealand charities by $1.2M annually.

One Good Kiwi is a digital koha platform (a website and mobile app). Users can swipe to allocate their free digital tokens to charities. 

At the end of the month a percentage of $100,000 goes to each charity depending on the amount of tokens that have been given to them.

Sticks ‘n Stones chief executive Karla Sanders said being involved was incredible for the organisation.

“This offers us the opportunity to have funds to use in a variety of ways that are not linked to a grant… It means some flexibility with funding.

“It’s a chance to connect with people across Aotearoa… We want to use October to show we can generate lots of interest and support.”

Karla said Sticks ‘n Stones had been a community partner of One NZ (formerly Vodafone) since 2017 and the campaign message was “just one good kiwi helping another”.

One Good Kiwi’s long term vision is to create positive change for rangitahi, aligned to the bullying prevention focus of Sticks ‘n Stones.

The opening content for Sticks ‘n Stones is a short video of Karla. 

The video content online briefly introduces each charity and is easy to share with friends and family

She said it was simple “handheld footage in front of my house” but that every week this month a different video would showcase the organisation's work. 

“It’s not a one and done situation. People need to revisit throughout the month… exercise your finger muscles, the ones you’re using playing Candy Crush [and send your tokens to us].”

Karla said she couldn’t believe the initial start to the month. At the time of writing, Sticks ‘n Stones were on top of the leaderboard with 31 per cent of tokens.  

“We have young people with passion to support our work… and the local support has been phenomenal.”

Sticks ‘n’ Stones is turning ten next year and Karla said momentum is beginning to build for the work of the organisation.

Research carried out by Sticks ’n’ Stones in 2019 showed that one in four young people in Central had experienced bullying in the previous six months. The most common type of bullying was verbal. 

Another charity making a difference in Central that is listed this month is Te Tapu o Tāne, who are doing native planting and revegetation work surrounding Lake Dunstan. 

For information on Sticks ‘n Stones see:

For Te Tapu o Tāne see:

Learn about One Good Kiwi here: