Neal & Annette
Plowman
Neal & Annette Plowman
The NEXT Foundation is founded by a down to earth kiwi couple.
Credit: Lou Sanson
The Plowmans
The NEXT Foundation is founded by a private and humble New Zealand couple, Neal and Annette Plowman. But the couple's generosity began long before NEXT was conceived.
Neal and Annette Plowman have a long history of supporting environmental projects.
Rotoroa Island was Neal and Annette Plowman’s first investment. They purchased the lease and restored it as a wildlife sanctuary and public conservation park.
Journey
Philanthropic
Journey
The extraordinary commitment to the environment and education in New Zealand show why Neal and Annette Plowman are regarded as New Zealand’s most generous of philanthropists.
University of Auckland
Business School
Establishment of an endowment fund for The University of Auckland Foundation and provision of financial assistance to establish the Chair in Entrepreneurship.
Auckland City Mission
Foundation
Establishment of an endowment fund to provide an ongoing source of annual funding for the Auckland City Mission.
Lifeline
Financial help to enable Lifeline to own its own premises, together with funding to the Lifeline Foundation.
The Salvation Army
Matching funding with The Salvation Army to build the Booth College of Mission in Wellington.
Rotoroa Island
The purchase of a 99 year lease for the island from The Salvation Army, with subsequent restoration and establishment as a wildlife sanctuary and public conservation park for the people of Auckland.
Auckland University of
Technology
Funding 10 scholarships a year for students undertaking an international business degree.
Young Enterprise Trust
Help to fund a business programme run through Auckland secondary schools, teaching business principles to students.
Project Crimson
Funding to help Project Crimson deliver a tree planting programme in schools.
Teach First NZ:
Ako Mātātupu
Attracting and developing outstanding university graduates and career changers to teach in secondary schools serving low income communities.
Project Janszoon
Restoration of the Abel Tasman National Park—removing predators, restoring biodiversity and reintroducing native birds.
NEXT Foundation Launched
$100 million, 10 year strategic philanthropic spend-down fund investing in transformational environmental and educational projects to make New Zealand a better place for our land and our people.
Zero Invasive Predators
A partnership between NEXT and the Department of Conservation to develop innovative tools and techniques to eradicate rats, stoats and possums on the mainland— without fences.
The Mind Lab by Unitec
The funding of more than 4,000 teachers into a postgraduate qualification in digital and collaborative learning—so their students are better prepared for the future.
Springboard Trust
Support of an educational initiative
where business leaders provide strategic leadership development for school leaders.
Te Awaroa
Provision of an incubation grant supporting a national movement of Kiwis taking action to care for our waterways.
Manaiakalani Outreach
Funding of an outreach programme to take a digitally enabled model of advanced teacher practice, founded in Tamaki, Auckland and offering accelerated learning to other low decile communities across New Zealand.
Ngā Pūmanawa e Waru
Funding of a backbone organisation to support a digitally enabled, collaborative, future focused learning collective impact initiative across schools in the Rotorua district.
Taranaki Mounga
Founding partner in a collaborative project between government, iwi, business
and philanthropy to restore the Egmont National Park and surrounds.
Predator Free Community
Champion Kelvin Hastie
Funding of Crofton Downs Predator Free Community founder Kelvin Hastie for two and a half years, inspiring community backyard trapping in Wellington and beyond.
Predator Free Wellington
A collaborative partnership with the Wellington City Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council to make Wellington the first predator free capital city in the world.
Talking Matters
Funding of a community based initiative promoting rich language interaction with babies and young children.
The Cacophony Project
Support of an open sourced project applying information technology and artificial intelligence towards a Predator Free New Zealand.
Space
Funding of a support programme for new parents, helping them navigate the critical first year with their baby.
Summer Learning Journey
Funding of a holiday blogging programme for Manaiakalani school children to reduce the “summer slump” in academic achievement over the summer holidays.
The Education Hub
Support for the development of a resource for New Zealand teachers bridging the
gap between educational research and professional practice.
Te Manahuna Aoraki
Large scale conservation project restoring biodiversity of the MacKenzie Basin and Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park.
Humanitix
Supporting the establishment of Humanitix in New Zealand, a ticketing platform where booking fees are donated to education charities.
NEXT Fellowships
NEXT supported three cohorts of fellows, to grow leaders in systems change in environment and education.
Tapui Aotearoa
Exploring ways to protect the unique bird species of Aoteaora New Zealand through banking their genetic diversity.
Predator Free South Westland
Eliminating possums, rats and stoats from 100,000 hectare area bounded by the local rivers, the Southern Alps and the Tasman Sea.
Ipipiri Nature Conservancy
Founding supporter of Ipipiri Trust, which purchased land at Te Akau, Elliot Bay to protect and restore the area with a vision of creating a Great Walk in the Bay of Islands.
Centre for Strategic Philanthropy
Supporting philanthropists to make a greater impact through strategic philanthropy practices.
The Native Carbon Initiative
Investigating whether native forest regrowth, where predators have been removed, is sequestering more carbon.
NEXT 2025 new Investment Fund released
NEXT releases a new $150 million to be invested entirely in the environment.
Hauraki Gulf Restoration
Restoring the ocean life in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf.
