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The Sustainable Initiatives Fund Trust The Sustainable Initiatives Fund Trust (SIFT) aims to help individuals, businesses or organisations develop new and unique ways of reusing resources, or reducing materials that currently enter the waste stream. The funding may be distributed in the form of loans, grants, equity in the business, or a combination of these.

Eligibility Criteria

General:

• Your organisation will be substantially domiciled in the Canterbury provincial area
• Your organisation must either deal with, or wish to deal with, recovered waste materials and must demonstrate a substantial commitment to recycling
• The project must be a new and unique method of reusing or recycling materials recovered from the waste stream and/or reduce materials that currently enter the waste stream. The project must accord with the SIFT’s commitment to sustainable development.
• The project must not directly compete with other organisations utilising similar technology/processes.
  

NOTE: The interpretation of any of the above in relation to the application will be at the sole discretion of the SIFT Board

Personal and Business Criteria Required for Application:

The applicant must:

• Share a degree of financial risk in the venture
• Demonstrate a sound accounting system which produces accurate financial statements, including monthly and year to date actual vs. budget figures
• Demonstrate and quantify how the project will impact on the waste stream
• Agree to supply financial and business reports to an agreed schedule
• Consent to a periodic audit of their project being carried out by the SIF executive management or designated agent as requested.
  

Projects and Areas Eligible for Consideration:

Funding consideration will be given to all applications including (but not exclusive to):

• Research and development
• Business planning
• Production trials
• Project set-up
• Joint marketing
  

To support your application you will need to provide the following:

• A business plan which includes a competitor analysis and market evaluation
• Up-to-date annual accounts, balance sheets and appropriate budget projections
• Organisation structure chart
• Ownership structure
• A projected Return on Investment
• Details of the project’s positive impact on the waste stream
• Details of banks, investors and/or other contributors to the project, and those who have declined to commit (and reasons why)
• Curriculum Vitae of key person(s) who will own/manage the project
• Details of who will own intellectual property (if any) and how this will be protected
• Details of who else will work on the project
• Copies of any contracts with other partners.
  

These items do not each have to be separately presented. Some may, for example, be already contained in your business plan or in a project brief or prospectus.

The decision and approval process will be at the sole discretion of SIFT and following the decision no further correspondence will be enter into.

Types of Funding

Funding may take the form of a grant, a loan, equity in the business or a combination of these. The money will be progressively distributed when agreed milestones are met. Attached are tables summarising funding criteria. They are not absolute, and the final conditions will be contractually agreed between the SIF Trust and applicant. The tables are intended as a guideline only.

• SIF Guidelines Information PDF (54.3kb)