Help us boost our city even further!

A couple of years ago, we asked for your help to keep Greater Auckland ticking along, and you responded with enthusiasm. We are so grateful to everyone who has chipped in – whether as a one-off, a recurring contribution, or the gift of pro-bono expertise.

Your contributions have given us the space and energy to tackle some of the vital administrative and editorial mahi that keeps Greater Auckland going, while building the foundation to do more.

The biggest step – which involved substantial work behind the scenes – is that we’re now a registered charity. You may have also noticed updates to the website, and a new and improved mailing system that delivers fresh posts right to your inbox (which you can subscribe to here!), and a lot more.

Over the last few years we also:

• Published hundreds of posts
• Provided regular commentary in media and written op-eds
• Advocated to Auckland Council and Auckland Transport on a variety of topics, including influencing the CRL timetable, and fixing Project K
• Hosted in person events, and started making videos (more to come!)

And a lot more.

This would not have been possible without your support and donations, and your belief in us and the mission.

We believe Greater Auckland is a unique voice, which plays a vital role in our city.

With a focus on urban issues in Tāmaki Makaurau – housing policy, city planning and transport – we provide in-depth and ongoing coverage of topics that often go overlooked, breaking stories and highlighting angles that traditional media can then pick up on.

Our timely commentary and evidence-led analysis is sought out and relied upon by readers of all kinds – from local community members to interested citizens around the motu, to those embedded in government and the relevant professional sectors, and even internationally, with Patrick and Connor recently invited to meet a delegation from Seoul, South Korea.

Patrick and Connor meeting with a delegation from the Seoul Facilities Corporation, South Korea.

Our City Nerd event at Ellen Melville

We believe our insights lead to a higher level of discussion (including in our vigorous comments section!) and better-informed public participation, helping to shape better outcomes for our city.

And this role is more important than ever, given the increasing demands on everyone’s attention and fewer opportunities to really dig into the questions that affect how we live now.

Already, 50,000 people a month read Greater Auckland. Our stories receive thousands of views within hours of publication, and many receive tens of thousands.

But take a minute to imagine if we weren’t around. Where would you turn to, for swift and independent takes on the latest in housing and transport policy affecting our city? For objective analysis of the data? For follow-up questions in the public interest? For proposals of better ways to do things?

We are fiercely independent, which is what allows us to do what we do. Every article written on Greater Auckland – constituting an archive of receipts that goes back almost two decades – has been contributed on a volunteer basis.

Thousands of Matt’s insightful and detailed posts and charts, Patrick’s relentlessly inspiring visions for Auckland, Connor’s tenacious OIA deep-dives, Jolisa’s eloquent appeals, the hundreds of deep and transformative posts from our revolving core crew over the years (you know who you are, and we love you!), the many guest posts we seek out and gratefully share, our collectively authored editorials and weekly round-ups of top stories… and so much more.

All of this is brought to you on a volunteer basis and given to you, our readers, for absolutely free. No paywall, no barrier – free for everyone to access, enjoy and share.

And we really want to keep it that way.

But times are changing. Our lives and day jobs are busier, and we’re feeling the pressure. We want to ensure Greater Auckland remains sustainable over the long haul – and we also want to do a lot more, to continue expanding the impact of our work.

And to do more, we need to dedicate sustained and consistent attention across time, and that doesn’t come free.

Matt’s comments to 1News in March of this year. Our advocacy to Auckland Council and Auckland Transport helped gain significant improvements in the planned post-CRL timetable.

Greater support from our community will enable us to improve the quality and frequency of our articles, fund deeper investigative research and reporting, and – importantly – resource the engaging, high-quality campaigns showcasing the solutions that we know our city needs.

Your support will also enable us to advocate more directly, by giving more presentations and written feedback to Auckland Council, Auckland Transport, and the Government. It will allow us to expand our reach and influence via social media, and create more diverse forms of content, including video.

Notably, we’re coming up on a decade since we successfully re-set Auckland’s idea of itself with our eye-catching and ground-proofed vision for the Congestion-Free Network (2.0).

And still the debate continues over how to shape the future of transport in Auckland. What’s the best possible version of the next Harbour Crossing? How do we ensure access to great rapid transit on the isthmus? How can Auckland achieve the citywide cycle network we know we need? And so much more.

The clock is ticking and the stakes are accelerating. We can all feel it. The impacts of climate change. The opportunities of the energy revolution. The cost of living. The quality of our lives, and the air we breathe.

Plus, with City Rail Link opening this year, Aucklanders are already asking: What’s next? Not to mention, we have a general election later this year, and the impending formation of a 30-year Transport Plan for Auckland.

With so many opportunities incoming, we’d love everyone to be as informed and empowered as possible about what Auckland can aim for – and what we can achieve.

Will you help us take our work to the next level?

If you’re in a position to support us, even a little bit, you can donate here, or via the form below.

We’ve set it up to be super-flexible: if every person who reads Greater Auckland donated as little as $5 a month, we’d have a sustainable funding stream. Some extremely generous folks have been regularly donating $20, $50, or more for a long time, for which we are incredibly grateful.

We also know we’re widely read by those in the city-building professions – so we’re always open to conversations about opportunities to underwrite our work, whether by donation or on a pro-bono basis.

You can also donate directly to our bank account. Send us an email so we can thank you!

• Greater Auckland Trust
• 06-0323-0974141-00

And if you’re not in a position to donate financially right now, we get it. How about lending us your voice instead? Sharing our work with others – via social media, industry newsletters, a forwarded link, or word of mouth – is a fantastic way to invite more people into the conversation.

Thank you, everyone, for giving oomph to the mission in every way you can! Because together, we really do have the power to make our city greater every day.

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