AWARDS FINALIST: Contact Energy – The Good Initiative

Contact Energy helped more than 20,000 New Zealanders within seven months of launching its Good Initiative to support communities facing financial hardship.

The $5 million programme, launched in September, covers the energy costs - and in some cases mobile costs - for 57 community organisations across the country, allowing the groups to redirect funding to frontline services.

Contact says it takes balancing its commercial performance with social responsibility seriously, investing the profit from the 2025 financial year into building critical energy infrastructure.

"Supporting customers and communities today is important, and so is building the energy system New Zealand will rely on tomorrow. By continuing to invest in new infrastructure, we're helping create a more sustainable, secure and affordable energy future for all New Zealanders," it says.

Alongside that, it developed the Good Initiative programme in response to increasing financial pressure on both households and community organisations.

The community-based social sector has faced $139 million in funding reductions. In 2024, the Ministry for Social Development tightened criteria for funding to food banks, forcing some to cut services up to 70 per cent.

Participating organisations

Initially, Contact focused on Northland and Tairāwhiti before expanding nationwide, and it now has partnerships with 57 organisations from Northland to Southland.

Community organisations participating in the programme report that having energy costs covered not only reduces financial pressure, but also lets them direct more time, funding and support towards the people, whānau and communities they serve.

Food rescue organisation Fair Food says it is now able to operate equipment it had previously limited due to power costs, while Kairos Food Rescue says electricity-cost support helped fund frontline operations serving more than 60 community organisations across Canterbury.

By covering about $800 a month in electricity costs for Community Wellbeing North Canterbury, the organisation has been able to redirect funding to support 900 people over a three-month period through clinical services, foodbank support, restorative justice programmes and other community initiatives.

Another partnership in the programme is Contact's arrangement with the Child Cancer Foundation.

So far, Contact has supported 18 families, helping ease the additional energy costs that can arise during a child's cancer treatment and recovery.

The retailer is also involved (alongside other energy retailers) in Middlemore Hospital's Kidz Prescription programme, helping eligible households access significant energy and wellbeing support and healthy-homes assessments after hospital admissions related to rheumatic fever or upper respiratory illnesses.

Existing programmes

The Good Initiative is an expansion of Contact's customer wellbeing efforts, extending support beyond individual customers and into the communities they are part of.

It has a range of support programmes in place, including a long-standing partnership with Women's Refuge, where Contact provides free power and broadband to all safe houses and refuges nationwide and launched its Northland Community Wellbeing Fund in 2024.

The firm has also been working across Greater Wellington and Manawatū, engaging with customers through in-person clinics, and has been the only retailer to remove disconnection and reconnection fees for non-payment - absorbing about $900,000 in metering provider charges - eliminating the additional costs many customers would otherwise face when reconnecting their power.

It is also the only major gentailer currently accepting new prepay customers, helping ensure more New Zealanders can access and maintain an essential electricity service while giving households greater control over their energy costs and budgets.

Contact has significantly strengthened its customer wellbeing programme, working alongside customers to develop tailored support plans and connecting them with trusted community services when additional support is needed. These efforts have contributed to a significant reduction in disconnections.

However, the firm says it saw an opportunity to accelerate its support.

"As an energy provider, we are present in homes right across Aotearoa, which means our community isn't one place or group, it's the whole motu."

The Good Initiative's focus on the organisations working alongside New Zealanders in need ensures the support truly reaches those who need it most.

A key part of the programme is the two-way referral pathways with partner organisations referring vulnerable whānau they are working with directly through to Contact's 'working together' channel if they are customers.

Contact notes that many of these New Zealanders are "invisible to organisations like ours" and the referrals enable the firm to wrap support around them and help keep their lights on.

"They are the people our chief executive Mike Fuge describes as 'at the long tail of all the challenges a poor credit rating brings - those who face disconnection and are literally sitting in the dark'."

Stronger links

The Good Initiative has also strengthened links between community organisations and Contact's customer wellbeing team, with the team's volunteer work within community organisations deepening understanding of the challenges people face.

The number of inbound calls to its wellbeing team has doubled, which Contact says is linked to increased trust and engagement.

Survey results showed participating organisations rated the company's trustworthiness at 4.6 out of seven before joining the programme and 6.9 out of seven afterwards.

Contact says the Good Initiative will remain part of its operations for the foreseeable future and is expected to continue evolving as community needs change.

"We've learned that building on existing community engagement models is a quick, effective and authentic way of making a real difference," it says.

The annual Energy Excellence Awards will be held in Wellington tomorrow. The Community Initiative of the Year award is sponsored by Eagle Technology.