Wellbeing has become central to New Zealand and Australian public policy discourse, and increasingly to philanthropic grantmaking. New Zealand's Living Standards Framework and Wellbeing Budget, Australia's Measuring What Matters framework, and the growing influence of frameworks like Te Whare Tapa Whā have shifted how funders think about what their grants are trying to achieve.
This guide covers the key wellbeing frameworks relevant to ANZ grantmakers, practical approaches to measuring wellbeing outcomes, and how grants management systems can support wellbeing-focused grantmaking.
Traditional grant outcome frameworks often focus on activity and output metrics — how many people attended, how many services were delivered, how many hours were provided. These measure what was done, not what changed for people.
Wellbeing frameworks shift the focus to the things that actually matter: Are people healthier? Do they feel more connected? Are they economically secure? Do they have a sense of cultural identity and belonging? Is the environment in better shape?
This shift matters for several reasons:
Funders want to understand impact, not just activity. A grantmaker funding a social services programme wants to know whether people's lives improved — not just how many appointments were delivered.
Wellbeing is multidimensional. Effective social programmes affect multiple aspects of people's lives simultaneously. A housing programme improves shelter but also affects health, family stability, and children's education. Outcome frameworks that capture this multidimensionality tell a more complete story.
Wellbeing connects to public accountability. For funders accountable to the public — government agencies, gaming trusts, community trusts — alignment with government wellbeing frameworks (Living Standards, Wellbeing Budget) supports accountability.
Te Whare Tapa Whā (Sir Mason Durie, 1984). A holistic Māori health model describing four dimensions of wellbeing as the walls of a wharenui: taha tinana (physical health), taha hinengaro (mental health), taha wairua (spiritual health), and taha whānau (family health). Widely used in Māori health and social service contexts; increasingly adopted as a general wellbeing framework in Aotearoa.
Te Pae Māhutonga. A Māori health promotion model from the Ministry of Health describing four key areas — mauriora (cultural identity), waiora (physical and environmental health), toiora (healthy lifestyles), and te oranga (participation in society).
New Zealand Living Standards Framework. Treasury's framework for measuring national wellbeing across twelve domains: civic engagement and governance, cultural identity, environment, health, housing, income and consumption, jobs and earnings, knowledge and skills, safety and security, social connections, subjective wellbeing, and time use.
Australia's Measuring What Matters Framework. Released in 2023, Australia's national wellbeing framework covering five themes: healthy, secure, sustainable, cohesive, and prosperous.
Whānau Ora outcomes framework. Used by Whānau Ora commissioning agencies, focusing on whānau outcomes: self-managing, living healthy lifestyles, participating fully in society, cohesive and resilient, and economically secure and prosperous.
Validated survey instruments. Several validated survey instruments measure wellbeing domains. The WHO-5 wellbeing index, the Personal Wellbeing Index, and custom instruments developed by Te Puni Kōkiri and social sector bodies provide standardised measures.
Self-reported change questions. Simpler than validated instruments, self-reported change questions ask beneficiaries directly: Has your situation changed in these areas? In what ways? These are easier to administer but less comparable across programmes.
Grantee outcome tracking. Rather than funders independently measuring wellbeing, many funders ask grantees to report against wellbeing dimensions — providing a simplified framework and asking organisations to report what they're observing.
Population-level data. For funders making grants at scale, comparing funded communities' wellbeing data over time (from Stats NZ, health surveys, education data) against population trends provides a population-level picture of collective impact.
Narrative and qualitative evidence. Numbers don't capture everything. Case studies, beneficiary stories, and qualitative evidence from grantees add human texture to quantitative wellbeing data.
Outcome framework in application forms. Applications should ask grantees to articulate which wellbeing dimensions they expect to affect and how. This creates a baseline for later reporting.
Outcome-aligned reporting. Reporting templates that map to the outcomes framework agreed at application stage — asking grantees to report against the specific dimensions they committed to — produce more useful data than generic reporting forms.
Aggregating across the portfolio. Grants management systems that can aggregate outcome data across multiple grants — showing the portfolio's collective contribution to wellbeing dimensions — enable funder-level impact reporting.
Cultural competency in measurement. Wellbeing measurement tools designed for Western populations may not capture what matters in Māori, Pacific, or other cultural contexts. Funders working with diverse communities should use culturally validated instruments.
Tahua supports wellbeing-focused grantmaking with configurable outcome frameworks, reporting templates aligned to wellbeing dimensions, and portfolio-level outcome aggregation.