On a farm in Tikorangi, North Taranaki, Brent Stevenson is share milking 1,400 cows. His operation has recently expanded, taking on additional land alongside new investment in renewable energy and composting barns. This infrastructure has been designed to improve animal welfare and improve on-farm efficiency.

Driving past, few would know that Brent got his start with a little help from two men who died long before he was born.

Growing up on a farm in coastal Taranaki, Brent always had a connection to the land and a natural instinct for agriculture. He received a Bashford-Nicholls Scholarship three years running, in 2007, 2008 and 2009, while completing a Bachelor of Applied Science in Rural Valuation and Management at Massey University in Palmerston North. That financial support allowed him to focus on his studies and think seriously about the career he wanted to build.

After graduating, he went out and learned from the land itself, working across multiple regions of New Zealand, building relationships with farming families and rural businesses, understanding their operations from the inside. From 2010 to 2016, he brought that ground-level knowledge into a financial context at National Bank, helping farming clients navigate the business side of agriculture.

Eventually, Taranaki called him home. Today he is building something lasting in Tikorangi with his wife Amy and their two children.

“You don’t fully appreciate it at the time. You’re just a student trying to get through. But that scholarship made a real difference. Everything I’ve built since, the farming, the relationships, coming home to Taranaki, it started there, studying in Palmy and having that support behind me.”

Brent’s story is one of many playing out across the region every year. And it all traces back to a decision made more than a century ago by two neighbouring farmers who simply loved their land.

Brent Stevenson on his farm in Tikorangi with his two children

Two famers, one extraordinary legacy

Claude William Nicholls and James Dawson Bashford were born in 1880, neighbours in rural South Taranaki, five kilometres apart. In an era when it was common practice to leave a farm to family, they each chose to do something different. They formed trusts so their land would keep giving long after they were gone, with the proceeds funding the next generation of agricultural and veterinary leaders in their region.

Last year, the Bashford-Nicholls Trust transferred $14 million in assets to Taranaki Foundation, marking the largest single transfer of trust assets in New Zealand’s community foundation network.

The transfer more than doubled Taranaki Foundation’s funds under management, from $13 million to $27 million, making it the third-largest community foundation in New Zealand. The funds are now invested locally through Craigs Investment Partners in Taranaki.

This year alone, the trust is supporting 66 undergraduate students, two master’s students and four PhD candidates pursuing careers in agriculture and veterinary science. It also co-funds the PIVOT Award in partnership with Massey University.

“If you look at the original legacy, it was nearly 100 years ago,” says Josh Hickford, Chief Executive of Taranaki Foundation. “Our children, and their children, will still be telling this story. That’s what we’re here to protect and grow.”

A decision built on the next 60 years

For Simon Cayley, Chief Executive of Bishop’s Action Foundation who manage the Bashford-Nicholls Trust, the decision to partner with Taranaki Foundation was about far more than investment management. Bishop’s Action Foundation had been stewards of the trust since 2008. The question was how to make sure the next chapter was just as purposeful as the last.

“This feels like another major milestone in continuing to honour the legacy that we’ve been asked to steward,” says Simon. “We wanted to make sure the next 60 years were just as safe, just as purposeful”.

He says the partnership also brings something the trustees have long wanted, the ability for the Bashford-Nicholls story to be shared alongside others. “Having our story told by Taranaki Foundation, being part of their story at the same time, and then getting other people really excited about how they could be part of that journey too,” says Simon. “That’s the really exciting part.”

“We don’t need to worry for the next 60 years that we’ve got to hold all of that investment knowledge. Taranaki Foundation brings that expertise. For us, it’s a real safety net, it means this legacy is in safe hands for the long term”.

The Bashford-Nicholls Trust continues as its own entity, focused on their core mission, supporting rural students and agricultural innovation. Taranaki Foundation handles investment expertise and community reach. It is a genuine partnership.

The next generation

While Brent’s scholarship is almost two decades behind him, for others the support is being used right now and is quite literally life changing.

Tayla Steele is in her fourth year of a Bachelor of Veterinary Science at Massey University in Palmerston North. The Bashford-Nicholls Trust has supported her every single year since she began her degree in 2023, helping to reduce her course fees along the way.

But for Tayla, the impact goes beyond fees.

“The scholarship gave me something that money can’t fully capture – time,” she says. “Because a big chunk of my fees have been covered, I don’t have to spend any spare hours behind a checkout or working multiple jobs. Instead, I’ve been out on farms, in horse stables, and at desexing clinics, volunteering, getting my hands dirty, and turning everything I learn in the lecture theatre into real-world experience. That is the difference this trust has made. Not just a degree, but a vet in the making.”

With a year and a half until she graduates, Tayla’s plan is clear. She is coming home to Taranaki to build a career as a large animal rural veterinarian, serving the communities that shaped her. There is one more detail that gives her story a particular weight. Tayla is the first person in her family, across many generations, to attend university.

“The Bashford-Nicholls Trust didn’t just invest in my education,” she says. “It invested in breaking a cycle, and I hope that means something to the next kid from Taranaki who wonders whether they can do it too.”

Tayla Steele is the first person in her family, across many generations, to attend university, thanks for the scholarship.

What Claude and James started

Brent Stevenson is back on the land now, investing in his farm’s future with the same forward-thinking instinct that Claude and James showed a century before him. Renewable energy. Better systems. A longer view.

Meanwhile, in Palmerston North, Tayla Steele is out on farms before lectures, a vet in the making, the first in her family to go to university, and already planning her return to the region that believed in her first.

Simon Cayley sees the thread that connects them. “There are farmers and families out there right now thinking about what their legacy might be,” he says. “We would be really interested in having those conversations. We’ve already got a well-established trust, a serious scholarship programme with strong impact, and now, through Taranaki Foundation, a real home for that legacy to grow. We can show them what’s possible.”

Josh Hickford agrees. “This is the invitation. For anyone who loves this region and wants to think about what giving back looks like, in rural areas, in agriculture, wherever people feel connected to this place. You don’t have to figure it out alone.”

 

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You can find more information about the fund here.

Watch this short video, where Simon Cayley and Josh Hickford discuss what this partnership means and why its significance goes far beyond the numbers.