The trust, which emerged out of the financial meltdown of the Otago Rugby Football Union last year, has former Otago captain John Leslie on board to teach junior coaches a coaching programme for young players.
Trustee Sir Eion Edgar said many people who contributed to the financial rescue of the union last year wanted not just to aid the recovery of the union - which was more than $2 million in debt - but to put safeguards in place for the future of the sport in the province.
The trust was established to help amateur rugby in the region.
Its first initiative is to get Leslie, who played more than 100 games for Otago, to deliver a coaching programme around the province.
The trust will contribute about $7500 to the coaching scheme, which will start after the school holidays, in May.
Leslie said his goal was to demonstrate an effective and easy way to implement a junior team's coaching plan.
As a busy man, he used to come to practice unprepared as a coach, and as a consequence team trainings were disjointed with low intensity.
But he has since fine-tuned the programme and intends to show it to as many junior coaches as possible over the next few months.
The courses will be held right across the province, and Leslie said the benefits were great for both coaches and players.
Leslie said he did not consider himself an expert on coaching and believed experimentation with coaching, game plan and tactics was healthy for the game.
''But this training programme has worked well for me and my team. It is easy, fun and has lots of high-intensity rugby action,'' Leslie said.
The trust, which includes trustees Marc Ellis, Rob Roy, Laurie Mains, Simon Anderson and Edgar, is also planning a black tie dinner on June 28, the night before the Highlanders play the Crusaders at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
At the dinner, more players will be inducted into the Otago Rugby Hall of Fame. The same weekend, there will be a reunion of the 1963 Otago team, which featured All Blacks such as Chris Laidlaw, Earle Kirton and Tuppy Diack.
