There is no doubt about it registered charities perform a critical role in New Zealand society. As we head into the Christmas season, this role is more apparent than ever, with calls for children’s Christmas presents, canned goods and voluntary assistance for those who are less able to afford to celebrate the festive season in style. It is a good feeling to be able to help those in need. But how do we determine which charities we dedicate our time, money and Christmas spirit to?

New Zealand’s charities have recently adopted new reporting requirements. For the majority of charities this includes reporting on the goods and services achieved over the past year and what they cost to deliver. This is referred to as ‘Performance Reporting’. It is a fantastic way for charities to be able to let funders, volunteers, recipients and the wider community know a bit more about the charity, and to describe why they should be involved.

The New Zealand public sector has been reporting its service performance for a number of years now and is considered to be leading the way internationally. Think of your local council and the information that you can find out about their services from reading their latest annual report. This information can include the number of visitors to the local museum, swimming pool chlorination levels, and the number of building consents issued.

For the first time ever we are now seeing performance information included as part of registered charities annual reporting to Charities Services. This provides a rich array of information to help us determine where to direct our efforts. We can find out things such as the number of meals delivered to new parents or recycled from restaurants and supermarkets, the number of homeless people assisted into finding new homes and community satisfaction with the services provided.

What's required for registered charities?

The new reporting requirements differ based on the size of the entity, so that smaller charities, who are often more reliant on volunteer time to prepare their financial statements and performance information, have less onerous reporting requirements than larger, and often more complex, charities.

The performance reporting standard for the larger charities, reporting in accordance with Tier 1 and 2, was approved by the New Zealand Accounting Standards Board in November 2017. This standard, PBE FRS 48 Service Performance Reporting, does not take effect until 2021, although charities can elect to apply the standard earlier than this. A summary of registered charity performance reporting requirements is provided below: