Kia ora, talofa and warm greetings,

It's my first Newsletter as Charities Services' new General Manager, so let’s get to know each other.

For the best part of the last 10 years I've been involved in gambling and anti-money laundering regulation at the Department of Internal Affairs. Different landscapes, but with some surprising similarities. Before moving to Wellington, I spent some time as a lawyer at a Community Law Centre where I got to work really closely with a number of South Island communities. With your help, I’m looking forward to building on the work of those before me to strengthen public trust and confidence in charities.

Our sector user group initiative is one way we’re working on building our relationship with the sector and you can read about our first meeting below. I'm also pleased to introduce our new sector showcase segment which is all about registered charities.  Bellyful is our first featured charity and if you've got a great story to tell, maybe a triumphant tale of fundraising – like the Invercargill charity we heard about who raised $12,000 through selling cheeserolls – or a simple time saving trick other charities might find useful, we want to hear about it.

Finally, we’ve just settled on a date for Charities Services' Annual Meeting which will be held in Wellington on 2 November 2017.  I’m looking forward to meeting some of you there and introducing myself properly.

Sector User Group meeting update

Charities Services held its first Sector User Group meeting earlier this year and as promised, we're reporting back on what the group talked about.

The Sector User Group is an initiative that provides a channel for information sharing between the regulator (that's us) and the charities sector, to allow for more visibility of Charities Services' work, and create a forum for discussion, feedback and consultation.

Bellyful does. In 2016, the registered charity Bellyful delivered 17,000 meals to feed 3,000 families, using 3,000 kgs of mince and 3,000 onions (we estimate that’s around 60,000 tears). Why? Bellyful’s founder, Jacqui Ritchie recognised the power of having a couple of cooked meals stashed in the freezer to ease family stress, and Bellyful was born, delivering meals to families with newborn babies, and families with young children who are struggling with illness.

We’re hungry to hear how they tackled the new reporting standards, so we asked Leigh Taggart, Bellyful’s Board Chair, to share some of their experiences with us.

Tackle the tech

Bellyful was lucky to have two accountants on their board to help pull together their first Tier 3 Performance Report, but it couldn’t be done without their army of volunteers and first deciding how to collect the information needed to complete the Statement of Service Performance in the Performance Report. The challenge – 18 branches with 400 volunteers with varying skills, all using different technology.

“Many of our volunteers love to cook or want to deliver meals to families.  Not many of them want to do administration tasks, so our challenge was to find a simple, effective way of collecting the information that wasn’t too time consuming." 

​Get creative

The Performance Report is designed to tell your charity’s story and Bellyful's does just that. Using the optional Performance Report templates as a base (to get the information needed for the new standards right) Bellyful added their own touch by including additional pages of "gratitude" in their Performance Report.

“Our volunteers and supporters are the heart and soul of Bellyful, so we wanted to ensure that every Performance Report recognises and thanks those that are most important to us.  We therefore established dedicated pages to thank each of these groups.” 

Bellyful felt their story wasn't complete without including their pages of gratitude, because “these are far more important to us than any table of numbers.”

Bellyful's Performance Report shows us, you don't have to stick to the script. The templates have been designed to help charities capture the information needed for the new standards but you've got some freedom to be creative with presenting the information required. Use the Performance Report as an opportunity to show off all your charity's hard work for public and funders to see and be proud of it (who knows, you could even win an award for it!).

We're excited to announce on behalf of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, there's a new award in town and its got your charity's name on it.

The New Zealand Charity Reporting Awards recognise the efforts of registered charities in adopting the new reporting standards, and your charity's Performance Report (Tier 3 & 4) or Financial Statements (Tier 1 & 2) could win a $1,000 cash prize. 

How to enter

Send a copy of your Performance Report (Tier 3 & 4) or Financial Statements (Tier 1 & 2) (audited versions if available) through to Chartered Accountants ANZ by 7 October 2017.

For more information check out the awards flyer here or email Zowie Pateman, Acting Reporting Leader, Chartered Accountants ANZ.

Charities with a balance date of 31 March must submit their complete Annual Return to Charities Services by 30 September 2017.

A complete Annual Return involves 3 steps:

1. Preparing a Performance Report for your charity's tier.
2. Filling in the Annual Return form (it's easiest to do it online) and attaching/uploading your Performance Report to the Annual Return form; and
3. Paying the Annual Return fee (if applicable).

Need help? 

• Download an Annual Reporting Guide for Tier 3 and Tier 4 charities; and
• Watch our Annual Reporting webinar.

If you need an extension please contact us before your Annual Return is due.