In May, we set out to uncover the business of charity – the good, the bad and the ugly.

So, what did we find?

We started off with the big boys, analysing NZ’s top charities by assets and revenue. As expected, this was mostly dominated by the universities, with some of the larger iwi also represented. 

We explored the assets these top charities held and, in the piece, “No tax and no spend?” we looked at how much in charitable funds is paid out to charitable causes. 

Who are our most charitable corporates? We examined the 10 biggest companies on the NZX, and other firms, using JBWere’s Corporate Support report.

We can see that Fisher & Paykel and The Warehouse punch above their weight, but there is so much more work to do about reporting standards that make it difficult, despite our best efforts, to compare which companies are the best at this.  

Deep dives into pro-bono work by law firms and donations by investment advisers shone a light on the work these industries do.

In June, we revealed the changes that were going on to the Charities Act, with an exclusive interview with the minister for the community and voluntary sector Priyanca Radhakrishnan.

We canvassed the industry’s responses to key changes like reducing reporting requirements for small charities and making appeals more accessible.

We looked at the lack of investor migrants giving to charity but also highlighted some of our individual givers like Rosie Horton, Anna Stuck and Bruce Plested. 

The strength of a charity is built on those who lead and govern them, our leadership week showed. Adding charity leaders to our online People Explorer, BusinessDesk subscribers can now see the connections between top executives. 

A key part of this series was looking at how women dominate charity boards, and we talked to corporate leaders who moved to the not-for-profit sector. 

Charities fill gaps in society. 

We looked at charity hospitals, and those that advance science. 

Several charities came under closer scrutiny. 

We looked at Gloriavale’s treatment of employees and tax, Dilworth as it faces a lawsuit from sexual abuse survivors and why the Medic Alert foundation is facing a probe. 

One of our most-read stories was about Mike King-founded charity, The Key to Life Charitable Trust. 

Months of work went into uncovering the secrets behind the Mormon church, our 20th richest charity.

We revealed how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has amassed a huge property investment portfolio while former members, including bishops, wonder what charitable purposes it is applied to. 

During pub charities week, we looked at how the most pokies money comes from the most deprived areas, and revealed that the Supreme Sikh Council is under scrutiny over how it spent class-four gaming grants. 

Overseeing this project, I became much more aware of charities as complex organisations, both big and small.

I was also surprised at how fiercely competitive it all is. There are more than 30,000 charities in NZ. 

The most common piece of feedback I received was that we weren’t going hard enough on particular charities, from people who disagreed with how they were run.

There is also a lot of realism in the charitable sector. 

Many of those who contribute spare time to charities are in positions of power and influence within the business community and discerning about how money should be spent. 

There's a lot of debate raging about how these organisations should be governed and how money should be best put to work.

We hope we've built on BusinessDesk's earlier charities coverage to give readers a clearer picture of how the sector works. 

But we’re not done yet. 

BusinessDesk received NZ on Air Public Interest Journalism funding for this project. That enabled more than 70 articles to be provided to readers for no charge.

Journalist Greg Hurrell and investigative reporter Murray Jones both joined our team for this project and we're pleased to report they will stay on with BusinessDesk in various roles. 

From here on, our continued charities coverage will be paywalled, available in the Charities category on our website, or through email alerts.


Victoria Young

Project Editor