About CharitiesWatch NZ
New Zealand's Charities Register holds a wealth of public information about every registered charity — finances, officers, compliance, history. The trouble is, it isn't built for ordinary use: there's no easy way to search across charities, compare them, rank them, or answer simple questions like “which charities spend the most overseas?” or “which haven't filed a recent return?”
That's the job we do. CharitiesWatch takes all of that public data and turns it into ready, usable answers — searchable profiles, cross-charity rankings, and findings pages you can read in seconds. Then, on every page, we link you straight back to the official record as the source of truth, so you can always verify the detail for yourself.
In short
The register has the data. We make it usable — and point you to the source.
Where the data comes from
Every figure here is drawn directly from the official Charities Register maintained by Charities Services (part of the Department of Internal Affairs), via its open data (OData) service, plus the Department of Internal Affairs' Grants from Gaming Machine Profits dataset. We do not add or alter the underlying figures — we aggregate and present them.
What you'll find here vs the register
- Here: fast search, side-by-side comparisons, financial-health scores, and ready-made findings (overdue filers, overseas spend, gaming-grant flows, and more).
- On the register: the full, authoritative detail — complete officer lists, detailed annual returns and financial statements, compliance history, and governing documents. Each of our profiles links there.
Neutrality
CharitiesWatch is independent and not affiliated with the New Zealand Government, any political party, or any charity. We don't rate charities as “good” or “bad”, endorse anyone, or assert wrongdoing. Register-noted indicators are factual fields (for example, a modified audit opinion) that warrant further context — not findings of misconduct. To protect privacy, we don't publish individual officer names; the register does.
Freshness
Data is refreshed automatically from the Charities Register, which itself updates daily. See our disclaimer and contact / corrections pages.