“It’s not all good, but there is a lot of good.” says Mike Rolton Hamilton’s St Vincent de Paul manager. It appears that while a few don’t know the difference between a landfill and a charity Op Shop, the Vinnies in Hamilton say the good outweighs the bad by a country mile. Last month TVNZ Read more
The Free Store is an inner-city community in Wellington that daily redistributes edible surplus food from 35 local cafes, bakeries and restaurants. It operates out of a converted shipping container in Upper Willis St. More than 100,000 items of food are redistributed in the shipping container annually. The Free Store serves people from all walks Read more
Mission’s 2013 Jewelstone continues to put New Zealand wine on the international map. The 2013 Syrah has been selected to appear at the WINE Explorers’ Grand Annual Tasting 2016. It is one of only 2 New Zealand wines and 35 wines selected from around the world. Jewelstone Syrah The WINE Explorers project is a four-year Read more
There are more than 27,000 registered charities in New Zealand which are overseen by Charities Services and the Charities Registration Board. The Charities Board decides whether or not an organisation is qualified to be registered as a charity on the basis of whether it is established and maintained exclusively for “charitable purposes”. Charitable purposes includes Read more
A New Zealand organisation promoting the natural family has won a decision from the country’s High Court that its political activities do not necessarily disqualify it as a charity. On 30 June Justice Collins ruled that Family First New Zealand’s advocacy of the traditional family makes it similar to “organisations that have advocated for the Read more
Charging for police vetting has been given the green light despite concerns from charities and volunteer groups about crippling new costs. A select committee has recommended a law change that will allow police to recover costs for “demand services” such as criminal checks be passed into law. The committee made minor changes to the bill, Read more
There needs to be a shake-up in the charity sector to ensure greater transparency and remove the tax advantages enjoyed by for-profit arms of large charity groups, public policy think-tank The New Zealand Initiative says. The organisation’s latest report, Giving Charities a Helping Hand, analysed over a decade of regulatory change in the sector. It Read more
There’s a call for charities to stop putting people out on the street to collect money. Wellington city councillor Iona Pannett says “chuggers” profit from a form of mild harassment. Chuggers ie. charity muggers, are paid street fundraisers who approach passers-by to persuade them to donate money to the charitable cause he/she is promoting. Pannett Read more
Christchurch city councillor Raf Manji, says he did not see why religious groups should be exempt from paying rates. Manji was a member of the working group that prepared a discussion paper released last week by Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ). The paper considers alternative funding options for councils as many are finding it increasingly difficult Read more
Fifty New Zealand charities made a total of NZ$1billion over and above what they spent in the last financial year. A report on TVNZ’s Seven Sharp drew an analogy with the game of Monopoly, and placed some churches in the top “Park Lane” category. These included the Salvation Army with a surplus of $24 million, Read more