Welcome

The Charities Commission - Komihana Kaupapa Atawhai - is responsible for registering and monitoring charitable organisations in New Zealand, as well as providing support and education to the charitable sector on good governance and management

This website hosts the register of charities, where charitable organisations can apply online for registration under the Charities Act 2005 - and members of the public can search for details of registered charities.

Check our Guidance for Charities pages to find out more about registration, or go directly to the online application page to apply online.

If you'd like to receive newsletters from the Charities Commission by email, sign up to receive our monthly update.

Our free information line 0508 CHARITIES (0508 242 748) is available for telephone enquiries from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 1pm on Saturday.

Latest News

Registration status

Congratulations to the organisations who have been registered by the Charities Commission. Your details are available to the public on the Charities Register.

If you have sent us a properly-completed application that we have acknowledged, but your application has not yet been processed, please be patient – we will be in touch with you as soon as your application reaches the front of our queue – either to ask for more information or clarification, or to confirm registration. If necessary, we can backdate your registration to the date we received your properly-completed application.

If you have not yet applied, but wish to do so, we suggest that you send in your application as soon as possible. The Register remains “open” for applications, but organisations with previously-existing tax exemptions who applied after 1 July may face uncertainties about their ongoing charitable-purpose tax exemptions.

Are you a tertiary education provider, a state/state-integrated school or a non-resident charity?
Changes to the Income Tax Act and the Estate and Gift Duties Act will confirm that you do not need to register with the Charities Commission to be tax-exempt after 1 July 2008. >> more

All existing charitable purpose tax exemptions expired after 1 July 2008.

Since 1 July, you must be registered with the Charities Commission to be eligible for charitable-purpose tax exemptions.

As at 30 June 2008:

  • Charities registered: 8,126
  • Currently making initial reviews of applications received from: 14 April 2008*

*Remember: many straightforward applications, once they reach the front of our queue, are processed within several weeks.

However, if there are any complex issues involved, or the application requires additional work by a senior analyst to confirm an analyst’s initial view, it will take longer to complete the process - currently several additional months.

Please be patient. We are processing applications as efficiently as possible, and we'll be in touch as soon as we have processed yours – either to ask for more information or clarification, or to let you know that your organisation has been registered.