Perhaps the Govt's best play would be providing a centralised, free source to market charities. www.charities.nz or similar with a big billboard, TV etc campaign behind it

Perhaps the government could arrange for some support for the already existing, completely free, charitable resource website which does that, DonateNZ, link here, which allows people to find, support and donate to community organisations.

The site services 800 charities presently and development wise, we are sitting on a huge pile of things designed to beef up our service and solve some of these sector problems, but work is on hold because we can not secure any funding to do so.

Since incorporating as a charity DonateNZ has had 16 out of 16 funding applications denied due to "lack of funds". Government funds wise, the community sector funding has been cut right across the Digital Strategy budget as well as the sustainability and environmental sector (to organisations such as EnviroSchools and Sustainable Business Network) and we have been turned away from Paula Bennett's additional social services relief fund. Pokie funds have proved illusive also, applying to a lot of them and being turned away for the same "lack of funds" reasons, only to find out later in the media that they have had their funds frozen for some time due to misappropriation. There is a couple of others which have not yet been named, but similarly, are not able to distribute. Its not just us having problems, in a survey to our members recently over 85% of charity respondents are having problems sustaining funding from their regular providers.

DonateNZ is currently existing solely on the goodwill of the trustees (my parents), I'm working completely voluntarily ful ltime and its very hard to move forward, or in any direction really, until we secure funding of some sort. It frustrates me, as if more funding was available we would be able to make the site a thriving community portal which could reduce the demand on funders (by gaining of donations of things, charities wouldnt have to apply for funding as often) and help bring charity out of the shadows, make them more publicly available, reduce duplication of services, increase their accountability and create self sufficient organisations. Think it's not needed? Consider the fact there's there's estimated to be over 100,000 charities operating in this country. Most people can only name about 10.

It makes me sick when I see and hear of Pokie Trusts misappropriating funds to horse racing club stakes, while amazing services such as DonateNZ with proven track records are turned away. While the Ministry might have cleaned up the industry a while back, there is still a huge amount of shonkiness in the industry, and I think a centralised management system such as the Sue Bradford proposed is the only option.

Looks like we could do with a local equivalent of:
Charity Navigator

There is a group of people in Auckland attempting to set up a similar Charity Navigator like site, called "Knowledge for Good" which we hope to work together with. Similarly, they are seeking funding from government to begin work on this but thus far haven't been able to get anything concrete.

Thanks for reading my rant, it's a topic rather close to my heart as you can imagine and something I see, hear and experience every day. If anyone believes in what I'm doing with the DonateNZ venture, please get in touch via the DonateNZ website. As I mentioned, I work completely voluntarily by myself on this cause and any support in any form is greatly appreciated.