Service performance assurance for small charities: Experiences from New Zealand

Small charities in New Zealand are leading the way in service performance reporting and assurance, providing a unique context for exploring the existing practices and challenges. This study investigates small charities' assurance practices based on a content analysis of the performance reports of 120 small registered charities. We found that many small charities have complied with the assurance and reporting requirements of service performance information. However, their reported outcomes and outputs may not be significant, understandable, or sufficient. Auditors exhibit high tolerance towards these issues because of the subjectivity, auditability and materiality related to service performance information. Our study provides preliminary insights on service performance assurance for small charities, which presumably will continue evolving and hopefully improving. However, there is a concern that some charities and assurance practitioners view service performance assurance as a compliance exercise, which does little to improve accountability and transparency in the charity sector.