Charities and NGOs in Oceania: the Oceania Charity Database
The Oceania charity database on GiveRadar covers 92,927 charities across two countries, Australia and New Zealand, sourced directly from the region's official government charity registers: the ACNC and Charities Services. Each record carries an integrity assessment, a 0-100 score built from disclosure and governance signals that cannot be bought, plus annual financials where filed, officer data, and contact details.
Which Oceania countries does GiveRadar cover?
GiveRadar covers two Oceania countries, Australia and New Zealand, both imported from their official government charity registers and refreshed on an ongoing basis. Pick a country below to browse its full register data, or jump straight to search.
Australia
63,891 records
Sourced from Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC).
Registry
New Zealand
29,036 records
Sourced from Charities Services (Department of Internal Affairs).
RegistryNot yet covered: Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. That is 2 of Oceania's 14 countries covered: none of the Pacific Island nations publishes an open national charity register we can import, and we would rather show you an honest gap than a padded map. Counts update as we refresh each country, and both country pages carry their own last-updated date.
Look up an Australian or New Zealand charity in seconds
Search 92,927 organizations by name, ABN or NZ registration number, or run one through the checker to see its filings, disclosure score and any red flags.
Which register does each Oceania country publish?
Two countries, two national regulators, and two of the most complete charity datasets anywhere. The percentages describe what each regulator publishes, not how transparent any single charity is.
| Country | Register | Records | With financials | With officers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia |
Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) | 63,891 | 70% | none |
| New Zealand |
Charities Services (Department of Internal Affairs) | 29,036 | 88% | none |
Both regulators require an annual return, which is why financial coverage here is far higher than in most of the world. Where a figure is missing it is usually a charity registered too recently to have filed, not one withholding its accounts.
How are charities regulated in Oceania?
Charities in Oceania are regulated through two mature public register systems: the ACNC register in Australia and the Charities Services register in New Zealand, both of which publish open data that GiveRadar imports.
How many charities are there in Oceania?
GiveRadar holds 92,927 across the two covered countries, and that is close to the real total for both: Australia and New Zealand each run a single national register that every charity must join, so almost nothing sits outside it. That is unusual. In most of the world a regional total measures how open the data is; here it measures the sector.
How does charity registration work in Australia?
In Australia, the ACNC has been the national charity regulator since 2012. Registered charities are identified by their ABN (Australian Business Number), file an Annual Information Statement each year, and commonly take the legal form of an incorporated association (registered at state level), a company limited by guarantee, or a charitable trust. Separately from ACNC registration, the Australian Taxation Office endorses some charities as Deductible Gift Recipients, which is what makes donations tax deductible. GiveRadar stores DGR status on Australian charity records.
How does the New Zealand charities register work?
In New Zealand, Charities Services (part of the Department of Internal Affairs) maintains the register established under the Charities Act 2005. Registered charities, typically charitable trusts or incorporated societies, file annual returns with financial data. GiveRadar imports the register and syncs registration status on an ongoing basis.
Why are the Pacific Island nations not covered?
Because nothing importable exists yet. Charities across the Pacific are registered under national association, trust, or incorporated-society law, but those registers are not published as open data, and several are held only as paper or PDF records. We do not list charities we cannot source, so rather than seed the map with thin directory rows we leave the region uncovered and say why. If a register opens up, this page will reflect it.
How to verify a charity in Oceania
To verify a charity in Oceania, search its name, ABN, or New Zealand charity registration number on GiveRadar and read its record before you give. The routine:
Confirm registration. Australian and New Zealand records on GiveRadar come from the official government registers, so a record here means the organization appears in the ACNC or Charities Services data.
Check the integrity assessment. The 0-100 score reflects registration, financial transparency, governance, contact availability, and data recency. It measures disclosure, not impact, and no charity can pay to change it.
Read the financials. Annual Information Statement figures for Australia and annual return figures for New Zealand, where filed: revenue, expenses, and year-over-year filings.
Look for red flags. GiveRadar flags high executive pay, stale filings, and bare-minimum disclosure.
For Australian donations, check DGR status if tax deductibility matters to you.
Run any organization through the charity checker, or read the full check-before-you-give routine in our guide for donors.
Where does GiveRadar's Oceania data come from?
Every record originates from an official national regulator.
Can I query Oceania charity data through an API?
All Oceania data is available through the GiveRadar REST API and MCP server: a free tier is available, with paid tiers for volume. See the Database API page for endpoints and pricing. To query Oceania records, use /api/v1/search/?q={name}&country=AU or &country=NZ (the q parameter is required; there is no collection-listing endpoint).
Frequently asked questions about charities in Oceania
How many charities are there in Oceania?
GiveRadar holds 92,927 charities across Australia and New Zealand: 63,891 on the ACNC register and 29,036 on the Charities Services register.
Both countries run a single national register that charities must join to keep their status, so these numbers are close to the true totals rather than a sample. No other Oceania country publishes an importable register, so none is covered here.
Is there a single Oceania charity register?
No. Australia and New Zealand each run their own national register, and there is no regional body above them.
Australia's ACNC has regulated charities since 2012; New Zealand's Charities Services, part of the Department of Internal Affairs, runs the register created by the Charities Act 2005. GiveRadar imports both and keeps each record labelled with the register it came from.
Do Australian and New Zealand charity registrations recognise each other?
No. An ACNC registration means nothing to Charities Services and vice versa, so an organization working in both countries registers twice.
Tax treatment is separate again: in Australia, deductibility comes from the ATO endorsing a charity as a Deductible Gift Recipient, which is a different decision from ACNC registration, and GiveRadar stores DGR status on Australian records. Check the status that applies in your own country before assuming a donation is deductible.
What does each Oceania regulator publish?
Both publish an annual return, which is why disclosure here is among the most complete anywhere:
- Australia: ACNC registration, the ABN, the Annual Information Statement, and ATO Deductible Gift Recipient status
- New Zealand: Charities Services registration and the annual return, including financial data
- Both: legal name, registration number, status, contact details and a free 0-100 integrity assessment
Because filing is a condition of keeping the status, a missing figure usually means a recently registered charity rather than one withholding accounts.
How do I find the largest charities in Oceania?
Search by country and sort by revenue. Filter to Australia or New Zealand on the search page, set Sort to Revenue, and the largest organizations by reported income come first.
This works better here than in any other region, because both regulators publish accounts for nearly every registered charity. "Largest" still means reported income, not impact, and GiveRadar publishes no paid or editorial rankings: no charity can pay to appear higher.
Related pages
Search 92.9K+ charities and nonprofits in Oceania
Open a country page to see the organizations we hold for it and how they are sourced, or search the whole database by name.