Warm Pacific greetings to you all.

I am pleased to be here to support the launch of this very significant milestone in the ongoing research into the New Zealand non-profit sector.

This project will, in time, provide information and data on the size and scope of non-profit organisations, and the contribution they make to New Zealand. This is information that we have needed for a very long time. It will feed into the international research undertaken by Johns Hopkins University and will help describe the nonprofit sector in New Zealand and the economic contribution it makes.

This publication covers the whole of the non-profit sector – sports, culture and heritage, social services, arts, and so on – and is therefore of great value because it captures the complexity of the sector in one document.

This document is also of great value because it doesn’t just define the sector but places it in the context of the New Zealand historical and legal environments within which it sits.

I’d like to start by acknowledging the very important role of the Committee for the Study of the NZ Non-profit Sector. A very big ‘thank you’ to the members of that Committee.

I am going to take time now to identify Committee members individually so that they are properly recognised for the work they have done, and so that people here know who to talk to if they want more information on the paper.

They are:

• Garth Nowland-Foreman, who is the Chair of the Committee, an independent researcher, and a non-profit management lecturer at Unitec
• David Robinson, who is Deputy Chair of the Committee, and the Director of the Social and Civic Policy Institute at Victoria University
• Peter Glensor, who has a number of roles but is on the Committee as a member of the Community Sector Taskforce
• Donna Matahaere-Atariki, Chair of Arai Te Uru Whare Hauora
• Peter McIlraith, who represents the Combined Community Trusts of New Zealand
• Robyn Munford, a Professor at Massey University
• Bob Stephens, an Associate Professor at Victoria University of Wellington, and
• Tuwhakairiora Williams, an independent researcher, who works in the non-profit sector.

Thank you to you all. I know that you all juggle busy jobs and other voluntary commitments with your work for this Committee. Your efforts are very much appreciated by me, and by all those who understand the importance of this work.
You have provided invaluable advice and expertise that have contributed in a very positive way to shaping this definitions working paper.

And you have also played an equally important role in the development of the Satellite Accounts for Non-Profit Institutions that Statistics New Zealand is currently working on.

It gives me great confidence to know that you have an overview of this research. You are combining your knowledge and expertise by doing preliminary work that will ensure the foundation for this ongoing research is sound.

I would also like to thank the Massey University team of researchers for having the courage, skills and experience to undertake this research. I know everybody here will appreciate the size of this project, and the difficult issues that came up along the way. Your commitment and determination to see this project through to the end, and to provide a high quality paper have been widely noted and admired.

The Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector has also been a vital link in the chain. They have provided project management and co-ordination between all the players, from the Johns Hopkins University staff in Baltimore, USA, to Massey, to Statistics New Zealand and the individual Committee members. This has been no mean feat.

I’d also like to acknowledge the very important work done by Statistics New Zealand, who have really tackled the detail and issues relating to defining and classifying non-profit institutions. The thorough way they have approached this work, and the use of decision trees, has captured the interest of the international community. They will continue to build on this knowledge by working towards the development of a satellite account.

One of the aspects of this project that particularly pleases me is that it shows the power of collaboration. This project is the result of the non-profit sector and government putting their hearts and heads together and making a commitment to this work, which, we should remember is the biggest research project on non-profit organisations that has been undertaken in New Zealand.

I would like to acknowledge the Community Trusts at this point, as without their foresight and wisdom, this project would not have taken off when it did. They had the energy to turn the dream of collecting comprehensive and robust data on the work of the non-profit sector into reality.

Three years ago the Community Trusts brought Lester Salamon, the head of the Centre for Civil Society at Johns Hopkins University, to New Zealand and from there they persisted until they were successful with their goal of getting New Zealand to join the International Comparative Study of the Non-profit Sector.

They have also joined the government in funding this research and continue to actively support it through membership of the Committee for the Study of the NZ Non-Profit Sector. Their ability to look to the future and to appreciate the importance of collecting this information is to their credit, and epitomises for me one of the real strengths of the non-profit sector.

Thanks must also go to the Tindall Foundation for their financial support for this work and for backing what might not be widely seen as a sexy project, but for seeing the importance of it in the long term.

Government’s decision to put money and resources into this research is based on the view that we need to better understand the role and contribution of non-profit organisations in order to support it appropriately.

In my role as Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector I will continue to advocate on behalf of the non-profit sector whenever and wherever I can.

I am passionate about the work that the sector does, and I will use every opportunity to promote and support it.

We have been listening to the sector since we became the Government seven years ago and the need for better data is one of several issues that continuously comes up. This work will help us all get a better handle on the role of the non-profit sector in civil society, something that governments around the world are increasingly interested in.

We know that funding is another area of ongoing concern to the sector, and we are working on a number of fronts on the funding issue.

I want to know what government funding is going to non-profit organisations and have asked the Department of Internal Affairs to collect together all the available data on this. This will in turn feed into the satellite account.

In addition to this, Statistics New Zealand will be pooling many other sources of data including the Annual Enterprise Survey, Time Use Survey (which will be repeated in 2008) and the Charities Commission data when this becomes available.

Another project in the funding area is in conjunction with Philanthropy New Zealand and we are currently in the process of organising a series of forums for grant-makers.

The forums will bring together philanthropists, community, government, and private grant-makers to stimulate information sharing, dialogue and cooperation - so they can continue to help change their communities for the better.

The first pilot forum will be held in the Wellington region on 30 October this year. Around 14 regional forums will then be held between March and July 2007. The forums will explore regional profiling, governance and evaluation, as well as other subjects (such as partnerships and community connection), which were issues identified in a recent survey of Philanthropy New Zealand members.

Another collaborative project relating to research that is working well is the Community and Voluntary Sector Research Forum. A number of you have attended this forum and the growing support for it is testimony to the fact that it is a useful way for government and the sector to meet and talk about research of common interest.

To all of you who have turned out to today’s launch, thank you for giving this research project the time that it deserves. I think the high level of attendance today illustrates that we have all arrived at pretty much the same point together. We need this information to inform our work, whether we are in government or the non-profit sector.

To the Committee for the Study of the NZ Non-Profit Sector, I wish you well in the next phase of your project and look forward to your next milestone, the release by Statistics New Zealand of their initial Satellite Account on the Non-Profit Sector in September 2007. This will be followed by the National Report in 2008 that compares New Zealand data to that of over 40 countries.

I await the next lot of information with keen interest.