The Media Access Charitable Trust — Health Charity in Auckland

The Media Access Charitable Trust is a Trust charity in the Health sector, based in Auckland, Auckland. This organisation also provides funding to other charities. CharityData rates this charity D+ (51.5/100). Annual revenue: $5.7M NZD. 1 red flag detected. Financial data as at June 2025.

Mission: The nature of the Media Access Charitable Trust (trading as Able) is to work towards an Aotearoa New Zealand where everyone has equal access to audiovisual media. Our core purpose is to serve the 880,000+ members of the Deaf or hard of hearing community; the 180,000+ people who are blind or have low vision, and those who rely on captions to help improve literacy or navigate English as a second language. Our mission is how we’re achieving our vision; through our work as Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading provider of captions, subtitles and audio description. Able provides these services for free-to-air television (TVNZ 1, TVNZ 2, TVNZ Duke, Three, Sky Open), digital platforms such as TVNZ+, ThreeNow, and RNZ, as well as for film, film festivals, government and television commercials.

Registration Number
CC49311
Charity Type
Trust
Registration Date
2013-06-10
Status
Active
CharityData Rating
D+ (51.5/100)
Sector
Health
Location
Auckland, Auckland
Email
hello@able.co.nz
Funder Status
Grant-making charity (charitable_trust)
Data as at
June 2025

Beneficiaries: Children / young people, General public, Older people, People with disabilities

Financial Summary

Total Revenue
$5.7M NZD
Total Expenses
$5.7M NZD
Total Assets
$1.1M NZD
Net Assets
$0.0M NZD
Reserve Months
1.1 months of operating expenses
Staff Count
41
Volunteers
0
Financial Year End
2025-06-30

Financial History

YearRevenueExpensesNet Assets
2025$5.7M$5.7M$0.0M
2024$5.6M$5.6M$0.0M
2023$5.7M$5.7M$0.0M
2022$4.9M$4.9M$0.0M
2021$4.0M$4.0M$0.0M
2020$3.0M$3.0M$0.0M
2019$3.0M$3.0M$0.0M
2018$3.0M$3.0M$0.0M
2017$2.9M$2.9M$0.0M
2016$2.9M$2.9M$0.0M

CharityData Rating

Overall Grade
D+
Overall Score
51.5/100
Financial Score
55.7
Governance Score
75
Transparency Score
85

Red Flags

  • 3 trustees of this charity also sit on multiple other charity boards — concentrated trustee bandwidth may warrant board-skill-mix review.

Board Members and Officers

Current Officers (0)

NameRoleAppointed

Former Officers (11)

  • Irene Gardiner — Trustee
  • Sacha McNeil — Trustee (departed 2022-08-16)
  • Daniel Buckingham — Chief Executive
  • Thomas Bryan — Trustee
  • Karen Thompson — Trustee
  • David Kent — Trustee
  • Lachlan Keating — Trustee (departed 2016-08-29)
  • Anthony Godfrey — Trustee (departed 2020-02-20)
  • Mattie Wall — Trustee (departed 2019-02-20)
  • Lewis Grant — Chair
  • Arthur France — Trustee (departed 2020-12-21)

Executive Compensation

NameRoleCompensationYear
Key Management Personnel (aggregate)CEO and Senior Staff (6 FTE)$663,7052024
Lewis GrantChair$02024

Service Providers

  • RSM

Similar Charities in Health

FunderHealthTrustCharitable Trust

The Media Access Charitable Trust

CC49311Auckland, AucklandRegistered 10 Jun 2013
Data updated: 5 days ago
Financials30 Jun 2025Rating4d ago

Financial data as at June 2025. Sourced from Charities Services register.

D+
52/100
Reduced by penalties
Financial
56
Governance
75
Transparency
85
Revenue

$5.7M

Expenses

$5.7M

Assets

$1.1M

Staff

41

Financial data from Charities Services annual return (FY2025). Ratings calculated using CharityData v3.1.1 methodology.

1 red flag identified- Review the Rating tab for details

This rating may reflect incomplete data

This charity's grade of D+ is based on limited data from the NZ Charities Register, which does not provide detailed expense breakdowns. Without verified program vs admin spending, efficiency scoring is unavailable and the financial score relies on health metrics only. This charity's actual performance may differ from what the available data suggests.

Funder Profile

Grantmaker

This organisation makes grants or donations to other charities and organisations.

Funding Sectors
EducationCommunity Development
Beneficiaries
People with DisabilitiesGeneral Public
Geographic Focus
Nationwide

About

Mission

The nature of the Media Access Charitable Trust (trading as Able) is to work towards an Aotearoa New Zealand where everyone has equal access to audiovisual media. Our core purpose is to serve the 880,000+ members of the Deaf or hard of hearing community; the 180,000+ people who are blind or have low vision, and those who rely on captions to help improve literacy or navigate English as a second language. Our mission is how we’re achieving our vision; through our work as Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading provider of captions, subtitles and audio description. Able provides these services for free-to-air television (TVNZ 1, TVNZ 2, TVNZ Duke, Three, Sky Open), digital platforms such as TVNZ+, ThreeNow, and RNZ, as well as for film, film festivals, government and television commercials.

Who We Serve

Beneficiaries
Children / young peopleGeneral publicOlder peoplePeople with disabilities

Key Statistics

Annual Revenue
$5.7M
Total Expenses
$5.7M
Net Assets
$10
Staff
41
employees
Volunteers
0

Financial Trends

Financial Trends (12 Years)

Revenue Breakdown

Expense Breakdown

API Data

Based on annual return data. Detailed program/admin breakdown not available.

Financial Health Dashboard

Cents to the Cause
100c
For every $1 spent, 100c reaches programs
Strong
Sustainability
1.1mo
Could operate 1.1 months with zero revenue
Critical
Fundraising Cost
-
No fundraising data
No data

Based on latest annual return data. Metrics are calculated from reported financial data and may not reflect the full picture. View methodology

Revenue Diversification

1
Score /100
Highly Concentrated
HHI: 9,881
High Concentration: 99% of revenue from Other
Other99.4%
Investment Income0.6%

HHI (Herfindahl–Hirschman Index) measures concentration across 6 income categories. Lower HHI = more diversified. Score above 60 indicates healthy diversification.

Peer Comparison

Ranked against 67 peers · Health · $1M – $10M

Rating Score
52
#39/68
Revenue
$5.7M
#9/68
Reserve Months
1.1
#1/68
Surplus
$0
#52/68
Staff Cost %
50%
#68/68

Peers are charities in the same sector and revenue size band. Rankings are based on the latest available data.

Rating

D+
Score: 51.5/100
Financial
55.7
Governance
75
Transparency
85
Why this grade: Financial 56 × 40% + Governance 75 × 60% = 67 → 52 after red-flag penalties → D+.
View Full Score Breakdown

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Latest Audit

FY2025
Clean
Auditor
RSM Hayes
10 years of audit history

Contact Details

Address
Auckland, Auckland

Registration

Registration NumberCC49311
Entity TypeTrust
Registered10 Jun 2013
StatusRegistered

Companies Office

StatusRegistered
Entity TypeCharitable Trust
Incorporated8 Jul 2013
Registered office
Level 20, Pwc Tower, 188 Quay Street, Auckland Central, Auckland

Sector & Activities

Primary Sector
Health
Activities
Provides services (e.g. care / counselling)

Data sourced from Charities Services register and publicly available annual returns. Our datasets may not be complete. Automated analysis can produce errors. Scores are calculated using disclosed methodology and are analytical tools, not investment ratings or recommendations. If you believe any data on this page is incorrect, please contact us at hello@charitydata.co.nz. For informational purposes only. Not investment advice. Last updated: 30 September 2026.