Early Start Project Limited — Health Charity in Christchurch
Early Start Project Limited is a Charitable Trust charity in the Health sector, based in Christchurch, Christchurch. CharityData rates this charity B (78.4/100). Annual revenue: $3.9M NZD. 1 red flag detected. Financial data as at June 2025.
Mission: Early Start is a home-visiting service specifically designed to enrol families with newborn babies where adverse situations and destructive life habits negatively impact on the life chances of their children. The programme is designed to challenge these circumstances and to teach nurturing parenting practices enabling families to be the best parents they can be. Thereby providing their children with a good childhood experience and giving them an optimum start in life. The service is free, voluntary and available to families for up to five years.
- Registration Number
- CC23931
- Charity Type
- Charitable Trust
- Registration Date
- 2008-05-05
- Status
- Active
- CharityData Rating
- B (78.4/100)
- Sector
- Health
- Location
- Christchurch, Christchurch
- sue.taylor@earlystart.co.nz
- Data as at
- June 2025
Beneficiaries: Children / young people, Family / whanau
Financial Summary
- Total Revenue
- $3.9M NZD
- Total Expenses
- $3.6M NZD
- Total Assets
- $1.3M NZD
- Net Assets
- $1.0M NZD
- Reserve Months
- 3.7 months of operating expenses
- Staff Count
- 34
- Volunteers
- 0
- Financial Year End
- 2025-06-30
Financial History
| Year | Revenue | Expenses | Net Assets |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $3.9M | $3.6M | $1.0M |
| 2024 | $4.0M | $3.8M | $0.8M |
| 2023 | $3.2M | $3.3M | $0.6M |
| 2022 | $3.2M | $3.2M | $0.7M |
| 2021 | $3.1M | $3.2M | $0.8M |
| 2020 | $3.7M | $3.7M | $0.8M |
| 2019 | $3.4M | $3.9M | $0.9M |
| 2018 | $3.4M | $3.1M | $1.4M |
| 2017 | $2.5M | $2.4M | $1.1M |
| 2016 | $1.8M | $1.7M | $0.9M |
CharityData Rating
- Overall Grade
- B
- Overall Score
- 78.4/100
- Financial Score
- 98.4
- Governance Score
- 65
- Transparency Score
- 65
- Program Spending Ratio
- 0.9%
Red Flags
- 2 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 (3)
| Name | Role | Appointed |
|---|---|---|
| Jan Egan | Director | 2025-02-05 |
| Nicola Scott | Director | 2024-08-16 |
| Dale Stephens | Director | 2022-05-18 |
Former Officers (15)
- Hildegard Grant — Director (departed 2024-11-22)
- Maria Van Der Plas — Director
- Mere Balsom — Director (departed 2021-05-03)
- Leonard Horwood — Director
- Elsa Kipa — Director (departed 2022-09-02)
- Shelley McCauley — Director
- Anne Feld — Trustee (departed 2018-02-20)
- Terehia Kipa — Director (departed 2014-12-08)
- Kerrie Knott — Director (departed 2008-01-18)
- Irihapeti (Elizabeth) Rupene — Director (departed 2012-05-04)
- Ashley Seaford — Director (departed 2024-11-22)
- Clive Wilson — Director (departed 2020-06-01)
- Mereana Hutchen — Director (departed 2014-10-31)
- Lynda Gray — Director
- David Fergusson — Director (departed 2018-10-03)
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Early Start Project Limited
Financial data as at June 2025. Sourced from Charities Services register.
Reasons to look carefully (2)
These structural observations are drawn from public data and are worth considering before a donation. They are not allegations of wrongdoing, and they don’t affect the charity’s letter grade.
- No chair recorded on the registerNo chair or presiding role is recorded in the register for this board of 7. The Charities Register does not require one to be identified, so this is a gap in the public record rather than a finding about the board.
- Government-funding concentration95% of latest-year revenue came from government grants — single-stream dependency
Each signal is a data-driven observation, not a judgement. They fire automatically from the figures filed with Charities Services. A charity can address any of these by filing fuller disclosure or updating its officer register. Methodology: /about/methodology/concern-signals.
$3.9M
$3.6M
$1.3M
34
Financial data from Charities Services annual return (FY2025). Ratings calculated using CharityData v3.1.1 methodology.
About
Early Start is a home-visiting service specifically designed to enrol families with newborn babies where adverse situations and destructive life habits negatively impact on the life chances of their children. The programme is designed to challenge these circumstances and to teach nurturing parenting practices enabling families to be the best parents they can be. Thereby providing their children with a good childhood experience and giving them an optimum start in life. The service is free, voluntary and available to families for up to five years.
Who We Serve
Key Statistics
Financial Trends
Financial Trends (17 Years)
Revenue Breakdown
Expense Breakdown
VerifiedFinancial Health Dashboard
Based on latest annual return data. Metrics are calculated from reported financial data and may not reflect the full picture. View methodology
Revenue Diversification
HHI (Herfindahl–Hirschman Index) measures concentration across 6 income categories. Lower HHI = more diversified. Score above 60 indicates healthy diversification.
Peer Comparison
Ranked against 111 peers · Health · $1M – $10M
Top Peers in Group
Peers are charities in the same sector and revenue size band. Rankings are based on the latest available data.
Rating
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FY2025Contact Details
Registration
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Sector & Activities
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: 4 October 2026.
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