Guide
Statement of Service Performance examples for small charities
Written by Tinloy Wen · Checked against the Tier 4 Annual Reporting Guide · 5 min read · Updated 22 October 2026
The Statement of Service Performance is the part of a Tier 4 performance report that explains what your charity actually did during the year. Many treasurers find it the hardest page to write, because it isn't about money. This guide covers what the Tier 4 (NFP) Standard asks for, and gives examples you can adapt.
What the standard asks for
The Tier 4 (NFP) Standard asks you to do two things:
- describe the main activities your charity carried out during the financial year
- quantify those activities, as far as possible
You only need to cover your main activities, not everything you did. Choose what a reader needs to get an overall picture of what you did to achieve your purposes. A table works well, but you can also use short paragraphs, charts or photos.
A simple way to write it
- Start from your charitable purposes. What does your trust deed or constitution say the charity is for?
- List the two to five activities that took most of your volunteers' time or your money this year.
- For each one, pick a number that can be counted from records you already keep: attendance sheets, booking diaries, delivery logs, rosters or receipts.
- Give the unit every time (meals, sessions, people, hours, events), and show last year's number next to this year's.
- Add a sentence or two on what changed, if the numbers moved a lot.
Examples you can adapt
These examples are made up to show the format. Use your own activities and numbers.
| Main activity | This year | Last year |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly community lunch at the hall (food bank) | 2,140 meals | 1,860 meals |
| Food parcels delivered to families referred by local agencies | 312 parcels | 275 parcels |
| Junior coaching sessions run by volunteer coaches (sports club) | 84 sessions, 46 children | 80 sessions, 41 children |
| Community planting days (environmental group) | 6 days, 3,200 native plants | 5 days, 2,500 native plants |
| Kapa haka and te reo classes (cultural group) | 38 classes, 25 regular members | 36 classes, 22 regular members |
| Volunteer hours given by members | 1,450 hours | 1,300 hours |
Below the table, a short narrative helps the reader understand the year. For example: “Meal numbers rose because we added a second lunch day from March. Two of our regular volunteers moved away, so planting days were run by the committee.”
Outcomes: what difference did it make?
Counting activities is required. Describing the difference those activities made is optional at Tier 4, but it makes the report more useful to funders and members. Keep it honest and based on what you can actually observe, for example “18 of the 46 juniors moved up to a competition team” or “survival rate of last year's plantings checked at 85%”.
Common mistakes
- Listing the charity's purposes instead of what it actually did this year.
- Numbers with no unit (“120” of what?), or no comparison with last year.
- Including financial figures here. Money belongs in the Statement of Cash Received and Cash Paid.
- Counting something you can't back up. Pick measures you already record.
If this is your first year, you won't have last year's figures. Leave that column empty and say the charity started during the year. For more detail, see the Tier 4 Annual Reporting Guide on the Charities Services website.
Our app asks for each main activity with its unit and numbers, carries last year's numbers forward, and lays out the statement for you. See the filing guide for what happens next.
This guide is general information, not accounting advice. If you're unsure how to treat something, check with an accountant or Charities Services.