• The organisation
• Associated consumer organisations
• Annual appeals
• Habilitation and Rehabilitation Services
• Guide Dog Services
• Membership Breakdown
• Library, Information Services and Braille
• Most common eye conditions

Basic facts and figures about our organisation, appeals, services, membership, and eye conditions.

The organisation

Foundation membership: 11,700 approximately
Annual cost of member services: Approximately $22 million
Divisions: Adaptive Living; Adaptive Support; Technology, Employment and Awareness; Quality Assurance; Fundraising, and Corporate Services
Board members: 10
Staff: 337 full-time equivalent staff in 19 offices nationwide
Community Committees: 43
Volunteers: more than 13,500 assist with fundraising and with every aspect of delivering services

Associated consumer organisations

• The Association of Blind Citizens of New Zealand Inc
• Blind Sport New Zealand
• Guide Dogs Society NZ Inc
• Ngāti Kāpō o Aotearoa
• NZ VIEW (New Zealand Vision Impaired Empowering Women)
• Parents of Vision Impaired New Zealand (PVI)
• Retina New Zealand Inc
• SEYFF (Support and Education for our Youth, their Families and their Friends)

Annual appeals

Red Puppy Appeal (April)
Blind Week (October)

Habilitation and Rehabilitation Services

Total service hours for 2005-2006: 125,985

Guide Dog Services

108 puppies bred in 2005/2006
37 guide dogs graduated and 16 were matched and pending graduation in 2005/2006
Number of working guide dogs in New Zealand: 273
Number of guide dogs graduated since 1973: 893

Membership Breakdown

Under 20   6.9%
20-39        9.2%
40-64        15.4%
65-79        15.7%
80+           52.8%

Library, Information Services and Braille

5,648 library members
the Library holds 8,223 talking book titles and 8,529 braille titles
Issued 393,768 books and magazines in all formats from the Parnell and Homai libraries in 2005/2006
The Telephone Information Service received 200,664 calls in the past year totalling 30,157 listening hours
157,046 braille pages were produced

Most common eye conditions

Note: The Foundation is a provider of habilitation and rehabilitation rather than clinical eye health services. It aims to record members' eye conditions but is not always given full or current information on them. Specialists who refer people to the RNZFB have identified some 150 different eye conditions among the membership.

Most common eye conditions among members:
Age-related macular degeneration    4,997
Glacoma                                               690
Retinitis pigmentosa                            442
Cataracts                                             344
Optic Atrophy                                       298
Diabetic retinopathy                             299
Albinism                                               140
Other                                                   959
Unknown/not recorded                       1679