The study examines the empirical evidence of the submissions received from charitable organisations and their stakeholders in response to proposed changes to the New Zealand financial reporting framework. The study aims to determine whether an accounting regulator (in this case the New Zealand External Reporting Board) listens to their charitable stakeholders the submissions are compared with further proposals for the financial reporting framework. Critical comparison of submission and proposal appears to show that the XRB was not listening to their charitable stakeholders. However, through the lenses of legitimacy and stakeholder theories the study found that the External Reporting Board utilised legitimacy management strategies to explain their proposals. They proactively achieved this by conforming to the environment and achieving pragmatic legitimacy in order to justify their decisions. The study will also be of interest to a wider audience as it seeks to determine whether accounting standard setters and regulators are listening to their stakeholders something of interest to accounting standard setters and regulators in both the for-profit and public sectors.