ACNC annual report reveals hundreds of thousands search Charity Register
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The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) tabled its 2016–17 Annual Report on Friday, its fifth report to Parliament since it was established in December 2012.
The acting ACNC Commissioner, David Locke, revealed that more and more Australians were accessing the ACNC’s Charity Register – Australia’s first searchable database of charities.
“A major achievement in 2016–17 was the significant increase in the use of the ACNC Charity Register,” Locke said.
“In 2016–17, searches of the ACNC Charity Register jumped by 37 per cent compared to last year. We have now had over two million searches of the free public register and this is increasing all the time.
“We’re pleased that members of the public and donors are increasingly using the ACNC Charity Register to ensure that charities are registered with the ACNC and to find out information about their governance and financials.”
Over 2,800 new charities joined the ACNC Charity Register and customer satisfaction with the registration process remained high at 94 per cent.
In 2016–17, the ACNC also worked with charities to continue to improve the accuracy of the information available on the ACNC Charity Register.
“It is very important that charities are transparent and accountable, and the information they provide is accurate,” Locke said.
“We saw a 13 per cent increase in the number of Annual Information Statement submissions completed by the due date, which is an excellent outcome.
“Our data integrity project team also reviewed the records of over 42,000 charities, and worked with them to correct almost 7,000 errors.”
The launch of the Registered Charity Tick in December 2016 also provided donors with a new way to identify registered charities.
“The Registered Charity Tick is a simple, attractive logo that registered charities can use to show their charity status,” Locke said.
“Over 10,000 charities have downloaded their copy of the logo, including some of Australia’s most well known charities. We are seeing the Registered Charity Tick displayed in all and kinds of places, from fundraising brochures to mini vans.
“This initiative, which the ACNC proudly launched in December 2016, is helping registered charities across Australia show their donors that they are accountable and transparent.”
The ACNC’s work to ensure registered charities are complying with the ACNC Act also remained a strong focus for the regulator in 2016–17.
“This year the ACNC addressed more public concerns about charities than ever before. The ACNC is now also working proactively with a wide range of federal and state agencies to identify misconduct and mismanagement in the administration of charities,” Locke said.
“Our compliance work has changed from predominantly reacting to concerns, to proactively identifying risk and undertaking targeted investigations and enforcement action.
“In 2016–17, we managed 18 per cent more compliance cases than we did in the previous year and took more enforcement action. The registrations of 22 charities were revoked following compliance investigations – more than double the number in 2015–16.”
Red tape reduction was a priority for the ACNC in 2016–17, as it will be again in 2017–18.
“Significant progress was made toward reducing red tape for charities in 2016–17,” Locke said.
“Red tape reduction legislation has now passed in South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory. This has resulted in streamlined reporting requirements, saving thousands of Australian charities vital resources.
“Victoria has also passed legislation to enable harmonisation of reporting and the ACNC is now working with every single state and territory to reduce red tape. We are confident that this will deliver significant benefits.”
“Use of the Charity Passport, the ACNC’s data-sharing portal, has also increased, with 20 government agencies now using it to access charity data.
“I am confident that we will have even more positive news in regards to red tape reduction in next year’s annual report.”
