The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) regulates more than 60,000 registered Australian charities that are eligible for Commonwealth charity tax concessions.

Its legislative objectives include: maintaining and enhancing public trust and confidence in the sector, supporting and sustaining a robust and independent sector and promoting the reduction of unnecessary regulatory obligations on the sector.

ACNC 2014 Annual Report highlights include:

• Enhancing the national Charity Register, including advanced search techniques and identifying and removing hundreds of inactive charities from the Register
• The registration of 3,141 new charities
• Launch of the Charity Passport to reduce red tape by providing charities’ information collected by the ACNC to other government agencies
• Launch of the self-service Charity Portal which reduces the paperwork burden on charities and allows them to update their public information online
• Taking carriage of the ongoing maintenance and updating of the National Standard Chart of Accounts which provides a common approach to capturing accounting information.

ACNC Commissioner Susan Pascoe AM said she was proud of the work the ACNC had achieved in meeting the regulator’s legislative obligations, and the preparedness of the sector to work with the ACNC.

Pascoe said the sector’s acceptance of the ACNC was demonstrated with more than 40,000 or 80 per cent, of required charities submitting their 2013 Annual Information Statement to the ACNC on time, despite the climate of uncertainty. This was the first time charities were required to report to the regulator and represents a very high level of compliance for the first year of a charity regulator.

In addition, 25,000 governing documents and 7000 financial reports were voluntarily submitted and published by charities during the year.

Pascoe said with more than 3.6 million views to the acnc.gov.au website, and more than 300,000 views of the Charity Register, it was clear the public was hungry for online information about charities.

“The ACNC has worked hard over this year to refine our ‘report once, use often’ approach and respond to the sector that has been calling for effective regulation and reporting for more than two decades,” says Pascoe.

“Looking forward, I have used my discretion as Commissioner and have agreed to accept charities’ financial reports submitted to state and territory regulators in place of ACNC annual financial reports for the 2014 reporting period.”

Pascoe said the ACNC was also pleased with the excellent service standards the regulator had set. The Commission received 41,433 phone calls during the year, with 55 seconds being the average wait time when calling ACNC Advice Services. The Commission took an average 17 days to register a new charity and reported a 93 per cent satisfaction rate with the registration process.

Pascoe said growing public awareness and understanding of the ACNC’s role as a national charity regulator saw the ACNC receive 639 concerns about charities during the twelve month period, with nearly 400 concerns resolved by the ACNC’s Advice Services. The remainder were assessed by Compliance Services with 42 progressing to a formal review or investigation.

The ACNC revoked the charitable status of one charity in 2013-14 after an investigation determined its purpose was not solely charitable, and issued a warning and a direction to another charity during the year.

“As Australia’s first independent regulator of charities, we have been well placed to help protect nearly $70 million in charitable assets through monitoring and where necessary, investigation of charities during the year,” says Pascoe.

“We have also formed cooperative and effective working relationships with the Australian Tax Office, Australian Federal Police and other agencies in the monitoring and investigation and of charities, including protecting charities at risk of funding terrorist activities overseas.”