The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) has won the 2016 Public Sector Innovation Award.

The Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) announced the ACNC as the winner of the Digital Transformation Category at a ceremony in Canberra on 27 July.

The award was presented by the Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Greg Hunt.

The award recognises initiatives that demonstrate the spirit of digital transformation, including providing better and easier services and interactions with citizens.

ACNC won the award for their Charity Portal which was launched in November 2013 as a self-service digital interface to reduce the significant burden of paperwork faced by Australia’s 54,000 registered charities.

ACNC Commissioner, Susan Pascoe AM, said the ACNC was a digital-by-default agency.

“The ACNC is committed to providing easy-to-use online systems for those in the community running registered charities,” said Pascoe.

“When the ACNC was established in December 2012, we put considerable resources into the Charity Portal to ensure charities could meet their obligations with as little effort as possible.

“By taking a digital-by-default approach, we are now also in a position to share the information registered charities submit each year with other regulatory bodies, such as state government agencies. This will result in significant red tape reduction for those charities that currently have duplicative reporting requirements.”

Pascoe said she would like to thank the IPAA for acknowledging their work in this space and those within the ACNC that have worked tirelessly to develop and maintain ACNC’s online services.

“Similarly, my thanks to those charities who have provided feedback on our digital systems during the development stages and as we have expanded the services over time,” said Pascoe.

“The charity sector has a proud history of innovating to better serve their beneficiaries and communities.  The ACNC is keen to support their sustainability so they can continue to provide targeted and useful services.”

Pascoe said she looks forward to discussing the rewards and challenges involved with innovating in the charity sector at the Third Sector Expo in August.

For more info click here.