The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) has tabled its 2015-16 annual report, its fourth annual report to Parliament.
ACNC Commissioner, Susan Pascoe, highlighted the announcement to retain the ACNC as the major milestone of 2015-16.
“I would like to thank the Government for their commitment to the ACNC and I would also like to express my gratitude to the charity sector for continually supporting the ACNC, despite the uncertainty that surrounded the organisation’s future,” Pascoe said.
“This support undoubtedly contributed to the Government’s decision to retain the ACNC, which was announced on 4 March 2016.”
Pascoe highlighted major projects and initiatives that contributed to public trust and confidence and red tape reduction in 2015-16.
“A major achievement in 2015-16 was the release of the 2014 Australian Charities Report,” Pascoe said.
“This was the very first report to provide an in-depth analysis of the financial situation of Australia’s charity sector.
“It has given the community new insight into the size and scope of the sector, and its role in Australian economy. I am very much looking forward to presenting the 2015 Australian Charities Report in the coming months.”
In 2015-16, members of the community accessed the information that registered charities report to the ACNC at an increasing rate.
“We publish the information charities report to the ACNC on the Charity Register, and compared to 2014-15, Charity Register views have jumped 32 per cent,” Pascoe said.
“We’re pleased that members of the public and donors are increasingly using the Charity Register information to make informed donation decisions.”
In 2015-16, the ACNC worked with charities to improve the accuracy of the information available on the Charity Register.
“Our data integrity project team reviewed the records of over 38,000 charities,” Pascoe said.
“Where our team found reporting issues or errors, we contacted registered charities to have these corrected.”
The ACNC’s work to ensure registered charities are complying with the ACNC Act continued to grow in 2015-16, as it did the year prior.
“In 2015-16, we received 930 concerns about charities, resulting in 10 compliance revocations,” Pascoe said.
“This is a fairly significant increase compared to the 810 concerns we received in 2014-15.
“In addition to our compliance activity, our ongoing work to revoke charities that fail to report their Annual Information Statements twice – double defaulters – saw 3,800 organisations lose their charity status in 2015-16.”
Pascoe said that the ACNC registered more than 2,800 new charities and customer satisfaction with the registration process remained high at 94 per cent.
Red tape reduction was a primary focus for the ACNC in 2015-16 and will be again in 2016-17.
“Significant progress was made toward reducing red tape for charities in 2015-16,” Pascoe said.
“During the financial year, both the South Australian and Tasmanian Governments made landmark announcements that will result in reduced red tape for charities operating in those states.
“In 2016-17, we will continue to prioritise our work with other Commonwealth, and state and territory regulatory bodies, to reduce red tape for charities.”