ACNC releases annual report
ACNC RELEASES ANNUAL REPORT
The ACNC has tabled its 2019–20 annual report, revealing insights into the charity sector and the commission's activities.
To allow charities to focus on relief and recovery efforts for bushfires, the commission paused most compliance activity for charities in bushfire-affected areas unless there was a significant ongoing risk of non-compliance.
The commission provided annual information statement extensions for around 7000 affected charities and prioritised charity-registration applications related to bushfires.
'A critical part of our work is to provide information about charities to the public,' ACNC commissioner Gary Johns said.
'We have seen the ACNC charity register visits significantly grow year on year, with more than 3.2 million searches last financial year.'
When COVID-19 hit Australia, the commission helped charities with their governance and operations by publishing news, information, and guidance on its website. It also adjusted its approach to regulation, deferring information-statement due dates for more than 18,000 charities and suspended some investigations.
The ACNC has continued to work with other government agencies to streamline reporting requirements across jurisdictions.
Highlights include a new law passed to relieve Queensland charities of duplicated annual financial reporting, and bilateral negotiations with several states to reduce red tape for fundraisers.
'The importance of the charity sector should not be underestimated. It is crucial to supporting the Australian community and it employs 10 per cent of Australians,' Dr Johns said.
'We directed a substantial proportion of our efforts this year to helping charities navigate through these tough times and to reducing the burden on them as much as
we can.'
Key statistics include:
- There was a significant rise in activity on the ACNC website. Page views totalled more than 12 million – six times more than the previous year
- There were 3.2 million register searches – more than three times the previous year's
- A total of 32,602 phone calls and 13,362 written enquiries were received during the year
- 2568 new charities were registered
- There were 2102 concerns about charities, down from 2323 the previous year, most having been received from the public or members of a charity. The most common concerns were about perceived mismanagement of funds and individuals obtaining a private benefit from a charity, and
- 79 investigations were finalised, resulting in 18 charities having their registrations revoked. That compares with 12 revocations in the previous year from 100 investigations.
The ACNC's 2019-20 annual report is available at https://acnc.gov.au/tools/reports/acnc-annual-report-2019-20 .
