Charities Community Organisations Governance Associations

ACNC revokes 388 charities, another 400 to follow if not found

Sarah Harding October 20, 2014

2 min read

These charities have not been in contact with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) in almost two years and have not responded to multiple forms of contact. If the charities do not make contact with the ACNC by 24 November 2014, their charity status will be revoked.

ACNC Commissioner, Susan Pascoe AM said charities may be missing for a number of reasons.

“In many cases, charities have decided to operate under a different name or ABN, or have merged with another charity,” says Pascoe.

“This is not about revoking the charity status of legitimate charities that are still operating. If your charity is on our missing list, you need to get in contact with us and let us know you are still operating. Last month, we had 14 charities contact us who were on our missing charities list and update their details.

“We need to ensure that every organisation on the Charity Register is still functional and the details we have are correct. This allows us to maintain the integrity of the Charity Register so it remains a valuable tool for the public.

“Part of this is revoking the charity status of inactive charities. Yesterday, we revoked the charity status of 388 charities, after an exhaustive search could not locate them.

“The ACNC takes its role of cleaning up the data provided to us when we were established seriously.

“Where we suspect charities are no longer active, we try to locate individuals who may be able to confirm this. We also check the records of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, State Regulators, the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations and ask the ATO to confirm if their records indicate whether the charity seems to be active from a tax perspective.

“The ACNC also works with peak bodies to try and get confirmation of charities that have wound up and has been supported by local media to try and locate charities.

“This painstaking approach ensures the ACNC has done everything we can to confirm their existence and to ensure the information on the publicly available national Charity Register is accurate,” says Pascoe.

The Charity Register contains the names of all registered charities in Australia, and includes details of their activities, areas of operation, and size of the organisation. The Register allows potential donors to check charities’ credentials before donating time or money.

To date, the Charity Register has over 500,000 page views.