How to prepare for the new ACNC reporting requirements

The Joint Parliamentary Committee has released their report on the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission (ACNC) Bill, the Consequential and Transitional Bill, and the Tax Laws Amendment Bill, recommending that all three bills be passed.

If these bills are passed it is likely that charities raising more than $50,000 per year will be required to register with the ACNC and that some financial information related to these organisations will be published and available in the public domain.

This means charities’ fundraising tactics, corporate governance and investment policies could be scrutinised by not only ACNC officials but by members of the public as well. It also raises the prospect of additional including the media scrutiny.

From an issues management perspective, the key question for charities remains unchanged – how well prepared are charities for probing questions from well-informed journalists who have access to some of their financial information?

In order to prepare your organisation for this very real circumstance you must have:

• Spokespeople who can communicate key messages in a very clear way
• Policies to deal with the media asking questions about your own corporate governance
• Policies in place regarding who can speak about certain issues
• Revise and update your issues management plan.

In addition, it is not only important to update your issues management plan to include and prepare for circumstances that may arise in this new regulatory environment, but to also put these plans to the test.

There are two main factors to consider when testing your issues management plan:

Prepare for worst case scenarios

Identify the issues that will most likely be questioned. Is there are a line of questioning that has caused you problems in the past? Is there a recurring issue that your opponents use to make you appear uncertain, weak or compromised? These are the issues that need attention.

Identify your position on these issues

If someone asked you to summarise your position on these issues, could you do it in 30 seconds? If they asked four senior people in your organisation to comment on the position of your organisation on a certain issue would they all say the same thing? How long has it been since you last communicated the organisation’s position on potentially controversial issues? Effective issues management is underpinned by clear positions on issues supported by succinct, consumer-friendly key messages.