ACNC Launches Charity Passport
11 June 2014 at 3:26 pm
The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) has launched its long awaited Charity Passport – a secure online system set up to save charities from reporting the same information to multiple government agencies.
ACNC Commissioner Susan Pascoe said the Charity Passport had enormous potential to create substantial time and cost savings for charities.
“A single charity that conducts fundraising across the country, and receives government grants, may need to report to more than 10 different government agencies.
“The Charity Passport is the key to the ACNC’s ‘report once, use often’ framework, cutting down the amount of time charities spend on duplicative reporting to government.
“Through the passport, we can securely share information the ACNC collects from registered charities with authorised government agencies,” she said.
The ACNC says authorised government agencies that use the Charity Passport will have access to information about charities, including their contact details, registration information, charitable purpose and who benefits from their work, their size, activities, responsible persons, governance documents, and enforcement outcomes.
To date, it says the Charity Passport has been tested by two Commonwealth agencies and the ACNC is encouraging more government agencies and departments to sign up.
“The more agencies that sign up, the more charities will feel the benefits,” Pascoe said.
“Agencies that need information from charities in relation to Commonwealth grants would use the Charity Passport rather than asking the charity to provide the same information again, as outlined in the Commonwealth Grant Guidelines.
“When government agencies request information, charities may direct them to the ACNC to obtain information, such as governing documents or financial reports, that they have already provided to the ACNC.”
The ACNC says the Charity Passport is being deployed in two phases. The first phase uses a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) repository, where authorised government agencies can securely download the files they need, either using an FTP client or a web browser.
The second phase of the Charity Passport is scheduled for implementation at the end of 2014.
“It will improve integration with agencies’ IT systems, increase data currency and have additional functionality to improve the experience for agencies that use it,” Pascoe said.
More information about the ACNC Charity Passport is available at acnc.gov.au/charitypassport.
