Most New Australian Charities Focus on Children and Women

Nationally, more than half of the newly-registered charities in Australia are focused on children, with another 30 per cent working to assist women, according to new figures released today.

And the data analysed by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, the ACNC, about the first 1,000 charities that have registered since it was established in December last year, shows that almost 80 percent have annual revenue of less than $250,000, and just three board members.

“The new figures have resoundingly confirmed that small charities are the life-blood of the nation’s Not for Profit sector,” the ACNC said.

Medium charities (with revenue between $250,000 and $1 million per annum) and large charities (with revenue of more than $1 million) each made up 10 per cent of the remainder of newly registered charities.

In the Northern Territory, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people were the most commonly-nominated beneficiaries.

Seventy-three percent of new charities do not get any government grants, while just 0.8 per cent reported receiving 75 percent of their income that way, the figures revealed.

Forty-two percent received more than half of their income from donations, while 26 percent said they do not receive any donations.

Most of the new organisations had a single purpose, and that was education in 45 percent of cases.

In May, the ACNC released an analysis of the first 250 charities to register and has now compared the two sets of statistics.

The comparison showed that managing money is now the third most commonly-nominated activity, up two places from fifth.

The NT overtook Tasmania for newly-registered charities overall, while nationally newly-registered Public Benevolent Institutions appeared to be on the rise compared to Health Promotion Charities.

The ACNC’s full analysis will be available on www.acnc.gov.au, however some features of the data are:

• The highest number of charities that benefit people with a disability are based in Victoria, where they are the fourth most common beneficiary group, compared to fifth overall nationally

• Culture was the most commonly-listed activity for new charities in the NT

• Queensland had the highest number of new charities that work to protect animals

• One third of the charities that sought ACNC registration were established this year and two thirds were established in 2011 or after. Three have been operating for a century.

“The fact that in just eight months of operation  the ACNC has registered 1,000 organisations indicates that the Not for Profit sector is growing at a rate of more than 100 new charities each month,” ACNC Commissioner Susan Pascoe AM said.

The ACNC says the 1000th organisation registered by the ACNC was Joy of Life Christian Church, a charity based in NSW that also operates in the Philippines for the advancement of religion and to benefit the elderly, children, disaster victims and youth.