News shorts: Reporting reminder, new grants to help young people and action on homelessness

All the news you need to know from around the sector.

Stay on top of reporting obligations

The ACNC is reminding charities operating on a standard financial year that their 2022 Annual Information Statement (AIS) is now overdue. Charities should log into the Charity Portal to submit their statement to avoid potential penalties.

If your charity operates on a calendar year (1 January to 31 December), you have until 30 June to submit your 2022 AIS.

The commissioner is also reminding charities to ensure they are collecting information about related party transactions.

“These transactions are not necessarily a problem but can give rise to conflicts of interest and may not be in a charity’s best interests. It is important those who run charities – such as CEOs, directors and committee members – manage them well. Under Governance Standard 5, charity leaders cannot misuse their position; they must take steps to disclose any actual or perceived conflict of interest and ensure finances are managed responsibly,” the commissioner writes.

“Many charities already keep records of related party transactions. What’s new is the requirement for all charities to report them to us annually, from the 2023 Annual Information Statement (AIS) onwards.”

Read more about your reporting requirements online.

Guide Dogs Australia wants your views

Guide Dogs Australia wants to hear from people with low vision or blindness in a major national survey to better understand the voice of the community, their challenges, issues and achievements.

The survey is open to all Australians with low vision or blindness over the age of 18, whether a Guide Dogs client or not. The survey closes on Sunday 19 March and can either be completed via an accessibility tested online survey, or over the phone. In recognition of the time taken to complete the survey, 10 randomly selected participants will be offered a $200 Visa gift card.

Results from the survey will influence service delivery, inform advocacy campaigns, and support the ways Guide Dogs strives to shape policy and more. Results will be made available mid-year on the Guide Dogs Australia website.

For more information, visit the Guide Dogs Australia website.

Housing campaign launched

Launch Housing has unveiled Melbourne Zero, a new campaign to end homelessness in Melbourne.

The campaign encourages people to take small but meaningful actions to end homelessness.

Launch Housing has been joined by a number of partners as part of the Melbourne Zero Network, an alliance of diverse Melbourne-based businesses, brands, organisations and community groups, publicly calling for change and taking practical steps on homelessness.

Visit the website to find out more.

VFFF backs the future

The Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation is launching its Queensland Backing the Future grant round, awarding one-off $50,000 grants to 10 individuals who are supporting young people in rural and regional Queensland.

Grant recipients will spend 12 months researching, developing and/or accelerating an early-stage idea aligned to one or more of VFFF’s four focus areas: caring for the environment, contributing to society, decent work and exploring Christian faith and values. The funding will cover salary, start up or project costs.

Grants are only open to individuals, not to registered charities or established organisations or individuals seeking support for scholarships, public fundraising appeals, disaster appeals, political projects, litigation and/or political lobby groups.

Applications close Friday 3 March, and more information is available online.

Humanitix donates big again

New Year’s festival-goers helped donate a quarter of a million dollars to good causes thanks to Humanitix.

The 2022 Beyond the Valley festival partnered for the first time with Humanitix as its official ticketing platform. More than 30,000 people attended the festival, donating $250,000 though booking fees.

The majority of that money will go to Yalari, an organisation which provides Indigenous children from regional, rural and remote communities across the country the opportunity to receive a full boarding school scholarship for their entire secondary education.

Sparkways celebrates milestone

Melbourne not for profit Sparkways will mark 140 years of empowering children and young people in 2023.

Originally known as the TRY Society, the organisation is the brainchild of William Mark Forster, a successful and well-connected clothing merchant and philanthropist, who was concerned for the plight of under-privileged children left behind by a rapidly expanding Melbourne society in the late 19th century.

It began running cutting-edge initiatives like lectures for young people on health and wellbeing, or lessons on boot repair and shorthand. It moved into early childhood education with a kindergarten in the 1990s, and then into mentoring and job skills training.

It changed its name in 2021, in recognition of the fact that simply trying, in today’s society, is no longer enough.

To mark 140 years Sparkways will conduct events both internally and externally throughout the year and give Victorians a look at the people both past and present, whose lives were changed by their association with Sparkways and TRY.