As many of my readers will know, I’ve been
in the charity game for a long time as a volunteer and an employee. As the
general manager of a charity for seven years or so, I saw pretty much every
piece of paperwork that the organization needed to maintain to keep operating.
I also saw it increase over time, difficulties caused by forever changing
government departments or employees in those roles, political footballs and
corruption, you name it, it’s in Australia.
A few years ago I was reading an article
about the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission and how their new
strategies were going to cut red tape for charities and make life easier. I was
pretty excited; this was something that could really help. I signed up for the
emails and put my name down to participate in discussions. I didn’t have the
time really but this might actually pay off for the charity down the track so it was worth the investment for the sustainability of the organisation.
I duly logged on at the right time for
the live facebook chat with the ACNC, outpoured my heart about the difficulties of running a
charity in this day and age and how the responsibilities being put on the
charity were actually costing the charity thousands of dollars in bookkeeping and
legal fees and things were only increasing. How it would be so much easier if
our charity could bundle up all our legislative requirements into one easy
website or something. The demands on the volunteer treasurer were incredible.
The demands on the management were so much that we were forced to hire a full-time
manager. Attempts to find more volunteers to take on management roles was AND STILL IS futile because of this.
So the ACNC came up with the following…
well it’s not a solution, it’s an Annual Information Statement that all charities
now have to provide, or lose their charity status. You may call it regulation,
I call it blackmail, here’s why. The sentiment is essentially this “We
understand you need to report a lot, could you report how much you report so we
can understand how much everyone is reporting? By the way, if you don’t report, even if you don't have the resources to do so, we will revoke your charity status.” Let’s have a closer look at what they're asking for.
The information that the ACNC is
requesting that charities provide in their Annual Information Statement is
more or less a summary of the reports that the charity has already had to
provide in that year to other government agencies. I would like to emphasise
here “ALREADY HAD TO PROVIDE”. This means that under an inordinately long list
of regulatory requirements, charities have to provide annual reports,
statements, fees or otherwise to an ever-growing list of government agencies to
maintain licenses, permits and other regulated operating documentation. You can’t
just walk out your door and rescue, rehabilitate and release wildlife you know.
So all the information, bar a couple of minor questions about ‘how many hours
do you spend reporting’ are actually already given to the government via other
agencies, like the ATO. But instead of the ACNC finding their own resources to
get that information for themselves, they are forcing VOLUNTEERS in already administratively
overloaded charities to go back over their work throughout the year, duplicate
all their efforts, results and reports for the ACNC, OR SHUT DOWN. They are the
options for a charity in Australia these days. And I say THESE days because it’s
progressively getting worse.
Besides the fact that the majority of
charities wouldn’t exist if the government was actually capable of doing its
job, in this case said charities are left with a foul taste in their mouths and back-hand
from those who are supposed to help them. Only they're too afraid to say so. You
see, if the charity does not complete the ACNCs annual statement, they have
their charity status revoked.
Having had all my comments sidestepped or ignored on the
live facebook chat (which no doubt the ACNC chalked up as ‘community
consultation’ pfffft) I had a squeal on twitter. Within minutes I had a message
from the ACNC ‘We’d like to call you and talk, please provide your phone number”.
SURE! HERE IT IS!! An hour or so later my phone rang “Yes, this is the ACNC,
how can we help you?”. I said everything again to an entry level call-assistant who clearly had no idea what I was talking about. 'I'm sorry, I know I sound really emotional about this, I'm not directing this at you personally, but the ACNC aren't listening!!'. Still nothing. Then just today
David Locke, ACNC Assistant Commissioner posted on his twitter page a story
from India that told of how 90% of charities there did not submit an annual
information statement. I replied "I wonder if all of them lost their charity staus. #blackmail". To which David Locke said to me, “What a ridiculous statement”. David then blocked me when I put forward my argument. Thanks for reaching out buddy! CAN'T BLOCK ME HERE!!!
Actually it’s not ridiculous David
Locke, or Commissioner Susan Pascoe who also refuses to address my contact. It’s what just happened this year. http://www.probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2015/03/acnc-revokes-1300-charities
So, big thanks to the ACNC for making
our charity work that much more difficult by inventing not only a new annual
report to add to our list which duplicates almost every report we already do,
but by threatening to close us down if we don’t do it.
Enjoy the wildlife, that a charity you tried to shut down probably saved.
