INTHEBLACK November 2021 - Magazine - Page 60
F E AT U R E
// C H A R I TA B L E O U T R E A C H
Above: Participants at the
Maybank Women
Eco-Weavers Exhibition in
2018
Left: Dr Gary Johns,
Australian Charities and
Not-for-profits Commission
“We have never before been in a situation where
we had to ask for the fundraising to be redirected.”
Right: The Maybank
Eco-Weavers program
is an economic
independence initiative
that aims to promote
the art of traditional
textile weaving while
encouraging ethical
and sustainable
industry practices.
ANDREW MACDONALD, NEW SOUTH WALES RFS AND BRIGADES DONATIONS TRUST
The New South Wales RFS issue generated
much discussion about the way major charities
distribute their donations. Dr Gary Johns,
commissioner of the Australian Charities and
Not-for-profits Commission, subsequently
undertook a review of the Australian Red
Cross, WIRES and the New South Wales RFS
to determine how they had operated in the
aftermath of the fires.
“We undertook a review of the three
charities, and the test was to see if they had
managed the money according to the deeds
of the trust,” Johns explains. “While there
were people arguing that the money they
had donated hadn’t gone where they wanted
it to, we found that all three acquitted
themselves in accordance with the trust.
“My advice to any organisation planning
on supporting a charity is to do your
homework and understand what the cause
is and then plan for a long-term strategy of
philanthropic giving,” he adds.
Johns oversees 58,000 charities and says
having a thorough understanding of a
charitable organisation prior to investment
is crucial to meeting corporate responsibility
targets. “We developed a register over the
past two years – The Charity Marketplace
60 ITB November 2021
– that will let potential donors or partners
see what a charity is spending its money
on. You can access the register and see what
programs they are running,” Johns says.
Visibility of the work that charities
undertake is a priority for Johns, who has
encouraged charities on the register to
provide information in their annual reports
and financial statements on where they have
received grant funding from and how they
are spending it.
“It is not a compliance issue, but we are
encouraging charities to be clear about
where the money is coming from and where
it is being directed,” he says. “There are so
many causes to support that providing clear
information is going to help CEOs and
CFOs decide which one they will support.”
SUPPORTING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
In Australia alone, 4.43 million individual
taxpayers claimed a total of A$3.75 billion
as tax-deductible donations in 2017-2018,
compared with 4.52 million claiming
A$3.48 billion in 2016-2017. This is
consistent with trends over the past
decade that show that, while the number
of Australians who are giving to charity is
declining, the amount they are donating is
growing, according to the latest data.
Many businesses are also committed to
philanthropic efforts. It is a cornerstone
of corporate social responsibility and
is increasingly an expectation of key
stakeholders, such as customers and
employees.
In 2015-2016, Australian businesses
gave A$17.5 billion to charities and notfor-profits, of which A$7.7 billion went
to community partnerships, A$6.2 billion
to donations and A$3.6 billion to noncommercial sponsorships.
Following the outbreak of COVID-19,
many businesses dug deep.
The 2020 GivingLarge Report, by
Strive Philanthropy, shows Australia’s top
50 companies invested A$1.1 billion into
philanthropic causes in 2020 – an increase
of A$155 million or 17 per cent compared
to 2019 figures.
While the volume of charitable donations
has increased, the nature of corporate
philanthropy is changing too, evolving from
donations to long-term strategic planning
for sustainable initiatives that have a real
impact on changing people’s lives.