Anglicord Limited/Anglican Overseas Aid charity review
Care: At least some of the information about this charity is no longer current. Use the ‘Search charity names’ box to see if there is a later review. If the latest review has a message like this, you are welcome to make your case for an updated review via email to ted@businessbythebook.com.au.
This is review in the series ‘Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) Members’. ACFID ‘is the peak body for Australian non government organisations (NGOs) involved in international development and humanitarian action.’ It requires Members to adhere to a Code of Conduct. ‘Anglican Overseas Aid’ is one such Member.
Donors
The name in the ACFID membership list links to the website for ‘Anglican Overseas Aid Anglicord’. Here they seek donations from the public.
The ACNC, in their article, Donating to Legitimate Charities, gives “some things to consider to help you make sure your donation is going where it is intended”:
- Check the charity’s name.
- Ask for identification from anyone seeking a donation.
- Be careful of online requests for donations.
- No tax deduction doesn’t mean the charity is not a legitimate one, and
- Find out more about how the charity says it uses donations.
Here’s the results for ‘Anglican Overseas Aid Anglicord’, with #5 supplemented by the essentials of the ACNC’s What should I consider when deciding which charity to support?[1]
1. There’s no charity registered in the name ‘Anglican Overseas Aid Anglicord’. But a search on ‘Anglican Overseas Aid’ gives a registered charity in the name Anglicord Limited (AOA). This is because AOA has recorded ‘Anglican Overseas Aid’ as a name by which it is also known[2].
- Anglicord Limited is the company’s former name; it is now registered as Anglicord [ASIC].
_______________________________________________________
2. There is nothing to suggest from its website that AOA raises funds door-to-door or in public places.
_________________________________________________________
3. The web address begins with a closed padlock symbol, so the website is secure [the ACNC article above]. The donation page says that you can donate securely and the paymentexpress logo is down the bottom.
________________________________________________________
4. The AOA ABN record says that it is entitled to receive tax-deductible gifts. ‘All donations to AOA of $2 and over are Tax Deductible’ is near the top of the giving page.
_________________________________________________________
5. The use of your donations
As context, here, from the website, it what AOA does.
The audited account of how a charity uses donations is the Financial Report 2019.
Cash spent
From the Statement of Cash Flows (with last year in the second column):
No further information is given on this figure, so we don’t have enough information to understand where the cash went.
Resources consumed (i.e. accrual)
This, from the Statement of Profit or Loss and Other Comprehensive Income, is how the activities translated into expenses (with last year’s figures in the second column):
- There is no further information on ‘Project transfers’, 49% of expenses, the largest item.
- There is no explanation of the unusual item ‘Movement in Project Liabilities for year’. Including why a negative figure is included in expenses.
- ‘Other operating expenses’, $269K is too large to be unexplained.
There is nothing in the Financial Report 2019 on how AOA ensures that (a) the money reaches the overseas organisation, and (b) it is used for the purposes given.
Other issues with the Financial Report
- Comprehensive Income is not shown.
- A commitment to pay funds designated for particular projects after year-end, ‘Project funds unexpended’, 80% of current liabilities, does not make them liabilities [Notes 1 and 9].
- ‘Leasehold improvements (with a total incorrectly labelled ‘office equipment’) have had a zero balance for the last two years. If they are still in use, they should be written back [Note 8].
- ‘The Anglican Diocese of Melbourne’ supplies the CEO for free. Why isn’t it identified as a related party? [Notes 13 and 16].
Directors
These are the people responsible for the Financial Report:
Carolyn Sandiford[3] [Directors’ Report]
Compared to what is required by the constitution [ACNC Register], the board was one member short here. The required number, 12, are shown on the website though.
The ACNC Register is different again. But it includes Robert Mitchell (the CEO) and Susan Riley (Finance and Administration Manager) as directors.
Nothing recent and systematic on impact found.
Charity response
At AOA, they ‘value your views’. We sent a draft of this review to them, at aoa@anglicanoverseasaid.org.au (which is both the address for feedback and the address on the ACNC Register), on 18 April 2020. By the time of publication, two and a half weeks later, they had not responded.
- A section in the article, Donating and Volunteering:
- Focus on the nature of the charity’s work, its beneficiaries and the impact the charity is having in the community.
- Is it clear what the charity is trying to achieve and how its activities work towards its objectives?
- Would you like to spend your money, or time if volunteering, to support these objectives?
- Is the charity being transparent about its activities?
- They have registered it as a business name. ↑
- The board is accountable to the members. The usual disclosure of the number of directors is absent from the Directors’ Report. ↑