Archived: Asian Outreach Australia Limited, charity review

This is a charity review, a review for those with an interest in the Australian charity Asian Outreach Australia Limited (AO).

It is structured according to the charity’s entry on the ACNC[i]Register, and its purpose is to supply some information extra to what is there, information that may be helpful in your decision about AO.

It is up to you to decide whether any or all of the information presented here is what you need in order to make that decision, and whether you should seek any other information, either from the charity itself or from other sources.

Ministry response

• Prior to publishing this review, I sent my observations to the charity, on 23 March 2016, and invited them to comment. They did not respond.

Organisation of this review

• The first part of this review is organised according to the headings in the Register entry. This is how to use this section of the review:
  • For each heading in the register entry, first read the information under that heading.
  • Then check if that heading is included below. (Headings for which there is no comment are not included.)
• Then there is a section Membership of accountability organisations claimed.

Sources

• ACNC Register (including links)
• Google search on the charity’s name.
• AO website.
• Social media: FaceBook only. Not on LinkedIn.
• State government fundraising licence registers.
• No reviews on Glassdoor yet.

REGISTRATION DETAILS

Entity Subtype

• A subtype consistent with sharing the Gospel.
• The objects do not include sharing the Gospel.

CHARITY DETAILS

Legal Name

• AO is a company limited by guarantee.
• As it doesn’t have the necessary provisions in its constitution, it is not entitled to omit ‘Limited/Ltd’ when it uses its company name.

Other Name(s)

• The trading name Asian Outreach Australia should be here; however, in the absence of a business name, AO cannot trade under anything less than its full name.
  • As it currently does on its website (Asian Outreach Australia), and on FaceBook (Australian Outreach Australia – AOA).

Charity Address for Service

• I have no reason to believe that this doesn’t work.

Charity ABN

• No tax deduction is claimable for a donation to AO.
• However, you can get one if you want to donate to the community development work conducted by their ‘strategic partner’ called ‘the bright road’. No link is given though.
  • ‘the Bright Road project’ is a business name belonging to ActionLove Australia (Overseas Aid) Inc. Although not a charity itself, it is the trustee of one, ActionLove Australia Overseas Aid Fund, that has Deductible Gift Recipient status.
    • The directors of AO are also the directors of this trustee.  And it has the same Charity Street Address, Charity Address for Service, and Email as AO.
      • This suggests a closer relationship than ‘strategic partners’.  Is one consolidated financially with the other?
    • There is no Financial Report on the Register.

Charity Street Address

• No postal address on the website.

Email

• I have no reason to believe that this doesn’t work.
• An alternative address, from the website: contact@asianoutreach.org.au

Phone

• No phone number on the website.
• From www.connectingup.org: (02) 9417 0500

Website

• From the Google search: www.asianoutreach.org.au.

ANNUAL REPORTING

• AIS 2014
  • This is AO’s compulsory Annual Information Statement 2014 (AIS 2014).
  • It was lodged six months after year end, one day before the maximum time allowed.
  • It gives basic financial information. Note that
    • AO says that it uses cash accounting; its figures for assets and liabilities therefore came from outside the (double entry) accounting system, and
    • although AO reports that it had no employees, it nevertheless shows ‘Employee expenses/payments’.
  • The AIS 2014 information is all you’ve got:
    • Because of its size AO doesn’t have to lodge a Financial Report.
      • Although AO is a member of Missions Interlink[ii], and one of their requirements is that members ‘have available for its members and supporters a clear and appropriate financial statement which has been approved by its auditor [Standards Statement, 4.1], they
        • did not choose to lodge one voluntarily, and
        • did not respond to my request for a copy of this ‘statement’.
      • I have therefore been unable to review the latest report.

ABOUT THE CHARITY

• Statement of Faith
  • Not on the website.
  • In the Memorandum of Association (see Charity’s Document (sic), below).
    • Not charismatic in theology. 

Date Established

• No history found.

Who the Charity Benefits

• Vision and Mission
  • Nothing explicit found, but there’s an “AOA exists to” statement here.
• Activities (What did AO do?)
  • From the Description of charity’s activities and outcomes in the AIS 2014:
    • Financial support and visitation of volunteers in Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia.
      • Not particular to 2014?
  • See Ministries and, via here, Projects.
• Outcomes (What did AO deliver?)
  • AO did not respond to the request in the AIS 2014 for a description of its outcomes.
  • Nothing systematic found on the website.
  • There’s a smattering of anecdotal evidence under News/Blog on the home page, but only since 22 September 2015, and then not always about Australian projects.
• Impact (How were people’s lives improved?)
  • Nothing systematic.
  • There’s a smattering of anecdotal evidence under News/Blog on the home page, but only since 22 September 2015, and then not always about Australian projects.

Size of Charity

• If there were a size smaller than ‘Small’ AO would no doubt qualify.

Financial Year End

• This means that the next financial report is due by 30 June 2016. Before that the financial information on the Register will be up to 18 months out-of-date.
  • You may therefore need to ask for more up-to-date information.

WHERE THE CHARITY OPERATES

Operating State(s)[ii]

• AO does not have a fundraising licence in this state.
• AO calls for donations on its website.
  • It doesn’t have a fundraising licence in any of the other six states that have a licensing regime.
    • Apart from exemptions, whether it needs such a licence depends on whether they think that AO, by calling for donations publicly, is ‘fundraising’ in their territory.

CHARITY’S DOCUMENT (SIC)

• This document consists of a Memorandum of Association and an Articles of Association, the two documents that were long ago replaced by a constitution for new companies and companies who had these documents but wanted to amend their rules.
  • Both documents are unsigned.
• There is no Annual Report/Review available on the ACNC Register.
  • Nor on the website.

RESPONSIBLE PERSONS

No. of Australian ‘responsible person’ positions[iii]

Peter Chandra                       This function was not working at the time of publication

Samuel Uthayan Richards

Valarie Richards

Andrew George Chisholm

Brian Lonsdale Birkett

• These directors are also the directors of ActionLove Australia (Overseas Aid) Inc.
• If Samuel and Valarie are married, there is an argument that the board should at least be expanded.
• Under ‘Position’, to comply with the constitution,
  • Deputy chairperson should be Vice-Chairman, and
  • there should be a Secretary and a Treasurer.

(End of review of the ACNC Register information)

Membership of accountability organisations claimed

• None claimed. AO is, however, a member of Missions Interlink.

(End of review)

[i] Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, Australia’s national regulator of charities.

[ii] This is how the ACNC explains ‘operating locations’ in their application guide: ‘You need to give details about where in Australia your organisation conducts (or plans to conduct) its activities.’

[iii] Because of the possibility of two (or more) directors having the same name on the register of responsible persons, it is not possible to be definitive about the number of directorships held.