Church Missionary Society Victoria Inc: charity review

This is review in the series ‘Members of Missions Interlink’, Missions Interlink being ‘the Australian network for global mission^[1]’.

‘Church Missionary Society (VIC) is one such Member, and an organisation that seeks donations online.

Both Members and Associates have to accept a set of standards, the introduction to which includes this statement:

This Member did not respond to a draft of this review.

The charities’ regulator, 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”:

1. Check the charity’s name.
2. Ask for identification from anyone seeking a donation.
3. Be careful of online requests for donations.
4. No tax deduction doesn’t mean the charity is not a legitimate one.
5. Find out more about how the charity says it uses donations.

Here’s the results for ‘Church Missionary Society (VIC)’^[2], with #5 supplemented by the essentials of the ACNC’s What should I consider when deciding which charity to support?^[3].

1.  A search on the ACNC Register of charities gives a charity, in a slightly different name, Church Missionary Society Victoria Inc (CMSV).

2. NA

3. The “web address begins with ‘https’ and there is a closed padlock symbol next to the web address in the address bar”, so the website is secure [the ACNC article above].

On the giving page there is no mention of the security of your information.

4. The Australian Business Register (linked from CMSV’s ACNC Register record), says that the charity is not entitled to receive tax deductible gifts. We have seen above, however, that CMSV is a ‘legitimate charity’.

This Register information does not match the information on the giving page:

This is because you are giving to another charity, Church Missionary Society – Australia Ltd. No explanation is given for this.

5. The audited account of how donations are used is the Financial Report 2018 on the ACNC Register. Within that there are two statements that this information. But you should first turn to the Notes to the accounts (Notes to the Financial Statements in this case) to check out the ‘Basis of preparation’.

Do you provide or give things to, receive things from, or have oversight of, or review, of CMSV^[4][vii]? Perhaps you intend to donate or are one of the donors who gave $1.54 million last year [Financial Report 2018]. If so, can you ring CMSV’s office and request that they prepare financial statements that answer the question or questions you have about the charity? I very much doubt it. You are therefore ‘potentially interested in the information provided in general purpose reports’^[5].

You are therefore in the wrong place – I only have access to the published accounts of CMSV, and the directors, with the agreement of the auditor^[6], in preparing special purpose statements, have implicitly said that you don’t exist:

So, the financial statements have not been drawn up to suit you.

Impact

The question of the impact of your donations is not addressed anywhere.

Please contact me if you need a more in-depth review.

1. https://missionsinterlink.org.au/about/ ↑
2. See here for my last review. ↑
3. 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? [A section in the article, Donating and Volunteering]. ↑
4. [vii] From Objective of General Purpose Financial Reporting (SAC2), www.aasb.gov.au:   ↑
5. From Objective of General Purpose Financial Reporting (SAC2), www.aasb.gov.au ↑
6. Jeffrey Tulk of Saward Dawson. I think both client and auditor are wrong in allowing the name of the auditor firm to appear prominently on the cover of the association’s accounts. ↑