The recent story about something that appears to be endemic at YWAM ‘bases’ prompted us to look at how much YWAM had going on in Australia.

City Ventures Ltd is one of the two charities discovered when looking at the 27 charities they have registered in Australia that come up in a search of the register of charities on ‘YWAM’ or ‘Youth With a Mission’.

One of those 27 charities is one with the same name as City Ventures Ltd, except with the addition of ‘YWAM’.

This is a review of City Ventures Ltd (City Ventures 2).

City Ventures 2 has no website of its own. It’s address and emails on the Register suggest that it is part of another YWAM, YWAM Medical Ships – Australia Ltd (Ships)^[1]. Three of its four directors are also directors of Ships. Including the Managing Director of Ships, Ken Mulligan^[2].

What does City Ventures 2 do?

The only official information we have is what they have put on the Register:

1.   Its ‘Summary of activities’:

This merely restates the first of its ‘primary objects’ in its constitution [the ACNC Register]. And the Annual Information Statement (AIS) 2019 repeats this.

2.  It operates only in Queensland.

3.  ‘Who the charity helps’ says ‘Other charities’.

4.  It says that it is known as ‘Pizza Central Townsville’, but if that is a pizza shop, then that’s not helping other charities.

• Trip Adviser says that there is such a pizza shop. But ASIC’s registers show that the business name ‘Pizza Central’ was cancelled.
• The same registers show that City Ventures 2 does hold a business name though:

YWAM Café Central appears to be a ministry of Ships. Reinforcing the belief that City Ventures Ltd is controlled by Ships.

What do they spend their money on?

Their first year was 2018. The accounts for that year show revenue of $897K, expenses of exactly $30K, and the balance (plus $40 of ‘issued capital’), held as ‘Funds on trust’. This makes no sense for a café (no explanation is given).

The state of the accounts means that it is hard not to conclude that both the declaration by the directors and the opinion by the auditor (Greg Redington of Coutts Redington) were incorrect.

City Ventures 2 are now classified as a ‘Small’ charity, so no Financial Report 2019 was required. However, there is some financial information in their AIS 2019:

No sales

The only revenue: $902 in donations

Equity unchanged from the previous year ($867K) – which contradicts basic bookkeeping

The directors

It is likely that the directors responsible for the AIS 2019 are the same as the current directors:

Jared Hoover

Rebekah Hoover

Kenneth Mulligan

Robyn Mulligan

These are two YWAM staff couples. This lack of accountability is typical for YWAMs, documented by us in reviews, and recently by Ministry Watch.

City Ventures 2’s response

We sent them a draft of this review. ‘YWAM Medical & Training Ship -Campus’ sent this response:

We have received the copy of your draft review and have passed it on to our auditors, who are currently in the process of reviewing your claims.  Upon the completion of that review in due course, we will consider any issues raised and make relevant changes if appropriate. 

We invite anyone with bona fide interest in our charitable work to contact us directly.

Reviewer’s response

The ability for a donor to contact City Ventures 2 does not invalidate the expectation that the charity have the information on the ACNC’s public register that the ACNC expects.

1. An Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) Member.  You can see the latest review of that charity here. ↑
2. Ken is a director of eight other YWAM registered charities. That’s nearly one third of all YWAM charities. ↑