Archived: Crossculture Church of Christ Inc: mini-charity review

Mini charity review of Crossculture Church of Christ Inc (CCC) as an organisation that seeks donations online. (Including the answers to the questions that the Australian charity regulator, the ACNC, suggests that you ask.)

Is it responsive to feedback?

• When sent a draft of this review, they…did not respond.

Is CCC registered?

• As a charity, yes.
• Other registrations:
  • As a Victorian incorporated association (VIC A0050619R).
  • They routinely use less than their full name, thus contravening the business names legislation and, most likely, sometimes also their enabling (associations) legislation.

What do they do?

• See their description.

Do they share the Gospel?

• Yes

What impact are they having?

• No information found.
  • If they produce an annual report or review, it is not published.

What do they spend outside the costs directly incurred in delivering the above impact, that is, on administration?

• There is no ‘Statement of Comprehensive Income’ or similar included in the Financial Report, just a ‘Statement of Income and Expenditure’ for two of the five ‘segments’ of CCC.

Can you get a tax deduction?

• No

Is their online giving secure?

• PayPal is used, so yes.
  • Online giving is only offered for the General Fund.

What choices do you have in how your donation is used?

• ‘General Account’
• ‘Missions Account’
• ‘Building Account’
  • The relationship between this collection and the separate charity, Crossculture School Building Fund, is nowhere explained.
• ‘Development Account’
  • Likewise, with this Account and the separate charity, Crossculture Development Foundation Ltd.

Is their reporting up-to-date?

• Yes. (Five months after year end.)

Does their reporting comply with the regulator’s requirements?

• AIS 2015: No
  • The financial statements are not ‘general purpose financial statements’, as stated here, but the ones produced to a lower standard, ‘special purpose financial statements’.
  • The figures for the ‘Income Statement’ are not the figures for CCC, but one of its ‘segments’.
  • There are no outcomes given.
• Financial Report 2015: No
  • There is no mention of the two charities that they control (Crossculture School Building Fund and Crossculture Development Foundation Ltd).
  • There is no ‘Statement of Comprehensive Income’, or similar.
  • There is no ‘Statement of Changes in Equity’, or similar.
  • ‘Property, Plant & Equipment’ is not divided into classes, and buildings are not depreciated.
  • There is no ‘Responsible Persons’ Declaration’.
  • There is no audit report.
  • The Notes to the Financial statements are incomplete.
  • By any reasonable interpretation, a church with a multi-million-dollar turnover and that controls two other charities is a reporting entity, and should therefore produce financial statements that comply with all the Accounting Standards.

What financial situation was shown in that Report?

• Because of the issues with the Financial Report (see above), I make no comment.

What did the auditor say about the last financial statements?

• No audit report is included in the Financial Report.

If a charity, is their page on the ACNC Register complete?

• No.
  • Only one ‘responsible person’ is shown.
  • No constitution has been lodged.

Who are the people controlling the organisation?

• ‘Responsible Persons’ on the ACNC Register shows only one person, Chuang, Kong.
• The pastors are shown here, but to what extent these people are also the committee required by the associations legislation cannot be checked because CCC has not lodged its constitution. The one ‘responsible person’ is not a pastor.

To whom is CCC accountable?

• To Missions Interlink[1] via their Associate membership.
• They are also accountable to the ACNC, and the Victorian associations regulator.

1. For one opinion on the strength of that accountability, see the section Activities in this review. ↑