Archived: Global Frontier Missions: charity review

This is a charity review of Global Frontier Missions (GFM), an organisation that is an Associate member of Missions Interlink, and, if the situation last year holds^[1], solicits donations online. (Including the answers to the questions that the Australian charity regulator, the ACNC, suggests that you ask.)

You can read the previous review here.

Are they responsive to feedback?

• The webpage for Australia was not available to check for feedback and complaint invitations, or comments on accountability and transparency.
• I sent them a draft of this review. Like last year, they…did not respond.

Is GFM registered?

• Yes, as a charity.
  • Not to be confused with another charity with almost the same name, Global Frontier Incorporated.
• An association, but not incorporated.
  • This means that GFM cannot enter contracts in its own name.
• In its Annual Information Statement (AIS) 2017, GFM says that it doesn’t intend to fundraise ‘in the next reporting period’. This explains the continued absence of a fundraising licence in New South Wales (per the ACNC Register, the only state in which GFM operates).

What does GFM do?

• From ‘activities’ in the Annual Information Statement (AIS) 2017:
  • We run an internship in India once a year. This involves training to nationals. We take a maximum of 4 students to India where we teach nationals in church principles. We also travel to rural areas to learn from the locals and about the local work in the church.

Do they share the Gospel^[2]?

• It is not required by its constitution:
  • Training and Mobilising (sic) the church while meeting felt needs in the community to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
• There is insufficient information available to say whether they do.

What impact are they having?

• No information found.

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

• There is insufficient information available to say.

Do they pay their board members?

• It is not prohibited by its constitution.
• There is insufficient information available to say.

Can you get a tax deduction?

• No

Is their online giving secure?

• The webpage was not available.

Where were the (net) donations sent?

• NA – donations were spent on the one employee (AIS 2017) and ‘Other expenses/payments’, and not, and apart from $32 (not $32K), on ‘Grants and donations made for use outside Australia’ (AIS 2017).

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

• The webpage was not available.

Is their reporting up-to-date?

• Yes – but a month late, which made it eight months after their year-end.

Does their reporting comply with the regulator’s requirements?

• AIS 2017: Yes
• Financial Report 2017: Yes
  • GFM didn’t, because of its small size, have to submit a Financial Report. And it chose not to submit one voluntarily.
  • But their Associate membership of Missions Interlink requires them to “have available for [their] members and supporters a clear and appropriate financial statement which has been approved by its auditor.”  So just ask.

What financial situation was shown in that Report?

• NA

What did the auditor say about the last financial statements?

• NA.
  • There is no requirement for an audit in the constitution.

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

• No
  • There still no ‘Entity Subtype’.
  • Is there really only one ‘responsible person’?
  • ‘Phone’ is still blank (but is not compulsory).

Who are the people controlling the organisation?

• The constitution requires a minimum of three members, but there’s only one on the ACNC Register:
  • David Czapala.
    • Is it this David Czapala?

To whom is GFM accountable?

• As a charity, to the ACNC.
• To Missions Interlink via its Associate membership.
  • For one opinion on the strength of that accountability, see the section Activities in this review.

1. The website linked from the Missions Interlink gave a ‘This page isn’t working’ message. ↑
2. “Good living and social concern are important [to the cause of evangelism], but they are not uniquely Christian graces…I’ve met a lot of fine Hindus, Muslims and atheists. Just living the life is not going to bring someone to Christ. There is much more to it than that. We must help people, certainly, but we must also share with them why we are motivated to do so. We must stand against injustice, poverty and need, but we must at the same time point to the One who brings justice and who can meet the deepest need. Until they know our reasons, how can they come to know our Lord?” [Dan Armstrong, the Fifth Gospel: The Gospel According to You, Anzea Books, pp. 13-14. ↑