INF Australia: charity review

This is a review in the series ‘Members of Missions Interlink. Missions Interlink is ‘the Australian network for global mission’ and a means for a Member to get income tax exemption when it might not otherwise be available^[1].

‘International Nepal Fellowship Australia’ is one such Member, and an organisation that seeks donations from the public.

Charity response

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

The member’s ‘Transparency & Accountability Policy’^[2] implies that they are open to feedback:

I sent them a draft of this review. Unlike last year, they did not respond.

Donors

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, and
5. Find out more about how the charity says it uses donations

Here’s the results for International Nepal Fellowship Australia^[3], with #5 supplemented by the essentials of the ACNC’s What should I consider when deciding which charity to support?^[4]

1.  With the addition of ‘The’, and some brackets, there is a registered^[5] charity in that name (INF Australia).  (They have registered the name they commonly use (‘INF Australia’).

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2.  There is nothing to indicate that INF Australia uses third-party (donation) collectors.

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3.  The web address does not begin with a closed padlock symbol, so the website is not secure [the ACNC article above^[6]].

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4.  All donations to INF Australia are tax-deductible.

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5.  The use of your donations

Objects / Mission (Purpose)

The website (towards the bottom here) says to go to the constitution:

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Activities

Here, from the website, is their description of what they did “In the last 12 months”:

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Sharing the Gospel? ^[7]

No.  INF Australia is a DGR recipient that gets grants from the government.

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Giving options online

Fifteen. Plus another that implies that there are yet others. See the dropdown in the middle here.

As INF Australia is collecting for overseas people and organizations, it would not be unreasonable for you to question why it would not be better for you to send your money direct to the recipient.

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Donations revenue

There is no further information given, so it is not possible to see how much was given for each of the above giving options (even in categories).

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Cash spent

This is the only information about where the cash went on operating activities (with the figures for last year in the second column):

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Resources consumed (i.e. accrual)

This is how that activities translated into expenses incurred:

Apart from two minor items (‘Community Education’ and ‘Non-Monetary Expenditure’), none of the terms are defined.

No connection with the giving options (see above) is given.

That IMF Australia think that more information is useful to donors is shown by the inclusion of this table (and other more detailed information) in the Annual Report 2017-18 [page 20]:

From the Directors’ Declaration [Financial Report 2018], these are the people responsible for this disclosure:

Richard Groves

Rudra Paudel

Matthew Johnson

Kerrie Worboys

William Hood

Catherine Clark

Nicola McGunnigle

With the exception of Upendra Singh, these directors are still on the board. Plus Ravindran Underwood and Richard Reeve have joined. The current directors are shown here.

Impact

‘Impact’ means the changes for the better in the beneficiaries as a result of INF Australia’s activities.

A search on ‘impact’ gave nothing systematic on the Australian website, and only this publication on the main INF website.

1. ↑
2. Put ‘site:inf.org transparency’ in your browser. ↑
3. See here for last year’s review. ↑
4. A section in the article, Donating and Volunteering:
   • 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?

   ↑

5. The ACNC implies, therefore, that it is a ‘legitimate’ charity. But this is not correct – as the ACNC itself points out, registration is voluntary. ↑
6. The ACNC’s information (in its article above) is out-of-date. ↑
7. ‘When Helping Hurts by Brian Fikkert and Steve Corbett says this about sharing the Gospel: ‘A host of contextual issues determine the best manner and the appropriate time to present the gospel verbally, particularly in militant Muslim or Hindu settings. But without such a presentation, it is not possible for people to be personally transformed in all their relationships, which is what poverty alleviation is all about [Kindle Locations 1262-1264, Moody Publishers]. ↑