Operation Mobilisation Australia Ltd (OM): its impact
Care: At least some of the information about this charity is no longer current. Use the ‘Search charity names’ box to see if there is a later review. If the latest review has a message like this, you are welcome to make your case for an updated review via email to ted@businessbythebook.com.au.
This is a review for donors of the charity OM. It uses the information they have put on the charity regulator’s website (the ACNC Register) and the information on their own website. (But not their other website – see the next paragraph.)
Note that
Keep these things in mind as you are assessing ‘properly’ (see below).
Impact – intended
The ACNC has previously – the Fact Sheet is no longer on the site – said that ‘If you are donating to a charity, you may wish to make sure that your donation is creating the greatest impact possible.’[1] They don’t currently explain ‘impact’ on their website, but this is how they explained it in the same publication:
“Every charity has a mission that is associated with producing a public benefit. As this mission is pursued, the changes produced in individuals and their communities can be referred to as the charity’s ‘impact.’[2]
If you are a Christian, then the Bible supports this idea of producing ‘the greatest impact possible’. God requires us to be a good steward of the resources He has provided us (e.g. 1 Corinthians 4:2)[3]. To do this, we need to have discernment (e.g., Proverbs 1:5[4]).
Therefore, unless we are giving just to make ourselves feel better, we should have an interest in seeing that the money we are giving is likely to be used not only properly but also with ‘the greatest impact possible’.
Everything OM is doing may be being done ‘properly’[5], but unless the money is producing the change in people that the charity intends (i.e., an impact[6]), the money would be better used elsewhere. And the same applies if the impact is less than is being achieved by another charity.
OM seeks money to do the first five of the things below:
It spent $2.77 million last year[7]. The employees, 36 of them, cost it $2.17 million. What is the impact they wanted from the things they did (above), and the effort put in by their employees? What impact did they achieve?
Impact achieved
OM have a dedicated report on impact, Impact Report 2019. But apart from a few stories of individuals by the Australian missionaries, this doesn’t report what the changes in people and communities resulted from the OM work.
OM’s response
We sent them a draft of this review. They…did not respond.
[This review changed to new format 23 January 2021; content unchanged.]
There is no reason to expect that this is not still their view. ↑
Again, there is no reason to expect that this is not their current view. ↑
And holds us accountable for their use (Luke 16:1-9). ↑
See also Proverbs 14:15 and Prov 19:2. ↑
The behaviour of its people, its use of money, and how it goes about its business. See here for our last review that covers much of this area. ↑
The ACNC has previously – the Fact Sheet is no longer on the site – explained impact this way:“Every charity has a mission that is associated with producing a public benefit. As this mission is pursued, the changes produced in individuals and their communities can be referred to as the charity’s ‘impact.’ If you are donating to a charity, you may wish to make sure that your donation is creating the greatest impact possible.’There is no reason why this wouldn’t still be their view. ↑
Apart from a breakup of the depreciation and the disclosure of contributions to defined super funds, here is the only information they give in the Financial Report 2019 for how their resources were consumed:
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