Reach Beyond: charity review

This is a review^[1] in the series ‘Members of Missions Interlink’, Missions Interlink being ‘the Australian network for global mission^[2]’. ‘Reach Beyond’ is one such member.

Reach Beyond does not invite feedback or complaints via its website.

I sent a draft of this review to the charity. For the fourth successive year, they did not respond. This is consistent with the lack of an invitation on its website to submit feedback or complaints, but perhaps not with their membership of Missions Interlink:

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

Donors

Reach Beyond is an organisation that seeks donations online. The charities’ regulator, 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 organisation’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.
5. Find out more about how the charity says it uses donations.

Here’s the results for ‘Reach Beyond’, with #5 supplemented by the essentials of the ACNC’s What should I consider when deciding which charity to support?^[3].

1.  A search on the ACNC Register of charities for ‘Reach Beyond’ brings up a charity in that name^[4].

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2.  Nothing on the Register or the website indicates that Reach Beyond uses door-to-door or street collectors.

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3.  Reach Beyond’s ‘Donate’ page ‘begins with ‘https’ and…there is a closed padlock symbol next to the website’s URL in the address bar”. The page says that ‘Protected by an industry-standard high grade 128bit encryption, using SSL technology’, with a Comodo logo underneath that (but the Comodo logo is not live.)

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4.  The ABN record says that no tax deduction is available for a donation to Reach Beyond. The ‘Donate’ page does not mention tax. But another page does:

Reach Beyond is nevertheless a legitimate charity.

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5.  The use of your donations

Objects / Mission

This mission does not explain these ‘short term objectives’, described in the Directors’ Report [Financial Report 2018]:

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Strategies/Activities

For the specific strategies current at October 2018, see page 2 of the Financial Report 2018.

Activities

See

1. ‘Reach Beyond in Australia’
2. ‘Kununurra Broadcast Facility’

^[5]

1. ‘Alta-1 Partnership’
   • Although described as partnership of two organisations with similar objects, isn’t this just Reach Beyond renting its old building to Alta-1?
2. ‘Melbourne Studios’

No description of what was done in 2018 was found^[6].

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Sharing the Gospel? ^[7]

In some of its programs, yes.

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Locations

Reach Beyond operates in Australia, per the ACNC Register, in Vic, Qld and WA. The reason for the inclusion of Qld could not be found.

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Giving options online

Other than ‘let us decide’, none given. (There is a free text box to insert an answer to ‘My donation is for’.)

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Donations revenue

The audited account of how donations are used is the Financial Report 2018 on the ACNC Register. Do you provide or give things to, receive things from, or have oversight of, or review, of Reach Beyond? Perhaps you intend to donate or are one of the donors who together gave $629K last year [AIS 2018]? Perhaps you are one of their 57 staff [AIS 2018], or are thinking of volunteering?^[8] If so, can you ring Reach Beyond’s office and request that they prepare financial statements that answer the question or questions you have about the charity? I very much doubt it. You are therefore ‘potentially interested in the information provided in general purpose reports’.

You are therefore in the wrong place – I only have access to the published accounts of Reach Beyond, and the directors, with the agreement of the auditor, have again said that you don’t exist:

Here, from the ACNC Register are the directors responsible for this decision^[9]:

Dale Stagg

David Solomon

Kenneth Lingwood

Paul Mock

Peter Letchford

Ronald Kooy

Stephen Coleman^[10]

The auditor is Matthew Hung, CA, of rdl.accountants.

So, the financial statements have not been drawn up to suit you.  Why, then, would you rely on them?

Should you still choose to do so, here is where the $629K donations went:

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Cash spent

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

^[11]

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Resources consumed (i.e. accrual)

The accrual section of the Report is an unordered and incorrectly classified list^[12], but here are the items that made double figures:

Salaries & Wages 260K

Kununurra Broadcast Facility 182K

Promotion & Advertising 95K

Depreciation of Fixed Assets^[13] 90K

Partnership Support 66K

Travel Expenses 36K

Insurance 26K

Superannuation 26K

Telephone 17K

Legal & Professional Fees 16K

Genesis Project 15K

• Neither ‘Partnership Support’ nor ‘Genesis Project’ are explained.
• There’s an expense account ‘Missionary medical costs’, so presumably the missionaries are employees?

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Impact^[14]

Reach Beyond acknowledges the need for reports on the effectiveness of its broadcast programs:

Anecdotal reports of changed lives are given in the News section of the website, but no systematic study of effectiveness or impact was found^[15]

Please contact me if you need a more in-depth review.

1. http://tedsherwood.com/reach-beyond-charity-review/ ↑
2. https://missionsinterlink.org.au/about/ ↑
3. 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? [A section in the article, Donating and Volunteering]. ↑

4. Although Reach Beyond is a company, it has met the requirements to register without ‘Ltd’/’Limited’ on the end of its name. (This renders the registered business name unnecessary.) ↑
5. https://www.reachbeyond.org.au/new-b18-broadcast-schedule/ ↑
6. The AIS 2018 description, contrary to what the ACNC expects, is not particularly about 2018, and the ‘Annual Report’ on the Register is the same report as the Financial Report 2018. ↑
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]. ↑
8. From Objective of General Purpose Financial Reporting (SAC2), www.aasb.gov.au ↑ ↑
9. The website shows the same people. ↑
10. The board is accountable to the members. There were 96 members at 30 June 2018. ↑
11. Although this level of disclosure may be compliant with the letter of the applicable Accounting Standard ( AASB 107), it is not consistent with either the intent of the Standard and paragraphs 14 and 19, or what is reasonable to expect from a major Christ-led charity that is reporting a true and fair view. ↑
12. There are other issues with the statements, for example, $2.72 million of unidentified ‘Plant & Equipment’, ‘Leasehold Improvements’ on an unspecified property, the unexplained $362K ‘IBF Development’, the unexplained ‘Support Payable’, the unexplained ‘Farm Receipts’, and a negative figure for ‘Employee Entitlements’ expense. ↑
13. The majority of the depreciation is on a class of Property, Plant & Equipment called ‘Plant & Equipment’. This asset is unidentified – as are ‘Leasehold improvements’ and ‘IBF Development’.↑
14. Unfortunately, the ACNC appears to have removed this article: ↑
15. Reach Beyond receives ‘regular reports of the effectiveness of [its] broadcasts from [its] partners’ [Directors’ Report, Financial Report 2018, page 2]. ↑