Archived: ReachAcross, charity review

This is a charity review, a review for those with an interest in the Australian charity ReachAcross (RA).

It is structured according to the charity’s entry on the ACNC[i]Register, and its purpose is to supply some information extra to what is there, information that may be helpful in your decision about RA.

It is up to you to decide whether any or all of the information presented here is what you need in order to make that decision, and whether you should seek any other information, either from the charity itself or from other sources.

Ministry response

Prior to publishing this review, I sent my observations to the charity, on 12 March 2016, and invited them to comment. The same day, they said that the review was accurate, and second, showed a commitment to produce compliant financial statements.

Organisation of this review

• The review is organised according to the headings in the Register entry.
  • For each heading in the register entry, first read the information under that heading.
  • Then check if that heading is included below. (Headings for which there is no comment are not included.)

Sources

• ACNC Register (including links)
• Google search on the charity’s name.
• RA’s part of the international website. On neither FaceBook nor LinkedIn. No social or other media links on the website.
• State government fundraising licence registers.
• No reviews yet on Glassdoor.

REGISTRATION DETAILS

Entity Subtype

• A subtype consistent with sharing the Gospel.
• There are no purposes or objects in the constitution.

CHARITY DETAILS

Legal Name

• RA is an unincorporated association.

Charity ABN

• Tax deductibility: Your donation to RA will not attract a tax deduction.

Charity Street Address

• Postal address, from the website. GPO Box 3302 Sydney NSW 2001

Phone

• No number on the website.
• Not in www.whitepages.com.au.

Website

• From a Google search: http://au.reachacross.net/.

ANNUAL REPORTING

• AIS 2014
  • This is RA’s compulsory Annual Information Statement 2014 (AIS 2014).
• Financial Report 2014
  • As a ‘Small’ charity, RA doesn’t have to submit a Financial Report.
  • As a Basic Religious Charity it doesn’t even have to include financial information in its AIS.
  • However, RA is a member of Missions Interlink[ii], and one of their requirements is that members ‘have available for its members and supporters a clear and appropriate financial statement which has been approved by its auditor [Standards Statement, 4.1].
    • There is no ‘financial statement’ on the website.
    • I asked RA, as a potential supporter and somebody who reviews charities, for this ‘statement’. They sent me their financial report.
  • Although the report bears the Missions Interlink STANDARDS COMPLIANT logo, an addition to which RA is automatically entitled as a member, the report is grossly deficient:
    • Three of the four statements required are missing.
    • The single statement does not comply with the Accounting Standards.
    • There are no Notes to the accounts.
    • The directors do not put their name to the report (no directors’ declaration).
    • Although the auditor is a member of CPA Australia, and therefore required to comply with the Australian Auditing Standards, the audit report, at a mere four lines long, is comprehensively non-compliant with those Standards.

ABOUT THE CHARITY

• Statement of Faith

• And Values.

 Date Established

• Here’s a history.

Who the Charity Benefits

• Vision
• Mission
• Activities (What did RA do?)
  • From the AIS 2014, not much said and not necessarily specific to 2014:
    • Free will (sic) gifts from supporters
  • Here’s how RA is different (to other mission agencies presumably).
• Outcomes (What did RA deliver?)
  • RA did not respond to the request in the AIS 2014 for a description of its outcomes.
  • Nothing found on the website.
• Impact (How were people’s lives improved?)
  • Nothing on the website.

Financial Year End

• Before the due date for the next report, the financial information on the Register will be up to 18 months out-of-date.
  • You may therefore need to ask for more up-to-date information.

Basic Religious Charity

• If you believe that RA couldn’t be registered as another subtype of charity then it qualifies as one of these special cases.

WHERE THE CHARITY OPERATES

Operating State(s)[iii]

• The constitution also permits a representative to be appointed in Tasmania.
• RA doesn’t have a fundraising licence in any of these states. There isn’t enough information on the website to determine whether they need one.

CHARITY’S DOCUMENT (SIC)

• An Annual Report/Review could be lodged here.
• There is no Annual Report/Review on the website.

RESPONSIBLE PERSONS

No. of Australian ‘responsible person’ positions[iv]

Yvonne Hall           This function was not working at the time of writing

Timothy Sinclair

David Ross

Trevor Bickerton

• According to the constitution, all these directors come from NSW.
• There is no mention of the board on the website.

(End of review)

[i] Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, Australia’s national regulator of charities.

[ii] A valuable membership for some– see ‘What membership means’ here.

[iii] This is how the ACNC explains ‘operating locations’ in their application guide: ‘You need to give details about where in Australia your organisation conducts (or plans to conduct) its activities.’

[iv] Because of the possibility of two (or more) directors having the same name on the register of responsible persons, it is not possible to be definitive about the number of directorships held.