‘The Salvation Army – Australia’: charity review

This is a review in the series ‘Members of Missions Interlink’, Missions Interlink being ‘the Australian network for global mission’^[1] (and a means for a Member to get income tax exemption when it might not otherwise be available^[2]). ‘The Salvation Army – Australia’ ‘is one such member.

The website linked from the Missions Interlink membership goes to a website with a homepage using the names ‘The Salvation Army Australia’, ‘The Salvation Army’, and ‘The Salvation Army in Australia’. Here they seek online donations.

Covid-19

Donors

Most people will know that ‘The Salvation Army’ is a charity. 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 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.
5. Find out more about how the charity says it uses donations.

Here’s the results for ‘The Salvation Army Australia’, ‘The Salvation Army’, and ‘The Salvation Army in Australia’, 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 ‘The Salvation Army Australia’ gives six registered charities:

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Searching for ‘The Salvation Army’ gives a further 28 charities.

Finally, searching for the third name used, ‘The Salvation Army in Australia’, does not add to the list.

That’s 34 charities from which to choose.

Which one is the Missions Interlink member?

Which one gets your money when you donate? There are nine options on the giving page, but they do not identify which of the above 28 charities handle the donation.

Without identification of the charity, we can’t tell how a donation like yours was used in the past.

End of review.

Charity response

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

We sent a draft of this review to the ‘Media’ contact for the ACT on the website. Later we also used the online complaint form to tell them about the email. There was still no response.

1. https://missionsinterlink.org.au/about/ ↑
2. ↑
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]. ↑