Archived: Transform4Life Inc., charity review

This is a charity review, a review for those with an interest in the Australian charity Transform4Life Inc. (T4L).

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 T4L.

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 18 March 2016, and invited them to comment. They responded on 21 March, requesting that I not publish anything; when I explained that this was not an option, and reissued the invitation to suggest corrections and submit comment(s) for publication, they did not reply.

Organisation of this review

• The first part of this review is organised according to the headings in the Register entry. This is how to use this section of the review:
  • 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.
• T4L website.
• FaceBook (but not in T4L’s full name). Not on LinkedIn.
• State government fundraising licence registers.
• No reviews on Glassdoor yet.

REGISTRATION DETAILS

Entity Subtype

• Not a subtype that puts the Gospel to the fore.
• The Statement of Purpose in the constitution makes it clear that T4L’s work is based on what Jesus has done, but does not explicitly involve evangelism:
  • The primary purpose of Transform4Life is to support the establishment and development of a postgraduate educational program based at the Christian Medical College and Hosptal, Vellore, India, to motivate, train and support those educators who are committed to bringing healing and restoration in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ to those in their sphere of influence.

CHARITY DETAILS

Legal Name

• T4L is a Victorian incorporated association (No. A0056696F).

Charity ABN

• No tax deduction is claimable for a donation to T4L.
• T4L is not registered for GST. This is not an issue until its revenue reaches $150K.

Charity Street Address

• No postal address on the website (in fact, no address).

Phone

• Not on the website.
• Nor in the White Pages:

Website

• From the Google search: www.transform4life.org.au.

ANNUAL REPORTING

• AIS 2015
  • This is T4L’s compulsory Annual Information Statement 2015 (AIS 2015).
  • It gives basic financial information.
• Financial Report 2015
  • Although not required to submit a financial report to the ACNC (because of its size), T4L is, as a member of Missions Interlink[ii] required to ‘have available for its members and supporters a clear and appropriate financial statement which has been approved by its auditor [Standards Statement, 4.1]
    • They could have lodged a report voluntarily with the ACNC, but they chose not to.
    • They sent me their financial report, but because it was sent under a misunderstanding – they thought I was reviewing for Missions Interlink – I cannot use it in this review.
  • The AIS 2015 was lodged four and a half months after year end.

ABOUT THE CHARITY

• Statement of Faith
  • None on the website.
  • In the constitution: see Appendix 5.
    • T4L’s theology is explicitly charismatic

Date Established

• No history found, either on the website or the internet.

Who the Charity Benefits

• Vision and Mission
• Activities (What did T4L do?)
  • From the Description of charity’s activities and outcomes in the AIS 2015:
    • Conducted educational activities in India.  Conducted consultations in the Middle East
      • If this was the training for which there is a registration form on the website, it does not appear that 2015’s activities advanced the prime purpose (see Entity Subtype, above).
      • These ‘activities’ and ‘consultations’ presumably matched the strategy described here.
• Outcomes (What did T4L deliver?)
  • T4L did not respond to the request in the AIS 2015 for a description of its outcomes.
  • None found on the website.
• Impact (How were people’s lives improved?)
  • None found.

Size of Charity

• T4L is well under the cut-off for the next size of charity (Medium).

Financial Year End

• This means that the next financial report is due by 31 December 2016 (or 31 January if the ACNC is generous again next year.) Before that 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.

WHERE THE CHARITY OPERATES

Operating State(s)[ii]

• T4L does not have a fundraising licence in this state.
• While T4L doesn’t actively call for donations, its instructions for how to donate are from a main menu item.
  • It doesn’t have a fundraising licence in any of the other six states that have a licensing regime.
    • Apart from exemptions, whether it needs such a licence depends on whether those states think that T4L, by calling for donations publicly, is ‘fundraising’ in their territory.

CHARITY’S DOCUMENT (SIC)

• There is no Annual Report/Review available on the ACNC Register.
• Nor on the website.

RESPONSIBLE PERSONS

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

Ian Pugsley               This function was not working at the time of publication

• If T4L is following its constitution, there are at least five names missing here.
• The Constitution requires a President, Vice-President, Treasurer, and a Secretary.
• The Public Officer (‘Position’) is not automatically a member of the committee.  

(End of review)

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

[ii] 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.’

[iii] 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.