Vose Seminary (The Baptist Union in Western Australia Inc)

This is a review^[1] in the series ‘Members of Missions Interlink’, Missions Interlink being the Australian Evangelical Alliance Inc‘s ‘network for global mission‘. We review these charities because their membership means that they must sign up to a set of standards, and this, at least on paper, makes them a better bet for your donations (or other involvement).

‘Vose Seminary’’ is one such member. It seeks donations on the website linked from Missions Interlink.

COVID-19

Donors

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, and
5. Find out more about how the charity says it uses donations.

Here’s the results for ‘Vose Seminary’, with #5 supplemented by the essentials of the ACNC’s What should I consider when deciding which charity to support?^[2]

1.  A search on the ACNC Register for ‘Vose Seminary’ brings up The Baptist Union in Western Australia Incorporated (BUWA).

This is because BUWA has recorded ‘Vose Seminary’ as a name by which it is ‘Also known as’. This means that the name should be registered as a business name.
And it has been – just not by BUWA. The business name is held by an organisation with an identical name but without the ‘Inc’.^[3]

The website above is in the name ‘Vose’. Nobody holds that as a registered business name.

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2.  There is nothing to indicate that Vose uses either door-to-door or street collectors.

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3.  The Vose web address begins with a closed padlock symbol, so the website is secure [the ACNC article above^[4]]. But the ‘Donate Today’ button leads to another site, one owned by ‘Baptist Financial Services’ (presumably this charity). That site is secure. But there is nothing about the security of your information on the first page of the giving process.

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4.  The Vose donation page says that all donations are tax deductible. But they don’t explain how this is possible when BUWA’s ABN record says that it is not entitled to receive tax-deductible gifts.

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5.  The use of your donations

For context, see here.

The audited account of how a charity uses donations is the Financial Report on the ACNC Register.

The BUWA Financial Report 2019 has no information on where the donations to Vose went. So, no accountability other than to rely on BUWA’s processes.

Let’s hope the situation improves after the merger (or ‘merger’?) of Vose and Morling College takes effect at the end of this year.

Who’s responsible?

From the Council’s Report [Financial Report 2019], these are the directors responsible for the reporting:

Mark Wilson

Anne Galambosi

Craig Eccleston

Karen Siggins

Vanessa Chang

Is it this Vanessa Chang?

The ACNC Register shows that the board has since gained Bruce Watkins (this Bruce Watkins?), Gregory Holland, and Martin Alciaturi.

The Council is responsible to the members – WA Baptist churches.

Impact

There is nothing on the website about the impact of the donations.

Charity response

The introduction to the Mission Interlink standards (see above) includes this statement:

We sent the member a draft of this review. They….did not respond.

End of review.

1. See here for the previous review. ↑
2. A section in the article, Donating and Volunteering:
   • • 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?

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3. A mistake? No, perhaps not – they are both on the ASIC register: ↑
4. The ACNC’s information (in its article above) is not correct for the Chrome browser; it does not have ‘https’. ↑