Archived: Vose Seminary: mini-charity review

Mini-charity review of Vose Seminary (VS), as an organisation that invites you, on its website, to donate to it (and is an Associate member of Missions Interlink). (Including the answers to the questions that the Australian charity regulator, the ACNC, suggests that you ask.)

Is VS registered?

• No, not as a charity.
• Nor is it incorporated.
• No ABN.
• Not a business name.
• Just a trading name belonging to The Baptist Union of Western Australia Incorporated.
  • VS cannot legally trade under the name Vose Seminary.
  • Nor – as it uses on its website and Facebook – Vose.

Is VS responsive to feedback?

• They have not responded to the draft I sent on 18 February.

What does VS do?

• It’s all here.

Do they share the Gospel?

• No – at least not to those who haven’t heard it.

What impact are they having?

• No information found.
  • A Google search of the website shows that an annual report must be produced, but it’s not on the website.

What do they spend outside the costs directly incurred in delivering the above impact, that is, on administration?

• No calculation is possible – no financial statements for VS are available.
  • VS is an operating arm of The Baptist Union of Western Australia Incorporated. Its results are therefore included in their results.

Can you get a tax deduction?

• Donations are sought only for ‘Vose’s ‘Invest in the Future’ Capital Campaign’. There it says that ‘All donations are tax deductible’.
  • Presumably this is referring to the two tax-deductible funds run by The Baptist Union of Western Australia Incorporated, ‘Vose Seminary’ and ‘Vose Seminary Library’.

Is their online giving secure?

• NA – not offered.

What choices do you have in how your donation is used?

• Only the ‘Invest in the Future’ Capital Campaign’ is offered.

Is their reporting up-to-date?

• They don’t report separately.

Does their reporting comply with the regulator’s requirements?

• They don’t report separately.

What financial situation was shown in that Report?

• There is no information about VS in The Baptist Union…’s reports.

What did the auditor say about the last financial statements?

• NA

If a charity, is their page on the ACNC Register complete?

• NA

Who are the people controlling the organisation?

• Only the staff are shown on the website.
• Here, from ‘Responsible Persons’ on the ACNC Register, and the people who govern The Baptist Union…, and therefore presumably VS as well:
  • Vanessa Chang
    • Is it this Vanessa Chang?
  • Craig Eccleston
  • Bradley Entwistle
    • Is it this Brad Entwistle?
  • Gregory Holland
  • Karen Siggins
  • Darren South
  • Bruce Watkins
  • Mark Wilson
  • There are 12 directorships recorded for the name ‘Mark Wilson’, nine for ‘Gregory Holland’.  The ACNC Register has only charities, so if, after eliminating the entries in the Register that don’t belong to VS’s Mark Wilson and Gregory Holland, you are left with their total being more than a handful, it would be legitimate for you to question whether their ability to discharge their fiduciary responsibilities is threatened.

To whom is VS accountable?

• VS is an Associate member of Missions Interlink. However, as VS is not an entity without even an ABN, presumably it is The Baptist Union…that should be shown as the member.