Archived: Youth With A Mission Sydney Hills Incorporated, charity review

This is a charity review, a review for those with an interest in the Australian charity Youth With A Mission Sydney Hills Incorporated (YWAMSH).

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 YWAMSH.

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 14 April 2016, and invited them to comment. They did not respond.

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:
  1. For each heading in the register entry, first read the information under that heading.
  2. Then check if that heading is included below. (Headings for which there is no comment are not included.)
• Then there is a section Membership of accountability organisations claimed.

Sources

• ACNC Register (including links)
• Google search on the charity’s name.
• No website.
• Not on any social media, or LinkedIn.
• NSW government fundraising licence register.
• No reviews on Glassdoor

REGISTRATION DETAILS

Entity Subtype

• A subtype that is consistent with sharing the Gospel.
• As is the first object in the constitution:
  • To advance the Christian faith in all parts of Australia and the rest of the world by such means as the committee of the Association may determine in its opinion…[clause 2(1)].
• Is the message from the ACNC under the subtype a mistake?

CHARITY DETAILS

Legal Name

• YWAMSH is a NSW incorporated association (No. INC9878517).
• Neither YWAMSH, nor the YWAM implied in their email address (see Charity Address for Service, below), are in the list of centres on the YWAM Australia
• According to the Bookers in November last year, ‘YWAM Sydney Newtown’ have ‘taken over’ YWAMSH.
  • Despite their claim that ‘YWAM Sydney Newtown is now ‘government-official’, YWAMSH is still registered and ‘YWAM Sydney Newton’ is unincorporated.
• Somebody lodged the YWAMSH AIS 2015 on 6 February 2016, well after the ‘takeover’.

Other Name(s)

• YWAMSH has no business name registered.
  • They are therefore required to use their full name (or the same but with Inc. instead of Incorporated on the end).

Charity ABN

• Tax deductibility: No, you cannot claim a tax deduction for a donation to YWAMSH.

Charity Address for Service

• I have no reason to believe that this doesn’t work.

Charity Street Address

• No website to check for a postal address.

Email

• I have no reason to believe that this doesn’t work.

Website

• None found.
• The link from their name in the Missions Interlink membership list leads to a website in the name YWAM Sydney Island Breeze, but this is the website for Youth With A Mission Sydney Inc.  A bit confusing.

ANNUAL REPORTING

• AIS 2015
  • This is YWAMSH’s compulsory Annual Information Statement 2015 (AIS 2015).
  • It was lodged seven months after year end, six days after the deadline (a deadline that had been generously extended for all charities).
  • It gives basic financial information:
    • 98% of the $20K income came from ‘Donations and bequests’.
    • There were no ‘Employee expenses…’, nor ‘Grants and donations made…’.
    • They made a surplus of $7K.
    • Liabilities exceed assets by $15K, i.e. they have negative equity.
  • Unfortunately, this is the only financial information that you’ve got:
    • Because of its size YWAMSH doesn’t have to lodge a Financial Report.
    • Although YWAMSH 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], they
      • did not choose to lodge one with the ACNC voluntarily, and
      • did not respond to my request for a copy of this ‘statement’.
    • I have therefore been unable to review the latest report.

ABOUT THE CHARITY

• Statement of Faith
  • No website to check; presumably they subscribe to the YWAM network’s ‘what we believe’ statement.

 Date Established

• No history of YWAMSH found.

Who the Charity Benefits

• Vision and Mission
  • None found.
• Activities (What did YWAMSH do?)
  • From the Description of charity’s activities and outcomes in the AIS 2015:
    • With our new Management Committee (please see change in Responsible Persons) following a close down over the Christmas period, we are still in the process of planning new activities. Past activities will remain the same.
      • But what were these activities?
      • Responsible Persons is blank on the Register.
• Outcomes (What did YWAMSH deliver?)
  • YWAMSH did not respond to the request in the AIS for its outcomes.
  • Nothing found.
• Impact (How were people’s lives improved?)
  • Nothing found.

Size of Charity

• If there were a size smaller than ‘Small’, YWAMSH would no doubt qualify.

Financial Year End

• The next AIS (including Financial Report if they choose to include it) is due by 31 December 2016 (or 31 January if the ACNC give their generous extension again).
• 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]

• Presumably NSW should be here.
• YWAMSH does not hold a fundraising licence in NSW.

CHARITY’S DOCUMENT (SIC)

• There is no Annual Report/Review available on the ACNC Register.
• No website to check.

RESPONSIBLE PERSONS

• Despite the reference in the AIS 2015 – see Activites, above – YWAMSH has still to disclose the names of those on the committee.
• The constitution requires a minimum of a Director/President, Deputy Director, and a Treasurer.

(End of review of the ACNC Register information)

Membership of accountability organisations claimed

• No website, so nothing claimed.
• YWAMSH is a member of Missions Interlink.

(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.’