YWAM Adelaide

This is a review for those thinking of getting involved with YWAM Adelaide, especially as a student or a donor.

If this is you, then please pause and consider the following:

• This is an organisation
  • operating, without explanation, in a name different to the one that is registered: ‘YWAM Adelaide’ rather than Youth With A Mission South Australia Incorporated^[1]
  • operating with a Committee that is one short of the minimum (three) required by the organisation’s constitution
  • that is involved in a strange Missions Interlink membership^[2], and unregistered entity, ‘YWAM Southands’.
• This is an organisation that has a public invitation to young people^[3] to enter financial agreements likely to be life-changing,
  • that is led by two people (executives) who are also the only members of the Committee of that organisation
  • where the accountability of those two people is further limited by the fact that
    • they are a couple^[4] (that is, not independent)
    • membership of the association (to whom the Committee is accountable), is restricted to staff of the organisation, and are therefore people who are supervised by that couple^[5]
    • the external YWAM body that, from the constitution [ACNC Register] needs to be involved for certain matters^[6] appears not to exist^[7].
• This is an organisation, a registered charity, that collected $288K last year, seeks donations from the public (including via a public fund that gives the donor a tax deduction), but where the leaders have shown their disdain for their legal responsibilities as the responsible persons of the charity, by
  • submitting a financial report that is materially deficient^[8]
  • operating without the required registrations^[9].
• This is an organisation that is part of a movement where
  • periodically there are credible reports of abuse of students
  • there is a lack of accountability
  • there is an unwillingness to submit to independent scrutiny of their information.

A draft of this review was sent to the charity. Andre Agostini, one of the two ‘responsible people’ (the 0ther being his wife) phoned. He promised to send their written comments, but over a week after the scheduled publication date nothing has been received.

1. The website uses ‘YWAM Adelaide’ and ‘YWAM South Australia’ interchangeably; the only time the legal name is used is in giving the bank account details. ↑
2. ↑
3. https://ywamtoowoomba.com/: ↑
4. The leaders are not shown on the website. ↑
5. The constitution, ACNC Register. ↑
6. For example, this clause ↑
7. The only mention of Australia in a long list of ‘global contacts’ all around the world is ‘Pacific & Asia Field Convenor’. ↑
8. Financial Report 2020, ACNC Register. ↑
9. A registered business name for ‘YWAM Adelaide’ and fundraising licences. ↑