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YWAM Brisbane: charity review

Care:  At least some of the information about this charity is no longer current.  Use the ‘Search charity names’ box to see if there is a later review.  If the latest review has a message like this, you are welcome to make your case for an updated review via email to ted@businessbythebook.com.au.

This is a review[1] for those thinking of getting involved with YWAM Brisbane[2], especially as a student or a donor.

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

  • This is an organisation that has a public invitation to young people to enter agreements, at not insignificant cost, that are likely to be life-changing,
    • that is governed by a Committee of just five people[3], with two of these being the couple[4] who are the ‘directors’[5] (since 1997), of this YWAM
    • that has a ‘Director/President’[6] (most likely David Neibling) who has been in this position for 24 years, a position bolstered by the fact that he doesn’t ever face re-election[7]
    • that has a Committee that that has no outsiders (even from another YWAM)[8]
    • that has a membership (to whom the Committee is accountable) that appears to be restricted to staff of the organisation[9].
  • This is an organisation, a registered charity, that had revenue of $1.73 million in the 2019 year[10], but where the responsible persons continue to show their disdain for their legal responsibilities by
    • submitting for their last Financial Report one that was grossly deficient
    • not having yet submitted the charity’s annual reporting due six months ago (with that date being a generous six months after the financial year-end)
    • operating without some of the required registrations[11].
  • This is an organisation that gives no information on what it achieved (outcomes, results, or impact) from all that it does[12], and is doing (using labour funded by donors[13]).
  • 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: the external YWAM body that this and many Australian YWAMs constitutions say needs to be involved in some of the important decisions[14], appears not to exist[15][15]
    • The members resist independent scrutiny of their information.

A draft of this review was sent to the charity. They….did not respond.

 

 

  1. For the previous review, see here. ↑
  2. This is the name under which they trade – see, for example, the website – yet, contrary to the law, they have not registered it. ↑
  3. Angela McGillDarcie De la PorteDavid Neibling

    Gwendolen Carman

    Valma Neibling ↑

  4. If Valma Neibling is not David Neibling’s wife, then it is likely that she is a close relative. ↑
  5. A group of people standing outside Description automatically generated with medium confidence ↑
  6. Clause 12 (1), the constitution, ACNC Register. ↑
  7. Clause 12 (2). ↑
  8. Clause 12. ↑
  9. Clause 4. ↑
  10. ACNC Register ↑
  11. An ARBN for operating interstate, and a registered business name for ‘YWAM Brisbane’. And, most likely, one or more fundraising licences? ↑
  12. Apart from a few anecdotal reports in their newsletter. ↑
  13. Not on their website, but common to YWAMs:Text, letter Description automatically generated ↑
  14. From the constitution [ACNC Register]:Text, letter Description automatically generated ↑
  15. The only mention of Australia in a long list of ‘global contacts’ all around the world is ‘Pacific & Asia Field Convenor’. ↑
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BY: Ted Sherwood IN : ,
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