YWAM Whitsunday

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

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

• This is an organisation that has a public invitation to young people to enter into financial agreements likely to be life-changing,
  • that is directed by a Committee of just three people, with two of these being a couple^[1]
  • that has a Committee without any outsiders (even from another YWAM)^[2]
  • that has a membership (to whom the Committee is accountable), that requires potential members to be staff.^[3]
• This is an organisation, a registered charity, that collected $412K last year, but where the leaders^[4]
  • have shown their disdain for their legal responsibilities as the responsible people of the charity, by submitting a financial report that is grossly deficient
  • apparently have not instituted any controls to ensure that money given to the charity gets into the charity’s bank account^[5]
  • have, on the evidence of the audit report, appointed an incompetent auditor.
• This is an organisation that includes in its constitution provision for taking the advice of ‘elders’ before making major decisions, but where those elders are not identified, nor disclosed on any ‘YWAM Australia’ website^[6].
• This is an organisation that is part of a movement^[7] 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. This was their (late) response:

Thank you for your correspondence. Our Management Committee and financial
auditor have reviewed the information mentioned. We take your comments
under consideration.

1. The leaders are not shown on the website. ↑
2. https://www.facebook.com/brendan.edwards3;https://www.facebook.com/ywamwhitsunday/posts/1458209324209321 ↑
3. The constitution, ACNC Register. ↑
4. Financial Report 2019, ACNC Register. ↑
5. They got a qualified audit opinion because of this. ↑
6. Clause 2: ↑
7. The constitution [ACNC Register] says, in clause 2, that YWAM Whitsunday is a denomination: ↑