Where’s your transparency bar set?
Directors of \'Christian\' charities, after hundreds of reviews of \'Christian\' charities, permit us an observation: stop being smug about your compliance with the charity regulator\'s requirements. Why? Because it\'s a low bar for transparency. And compliance with a low bar is nothing to crow about. In fact, if that\'s all you are doing in the...
The ACNC’s advice on reserves
The ACNC’s publication [Link updated 25.10.2020] Charity reserves: financial stability and sustainability, a fact sheet for ‘charities and the public’, begins well: The purpose of this fact sheet is to provide general guidance on reserves for charities: what reserves are, why they might be needed, and how charities can determine an appropriate level of reserves…....
Who should be running a Baptist church?
Should a Baptist church choose to incorporate as an association[1], it is required to have a committee. The Act under which it will incorporate[2] says that this committee, ‘has the management of the association’. If, as is likely, the church wants to be faithful to the beliefs and practices traditionally practised by Baptists, then it...
On the trail of how a church with its own law works
One of the pieces of information that the legislators made compulsory for the ACNC Register was ‘the entity’s governing rules’. Almost always a constitution, rules or trust deed. I need this document to complete a review of a charity. For the Presbyterian Church of Australia Aust Presbyterian World Mission Committee – yes, that’s its name...
Judge unmoved by Anglican Bishop’s contentions
I am sometimes critical that there is no follow up to a news story, so here’s a follow up to one of mine. Both the bank and the Anglican Development Fund (ADF) sued The Bishop-in-Council (BIC) - formally, the current Bishop, Ian Palmer - for the $14.1 million left over after the ADF successfully recovered...
Open meetings
Is your board (committee) meeting open? I don’t mean open to the public, although that’s far from unheard of. Open to your members. Never considered it? Can I encourage you then to consider it now? I think that you should start from the position that, because you represent them, your members have every right to...
Minutes: how to save time, money, and goodwill
Not long ago, after seeing the draft minutes of a board discussion in which I participated, I made this suggestion to the organisation: It is an unenviable task to take an accurate and comprehensive record of a conversation between those around a large board table, especially one that lasts 90 minutes, and [X, the Secretary]...
We’ve got no controls over that revenue
Charity CEOs and board/committee members, let me give it to you straight: there are too many of you out there accepting something you shouldn’t accept. Have you got a copy of your last audit report handy? Have a look near the end. Is there a paragraph headed ‘Basis for Qualified Opinion’? And does the second...
Financial statements: compilation versus audit
In my review of ‘Medium’ sized[i] ACT charities in the weekend, via the ACNC charity register, I found that in five cases (approximately 10%) the ‘annual financial statements’ contained a ‘compilation report’. Why such an inclusion? A compilation report is a report ‘prepared in accordance with’ APES 315 Compilation of Financial Information, a standard applying...
‘Basic religious charity’: a justified exemption?
The first of the ACNC[i]’s three objects is to ‘maintain, protect and enhance public trust and confidence in the sector through increased accountability and transparency’. Laudable. But why, then, does a multi-million dollar unincorporated charity that is primarily about promoting religion, running a DGR[ii] fund, and has repeatedly received $100 000 in government grants not...