More than half of charity revenue comes from Govt donations

Oksana Patron

23 June 2023

More than half (51%) of charity revenue ($97 billion) comes from government, including grants, while only 7% ($14.4 billion) is made up of donations and bequests, according to the report by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC).

The report, which included a ‘Focus on giving and philanthropy’, looked at Australian grant making charities as philanthropy is part of the current national conversation, with a Productivity Commission review taking place, it said.

“Our data confirms not only that philanthropists are significant in number – nearly one fifth of registered charities are grant makers – but they also play a very significant role in funding those charities we regulate,” commissioner Sue Woodward said.

According to the study, charities distributed $9.7 billion in grants and donations.

The Australian charity sector also remains a major employer, with 1.42 million employees in the 2021 reporting period, and a strong revenue growth, up by nearly $14 billion on the previous period.

The data showed that donations across the sector increased by $676 million to $13.4 billion, and charities reported more than $422 billion in assets, an increase of nearly $31 billion.

However, charities also reported an increase in expenses, which went up by $7.1 billion to almost $175 billion, while liabilities went up by $4.1 billion to $141.7 billion, with a 40% increase over three years.

Further, the report confirmed the widely observed decline in volunteering, with numbers dropping to 3.2 million, down from 3.4 million previously.

“The picture is more sobering when we look at the decline over a longer time frame. There was a loss of around 596,000 volunteers between the 2018 and 2021 reporting periods. This decline is of concern as we know volunteers are vital across the sector, and overall, 50% of charities operate with no paid staff,” Woodward said.

She added that behind the top line figures were thousands of small charities operating with mostly volunteers, with 65% of small charities, with annual revenue under $250,000, and a third of all charities having less than $50,000 annual revenue.