While we regrettably do not yet have a single charitable fundraising regime across Australia (or even a suite of model laws across states and territories), there is nevertheless some good news. 

Recent changes have been made to help streamline reporting requirements for charities registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) that are fundraising in Victoria and Western Australia.

We have summarised these changes below.

Reduced reporting for registered charities fundraising in Victoria

Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) has reduced the reporting obligations for charities registered with the ACNC who are currently fundraising in, or intend to fundraise in, Victoria. These reduced obligations commenced on 1 September 2020.

Changes for charities intending to fundraise in Victoria

If your charity does not currently have a fundraising licence in Victoria, but intends to fundraise in Victoria, it no longer needs to apply for a Victorian fundraising licence. Instead, your charity simply needs to notify CAV of its intention to fundraise in Victoria.

Your charity can notify CAV of its intention to fundraise in Victoria by:

• logging in to the myCAV homepage (if you do not have a myCAV account you will need to create one);
• selecting ‘fundraising’ – found under the option ‘Apply for a licence or registration in myCAV’; and
• selecting ‘Apply for fundraising registration or notify of intent to fundraise’.

Once you have notified CAV of your charity’s intent to fundraise in Victoria, your charity will no longer be required to apply for a fundraising licence or lodge an annual statement with CAV. It must however ensure that it continues to comply with its reporting obligations to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission.

Changes for charities that already hold a fundraising licence in Victoria

If your charity already has a fundraising licence in Victoria, it can also benefit from the reduced reporting obligations by notifying CAV of its charity registration. Once CAV has been notified, your charity will no longer be required to renew its fundraising licence or lodge an annual statement with CAV. It must however ensure that it continues to comply with its reporting obligations to the ACNC.

Your charity can notify CAV of its charity registration by:

• logging in to the myCAV homepage;
• selecting ‘View registration details’ found under the option ‘Licenses and registrations’; and
• selecting ‘Notify charity registration with ACNC’ found under the option ‘I want to’.

Organisations that cease to be charities registered with the ACNC

If your charity:

• notifies CAV of its intention to fundraise; or
• notifies CAV that it is a registered charity, and subsequently loses its charity status with the ACNC, it needs to notify CAV that charity status has been lost.
• To do so:
  • login in to the myCAV homepage;
  • select ‘View registration details’ – found under ‘Licences and registrations’;
  • select ‘Notify of change in charity status’ – found under ‘I want to’: and
  • complete the notification process.

For more information on these changes go to CAV’s webpage on Charities.

Other obligations

Despite these reduced reporting measures, your charity still needs to comply with the requirements of the Fundraising Act 1998 (Vic) and the Fundraising Regulations 2009 (Vic). That is, just because your charity no longer needs to apply for a fundraising licence or lodge annual statements, doesn’t then mean you can ignore the other legal requirements associated with fundraising in Victoria.

Reduced reporting for registered charities fundraising in Western Australia

Consumer Protection Western Australia is in the process of making a number of changes to reduce reporting requirements and other obligations for fundraisers in Western Australia.

Continuous licenses for fundraising

Consumer Protection will now be providing continuous licenses to charities fundraising in Western Australia. This means the requirement to re-apply for a charity licence to fundraise in Western Australia every three years is being phased out.

If your organisation already has a charity licence in Western Australia, when it applies to renew its licence at its next renewal date, it will be provided with a continuous licence (i.e. a licence without an expiry date). If your charity was issued a fundraising licence from 1 January 2019 to 30 June 2020, it will be issued a continuous licence to replace your current licence.

If your organisation has applied for a charity licence from 1 July 2020 it will automatically be provided with a continuous licence.

Reduced reporting for charities registered with the ACNC fundraising in Western Australia

Consumer Protection is also reducing reporting requirements for charities registered with the ACNC that are fundraising in Western Australia. From July 2020 charities registered with the ACNC that are licenced to fundraise in Western Australia (i.e. holders of a charity licence in Western Australia) are no longer required to submit an annual statement or financial reports to Consumer Protection. Instead, these charities simply need to continue meeting their annual reporting obligations to the ACNC and should include their Western Australia licence number when submitting their Annual Information Statement (AIS) to the ACNC. 

It should be noted that this change will not be applied retrospectively. Therefore, annual statements and financial reports for financial years ending prior to 30 June 2020 will still be required to be lodged with Consumer Protection.

For more information about these changes go to the Western Australia Government’s Charity licensing reforms webpage - Charity licensing reforms 2020.

Other obligations

Despite these reduced reporting measures, your charity still needs to comply with the requirements of the Charitable Collections Act (1946) (WA) and the Charitable Collections Regulations 1947 (WA). That is, just because your charity is no longer required to submit an annual statement or financial reports to Consumer Protection, doesn’t then mean it can ignore the other legal requirements associated with fundraising in Western Australia.  

How can we help?

If you have any questions about these changes, or any questions relating to fundraising obligations more broadly, please get in touch with our  Charities + Social Sector lawyers.