Social Ventures Australia and the Centre for Social Impact have joined again to produce a fourth report in the Partners in Recovery series: ‘Vital support: building resilient charities to support Australia’s wellbeing’.
Unsurprisingly, the report has found many organisations are in a vulnerable financial position, and whilst JobKeeper has helped, it has only been a temporary fix. It is expected that, with the end of JobKeeper, more people will be turning to charities for support and, unlike with commercial businesses, this expected increase in demand would not necessarily lead to an increase in revenue to meet it. Before the bushfires and the COVID pandemic hit, most charities balanced their books every year, but had little in reserve to fall back on. Supporting the community through these crises has taken a toll on the sector’s financial viability, and many charities have now used their reserves.
The report has outlined six actions that governments can take to support charity resilience:
- Continue to provide targeted support to charities facing long-run effects of the pandemic, including ensuring that business support is structured so charities can benefit on an equal footing.
- Appropriately fund government contracted services delivered by charities.
- Make fundraising and philanthropy simpler to encourage increased giving.
- Establish a Resilient Charities Fund to enable charities to invest in capability building and organisational transformation.
- Support further research to better understand how to build the charities sector back so that it is funded for impact.
- Meaningfully increase the rate of JobSeeker payment to reduce poverty and financial stress.
To view the Vital Support Report in full, click here
