The report is produced by the Centre for Social Impact and the Social Policy Research Centre at UNSW Sydney, in partnership with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). It is available on the ACNC website.

Key findings from Australian Charity Report 2016:

  • Registered charities had a total revenue of $142.82 billion.
  • Charities that provide education services, such as universities and non-government schools had the largest annual revenue. This group makes up 18.6% of the total number of charities, but accounted for 45% of the sector’s total revenue.
  • Charity revenue was generated through:
    • Membership fees, user-pays services, and other income sources – 49.7%
    • Government grants and contract payments – 43%
    • Donations and bequests – 7.3%
  • The most common type of charity is religious groups (31%). However, this group of charities only takes in 6.6% of the sector’s total revenue.
  • Most registered charities are small (67%) with annual revenues under $250,000.
  • Breakdown of charities by size:
    • Large charities (revenue of $1 million plus) – 17%
    • Medium charities ($250,000 – $1 million) – 16%
    • Small charities (revenue of $50,000 – $250,000) – 67%
  • 6% of all Australian employees are employed by charities.
  • 6% of charities have no paid staff.
  • On average, each charity has 58 volunteers. In total, there are 2.9 million volunteers.
  • Over half of all charities operate in either New South Wales (39.7%) or Victoria (31.1%).
  • Only a small number of charities help communities overseas (8.4%).
  • The top ten countries that charities assist overseas are:
    • India
    • Philippines
    • New Zealand
    • Indonesia
    • Papua New Guinea
    • Cambodia
    • United States
    • Thailand
    • Fiji
    • Nepal

(Source: ACNC)

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