Dear Messieurs et Mesdames,

I write to put the point of view of occasional charity givers to your enquiry.

I think that genuine charities do a sterling job.  However, my observation is that there is a mismatch between charitable giving, numbers of charitable volunteers and charitable needs.  Measures to address this are needed  …

First, may I say that it may be a mistake to over-define charity.  Better would be to distinguish charity with its public benefit direct or indirect, and some fundraising rackets run by fundraising companies for profit.

I am concerned about raffles of expensive cars.  If one is foolish enough to buy tickets, one finds the said tickets cannot be on-sold.  And these raffles encourage a petrolhead mentality.  And not only that but returns on some raffles must be so low that these raffles are not a cost effective way of giving money to charity.

I am also concerned about any fundraising company that uses staff paid to pretend to be volunteers.

Second, I believe that some charities whilst quite genuine and sincere are tempted by companies that hawk questionable fundraising services  …because the leaders of said charities have a shortage of funds and deal with unmet charitable needs.

Therefore I would suggest that all charities and charitable trusts that have tax exempt status be required to follow a code of conduct with respect to fundraising, with a view to stamping out such rackets.

And governments need to be reminded that there is a mismatch between charitable giving patterns and charitable needs, leading to a lack of charity provision in some areas.  If there is some pressing need of poor people in Australia, say, for food vouchers, and charitable giving does not voluntarily fund the provision thereof, then the government may have to provide  …

I would propose a number of requirements for tax exempt registered charities:-
(1)  a membership base of people who subscribe to the charities’ purpose or purposes;
(2)  some form of democratic organisation, with some forums for the membership to have some say over the charity;
(3)  a base of volunteers committed to giving some time to the charity.

I realise that some existing special purpose trusts, say some university bequests, are not like that.  But then I think that students and graduates of universities should have some forums to have some say over university governance too  …

Other grounds for tax exempt status for other types of non-profit organisation will be required too.

Yours Sincerely,

Andrew Oliver  (copy with signature to follow by post).