Will Australian charities be COVID-19 casualties or partners in recovery? A financial health check.
Charities employ 1 in 10 Australians and provide vital services that people, communities and governments rely on. Yet, when supports like JobKeeper come to an end in October, more than 200,000 of these jobs could be lost, and up to 17% of charities could be rendered unviable in the short-term.
Published today (3 June) by Social Ventures Australia (SVA) and the Centre for Social Impact (CSI), ‘Will Australian charities be COVID-19 casualties or partners in recovery? A financial health check’ models the impact that COVID-19 could have on the financial health of 16,000 registered charities that employ people, to better understand the effects, and identify systemic solutions.
The report makes six key recommendations to governments, including a gradual transition off JobKeeper, the creation of a one-off Charities Transformation Fund to help organisations transition to the ‘new normal’, and retaining JobSeeker at a higher level.
Gradual transition off JobKeeper
One-off Charities Transformation Fund
Maintain funding for government contracted services
Retain JobSeeker
Simplify fundraising and philanthropy
Support research.
There has been great concern about the future of the sector, and the people it supports, given the economic, health and social crises currently unfolding. It will be sometime yet before there is sufficient data to be able determine its full impact. However, decisions made now will strongly affect whether charities are COVID-19 casualties or partners in recovery, and those decisions need to be based on the best available information.
Charities deliver vital services and provide wide-spread benefits from their contributions to all aspects of society, including education, health care, sports and recreation, aged care, religion, arts and culture, animal protection, and environmental protection.
Will Australian charities be COVID-19 casualties or partners in recovery? A financial health check is the first work to intersect with CSI’s Pulse of the For-Purpose sector and Building Back Better, a national, rapid-response research program to guide the for-purpose sector through recovery of COVID-19. We encourage you to read and share the report in your networks.
Information and images via SVA.
