ACNC report set to show slight growth in charity numbers and revenue, despite difficult operating environment

The data is based on the ACNC’s 2024 reporting period and promises to be interesting reading.

While details are not yet available, ACNC commissioner Sue Woodward told the Community Advocate that the report would show, once more, that the charity sector is a major economic force in Australia and has an “indispensable social role as the connective tissue for communities across Australia and abroad”.

The 12th edition is based on data submitted to the ACNC by 53,641 registered charities, up from 52,627 in the 11th edition (the 2023 year), noting there were 62,867 registered charities as at 1 January 2025, a day after the end of the 2024 reporting period. Not all charities are included in the report analysis for a variety of reporting reasons.

Tomorrow’s report will show that registered charities generated $239 billion in revenue in 2024, an all-time high.

Charities employed 1.6 million staff, or 11 per cent of the Australian workforce, the report says, based on 2025 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) workforce data.

Again, this figure is slightly up on the figures in last year’s report, when there were 1.54 million charity employees, making up 10.7 per cent of the national workforce.

An interesting figure to look for in tomorrow’s report will be the total amount received by charities in donations and bequests. Last year’s report, covering the 2023 year, included the largest donation in Australian history, when Nicola and Andrew Forrest donated 220 million shares, worth $4.9 billion, to their philanthropic venture, the Minderoo Foundation.

That pushed total donations and bequests across Australia to $18.9 billion that year, up from $13.9 billion the year before.

The latest figure will struggle to match 2023’s, given the absence of a similar headline donation.

The ACNC makes charity data available via its Charity Data Explorer, to enable people to understand what’s happening in their local area or in various parts of the sector.