Big boost to grants spending by charities: report

The newest figures track the spending of the nation’s nearly 60,000 registered charities in the 2022 reporting period.

The report, published by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), showed that charities around the country increased grants and donations on the previous year by a whopping $2 billion (up 26%) to $9.5 billion, with an average spend of $217,000.

Grants and donations by Australian charities to overseas beneficiaries increased by 2.8% to $2.3 billion in the same period.

Large to extra-large charities spent the most on grants and donations, while extra-small charities actually recorded an 11% spending slump on grants and donations in that period.

The report noted that grant spending comes from various kinds of charities. In some cases, ancilliary funds and trusts are “primarily established to deliver structured philanthropy and focus solely on distributing grants and donations to other charities and charitable causes”.

For other charities, distributing grants and donations is just “one element of their operations”, the report says.

Separately, the report notes that charities are highly reliant on government funding, including grants, with revenue from that source reaching $103 billion for the first time. That funding accounts for 51% of charity revenue, the report says.

A breakdown shows that the smaller the charity, the less reliant it is on government grants, with extra-small charities drawing just 10% of their revenue from the government, compared to extra-large charities which draw 56.4% of revenue from that source.

Total revenue for all Australian charities surpassed $200 billion, a record high, the report found.

Highlights of the report

Read the full report | ACNC data explorer