How far have we come with fundraising reform anyway?

How would you describe the current state of play?

It’s now been 18 months since the federal government’s announcement that the National Fundraising Principles would be adopted in states and territories to harmonise charitable fundraising rules across Australia, but progress has been painfully slow.

To date, only South Australia, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory have fully implemented the principles.

Some other jurisdictions have released implementation plans or taken other preliminary steps, but it remains unclear how quickly they will progress these key reforms.

With the national fundraising principles now more than a year past their due date, how would you describe the frustrations of fundraisers?

Australia continues to have out of date, complex, and inconsistent fundraising laws that impose unnecessary burdens on charities, diverting limited resources away from their critical work helping people in need at a time when the charity sector is facing increasing demand for services and a very strained funding environment.

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission’s latest Australian Charities Report data shows that charities are feeling the impact of the cost-of-living crisis too, so cutting the mass of red tape around fundraising laws must be a priority for governments that rely on charities to support people and communities in crisis.

While it’s been encouraging to see South Australia, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory take the necessary steps this year, the charity sector and broader community will not reap the benefits of these reforms until the principles have been implemented across all jurisdictions so that a charity, no matter where it fundraises, will only need to comply with the principles.

When a charity asks me what conduct rules they need to follow if they put a donate button on their website, I’d like to be able to say they just need to follow the principles. But until the principles are in effect in all jurisdictions, the answer is much more complicated.

Are you confident that these changes will take place soon, and are you concerned about how effectively they will be rolled out?

It took sustained pressure from the charity sector over 10-plus years to achieve the incremental reforms to fundraising laws that we have seen so far.

The sector urgently needs governments to prioritise implementation of the principles, and to do so in a manner which achieves the goal of national harmonisation.

To do this, they simply need to ensure that the agreed principles are adopted into law without amendment and switch off all local fundraising rules.

If governments make even minor changes to the wording of the principles (now or in the future), there will no longer be a single set of principles for charities to follow. And if they don’t switch off all existing local fundraising rules, charities will continue to have to navigate different rules in each jurisdiction.

What are the remaining barriers to fundraising after these reforms are complete?

After the principles are implemented, we need all governments to work together in a coordinated and collaborative way, and in consultation with the sector, to develop uniform regulatory guidance to support charities to understand and comply with the principles.

We also need governments to remain committed to maintaining nationally harmonised fundraising laws in years to come and ensure any changes to the principles are made consistently across all jurisdictions and in consultation with the sector.

Charities Minister gives states the rev-up on fundraising reform | More about the FixFundraising campaign