More than a third of Australia’s charities are uncertain about their future viability as the cost of living crisis hits the sector.
A survey of charity leaders, commissioned by the Community Council for Australia (CCA), found 37 percent were uncertain about their organisation’s future.
CCA Chair Tim Costello said the leaders had revealed a perfect storm of rising costs, increased competition and more demand facing charities as they planned for 2025.
Rev Costello said while more than half (55 percent) were somewhat, or highly confident, about their organisation’s future, the fact so many were uncertain highlighted ongoing challenges in meeting growing demand while maintaining sustainability.
“When more than a third of charities are talking about having an uncertain future, you’re highlighting a high level of unmet need, and that can only mean frustration for charities and the communities they serve,” he said.
CCA CEO David Crosbie said given charities employed over 1.4 million Australians and turned over more than $200 billion, the survey was not good news for communities or the economy.
Mr Crosbie suggested charities may consider withdrawing some of their services in order to survive.
“For years charities have been saying the real costs of providing services to our communities is much higher than the funding being provided,” he said.
“This new research reinforces previous findings that the biggest issue confronting charities is the lack of support to meet rising costs and increasing demand.”
Mr Crosbie said governments and funders “short-changed” charities and expected miracle outcomes, it forced some charities into a starvation cycle, where charities began cannibalising their own organisation to survive.
“Funders should ‘pay what it takes’ to deliver required services or we will see more charities having to refuse underfunded contracts and grants.”
He said the findings signalled a need for more support to address rising costs, increased pressures and demands, workforce challenges, and funding shortfalls.
The survey results included the following findings:
- The Cost of Operations tops concerns, with 93 percent expecting worsening conditions.
- Competition for resources such as funding, skilled staff, and volunteers (73 percent) and economic downturns (71 percent) also ranked highly as major challenges.
- Environmental factors including climate change and natural disasters (56 percent) and social trends (52 percent) added to pressures on charities to invest more in the way they provide services.
- Some optimism existed around relevant technological advancements (27 percent) and funders’ positive attitude shifts (16 percent), however these relatively limited areas of improvement were heavily outweighed by broader concerns.
