Increase demand for services has led a jump in revenue and staff numbers in the charity sector.
The latest Australian Charities Report, released by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), shows the sector’s workforce has grown by more than 70,000.
ACNC Commissioner Sue Woodward said the latest data revealed charities now employed 1.54 million people, or 10.7 percent of Australia’s workforce, with another 3.77 million involved as volunteers.
“Based on ABS labour force data from June 2024, the charity sector employed more people than the construction industry and the manufacturing industry,” Ms Woodward said.
She said the addition of more staff reflected sector growth, but it was growth that was needed to try to match greater demand for services.
“Many parts of the sector, including foodbanks and crisis accommodation services as just a couple of examples, are consistently reporting that cost-of-living pressures are driving higher demand, sometimes stretching capacity to the point where, sadly, people seeking help have to be turned away.”
Ms Woodward said revenue was another indicator of growth.
“Our latest data shows revenue has rebounded, but the operating environment was still challenging.”
She said there had been improvement form the previous report when it was noted expenses had outstripped revenue by about twice as much, in percentage terms.
“We (have seen) a significant rebound, with sector revenue reaching a record high of $222 billion – a rise of 10.7 percent. And importantly, the rise in revenue was greater than the rise in expenses, which grew 8.4 percent to $212 billion.”
She said the revenue rebound was not uniform, with charities that had an annual revenue of more than $100m, and made up just 0.5 percent of the sector, accounting for 14.2 percent of the revenue rise, or $15 billion of the $21 billion total increase.
“Significant differences are also evident in charities’ share of total donations and bequests (where) approximately 40 percent of the total went to just 30 charities.”
Ms Woodward said while total donations and bequests jumped by $5 billion, to $18.9 billion, this was almost entirely due to a $4.9 billion donation to the Minderoo Foundation group – the largest single gift ever reported to the ACNC.
She said the report showed volunteer numbers jumped to around 3.77 million, up by almost 270,000.
“This is really pleasing. It’s close to the highest number of volunteers recorded in the sixth edition of the report, which covered 2018,” Ms Woodward said.
Read the full report: Australian Charities Report 11th edition.
