Fundraising law reform coming
7 October 2022 at 1:14 pm
National fundraising conduct requirements could be released as early as this year.
The first steps have been taken to fix the nation’s outdated fundraising laws, with a nationally-consistent framework possible by the end of the year.
Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh will develop a national framework for fundraising laws to reflect today’s predominately online fundraising environment.
See more: ALP will streamline tangled fundraising laws in government
The new framework will have a principles-based approach to the conduct of charities and donors but will also allow for flexibility on the part of charities to achieve compliance.
It will also broadly align with existing regulatory codes of conduct to minimise the impacts on fundraisers that are already members of regulatory associations such as the Fundraising Institute of Australia.
According to the assistant minister, a working group of jurisdictions is finalising a set of national fundraising conduct requirements for the Council on Federal and Financial Relations to review.
This will be released later this year if all jurisdictions agree.
In a statement, the assistant minister said feedback from industry consultations with the charity sector in February and March of this year are being used to inform the framework.
The new framework also has the support of state and territory consumer ministers, who met last month and committed to reforming fundraising laws.
Sue Woodward AM, chief advisor at Justice Connect’s Not-for-profit Law program, said advances in the fundraising reform agenda were “encouraging”.
“The current fundraising laws are a mess, and charities are caught up doing paperwork instead of allocating their already stretched resources on crucial work, wasting time and money that could go directly to supporting communities,” she said.
See more: Charities send govt message to #FixFundraising
Justice Connect is leading the #FixFundraising campaign, which comprises over 100 Australian charities and has developed 14 Australian Fundraising Principles to help inform the development of a national framework.
