Two States Dominate Australia’s Charity Sector
12 January 2016 at 8:30 am
More than half of the total value of Australia’s charity sector is controlled by just two states, according to figures from the national charity regulator.
NSW and Victoria account for $58.2 billion of the Australian social sector’s combined income of $103 billion.
NSW is by far the heaviest hitter when it comes to charitable dollars, with the state’s charity sector worth $31.9 billion, followed by Victoria at $26.3 billion.
According to the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), NSW charities also employ over 304,000 people and around 588,000 people from the state volunteer.
ACNC Commissioner Susan Pascoe said the report was evidence of the immense contribution of NSW’s charities.
“NSW charities are not only economically significant, but also contribute greatly to the community,” Pascoe said.
“NSW charities received 31 per cent, or almost one third, of the total combined income of the Australian charity sector.
“NSW has the most charities of any state and they employ 29 per cent of Australia’s charity workforce.”
The findings, which are a breakdown of the Australian Charities Report 2014, were derived from the 2014 annual information statements registered charities submitted to the ACNC, which for the first time included financial information.
Pascoe said as such, the report constituted a census of charities in Australia.
Pascoe said like other states, religious charities were the most common in NSW, making up 32 per cent of the state’s charities.
But she said the state still had some unique characteristics.
“Interestingly, NSW has one of the highest proportions of charities that list grant-making as one of their main activities,” she said.
Pascoe said that in Victoria, the University of Melbourne was the largest charity by income, followed by Monash University.
Queensland is the third largest state in terms of charity income, with the charity sector in that state worth $18.4 billion.
Western Australia’s charity sector was worth $11.9 billion, South Australia’s was worth $6.5 billion and the ACT’s was worth $3.8 billion.
Tasmania at $1.8 billion and the Northern Territory at $1.2 billion, rounded out the list.
