As the Commissioner of the ACNC, I am pleased to present this section of the corporate plan.
As Australia’s charity regulator, we understand our operating environment is always changing, informed by the data we collect and the insights we receive from the charity sector, the public and across government.
We use our data to make evidence-based decisions, including to:
- identify risks for certain parts of the charity sector, allocating resources to emerging and established issues that affect our regulation of charities
- help the public, government and other stakeholders better understand the important work of the charity sector via our annual Australian Charities ReportOpens in a new window
- provide insights to government agencies to reduce red tape and work together where there is a risk to public trust and confidence.
The Charity Register – our key means of promoting trust and confidence in Australia’s charities – contains detailed information for over 63,000 charities.
Our data shows that the number of registered charities is growing, largely due to the self-assessing income tax exempt reforms being administered by the ATO. These are not new organisations, but ones that have been operating for years or even decades. Due to these reforms, we expect to register a higher number of charities than usual in 2025–26, and we are committed to using our data and insights to support these charities to comply with their obligations to the ACNC.
We are also committed to investing in our staff, improving on our data capability and working across government to maximise the use of our data.
While the ACNC is an independent body with our own Act and regulations, we benefit from a strong relationship with the ATO for corporate services, with staff enjoying the support and benefits of being under the ATO enterprise agreement.
I remain committed to working closely with the Commissioner of Taxation as the Accountable Authority for the ACNC and ACNC Advisory Board.
Sue Woodward AM
ACNC Commissioner