Contribution of the not-for-profit sector

• The not-for-profit (NFP) sector is large and diverse, with around 600 000 organisations.
  • The ABS has identified 59 000 economically significant NFPs, contributing $43 billion to Australia's GDP, and 8 per cent of employment in 2006-07.
  • The NFP sector has grown strongly with average annual growth of 7.7 per cent from 1999-2000 to 2006-07.
• 4.6 million volunteers work with NFPs with a wage equivalent value of $15 billion.
  • More Australians are volunteering, but for fewer average hours, so total hours grew only slowly (2 per cent per annum over the 7 years to 2006-07).
  • Most areas have seen a decline in volunteering, although there has been strong growth in volunteers with culture and recreation organisations.
• The level of understanding among the wider community of the sector's role and contribution is poor and deserves attention. A nationally agreed measurement and evaluation framework would add significantly to this understanding.
• Current information requirements imposed on NFPs for funding and evaluation purposes are poorly designed and unduly burdensome. Reform is needed to meet 'best practice' principles.
  • A significant advance would be to establish a Centre for Community Service Effectiveness to improve knowledge on good evaluation practice, and assemble and disseminate evaluations based on the agreed measurement framework.
• The current regulatory framework for the sector is complex, lacks coherence, sufficient transparency, and is costly to NFPs.
  • A national registrar for NFPs should be established to consolidate Commonwealth regulation; register and endorse NFPs for concessional tax status; register cross- jurisdictional fundraising organisations; and provide a single portal for corporate and financial reporting.
• Legislative proposals to reduce reporting burdens associated with companies limited by guarantee are welcome and needed if more NFPs are to adopt Commonwealth incorporation.
  • A separate chapter in the Corporations Act dealing with NFP companies should be introduced, as should rules on the disposal of assets.
  • More generally, states and territories should seek to harmonise Incorporated Associations legislation in these and other key areas.
• Jurisdictional and agency differences have also resulted in a lack of consistency and comparability in financial reporting requirements for NFPs. Australian governments should, as a priority, implement the agreed Standard Chart of Accounts.
• Fundraising legislation differs significantly between jurisdictions, adding to costs incurred by the NFP sector. Harmonisation of fundraising legislation through the adoption of a model act should be an early priority for governments.
• Enabling the public to provide greater support to a wider group of NFPs is desirable and would be facilitated if deductible gift recipient status were to be progressively extended to all charitable institutions and funds endorsed by the proposed registrar.
  • NFP revenue sources would also be expanded by the promotion and support of payroll giving arrangements.
• There is potential for greater social innovation but the business planning capabilities and  incentives for collaboration need to be strengthened. Further, there is a need to strengthen the capacity for NFPs to access debt financing for social investment.
• NFPs and others delivering community services face increasing workforce pressures and long-term planning is required to address future workforce needs.
  • For NFPs, less than full cost funding of many services has resulted in substantial wage gaps for NFP staff. The challenges in retaining staff threaten the sustainability and quality of services. Greater clarity about funding commitment is an important step in addressing these issues.
  • Volunteers play a critical role in delivering NFP services but rising costs are affecting the viability of their engagement. Streamlining of mandatory vetting requirements and investigation of portability between agencies and across jurisdictions would reduce one source of costs.
• The efficiency and effectiveness of delivery of services by NFPs on behalf of governments is adversely affected by inadequate contracting processes. These include overly prescriptive requirements, increased micro management, requirements to return surplus funds, and inappropriately short-term contracts. Substantial reform of the ways in which governments' engage with and contract NFPs is urgently needed.
  • Australian governments should choose the most appropriate model of engagement, ensure consideration of all costs associated with use of the lead agency model, align the length of contracts with the period required to achieve agreed outcomes, review and streamline their contracting processes and ensure staff involved with NFPs have the required relationship management skills.
• Some current approaches adopted by governments to the management of the different risks involved in the delivery of services on their behalf are not cost-effective. An explicit risk management framework should be prepared by Government agencies in collaboration with service providers as part of their contracting process.
• Implementation of government and sector reforms will be best facilitated by a central policy and implementation unit within the Australian government such as through the establishment of a specific Office for NFP Sector Engagement.

Key facts concerning Not-for-Profit Sector

Drawn from Productivity Commission Research Report on Contribution of the Not-for-Profit Sector - January 2010.

Size and contribution of the sector

• About 600 000 not-for-profit organisations (NFPs), up from 520 000 in 1995-96.
• 59 000 are deemed economically significant, (employ paid staff and/or have an active tax role) by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
• The sector contribution to GDP grew from $21 billion in 1999-2000 to $43 billion in 2006-07 (7.7 per cent pa in real terms).
• This made up 4.1 per cent of GDP in 2006-07, up from 3.3 per cent in 1999-2000, which does not include volunteer contributions.
• Volunteers contributed $14.6 billion in unpaid work in 2006-07 up from $8.9 billion in 1999-2000 in nominal terms (4.3 per cent real annual average increase).

Legal Structures of NFPs

• Companies limited by guarantee - 11 700
• Incorporated Associations - 136 000
• Cooperatives - 1850
• NFPs incorporated by other means - 9000 (including around 2500 Indigenous corporations)
• Unincorporated entities - 440 000.

Volunteers and employees

• The sector attracted 4.6 million volunteers in 2006-07. This was 317 000 full time equivalents, up from 285 000 in 1999-2000.
• Median annual hours per volunteer decreased from 74 in 1995 to 56 in 2006.
• 32 per cent of people aged 18-24 volunteered in 2006, up from 17 per cent in 1995.
• NFPs employed 890 000 people in 2006-07, up from 604 000 in 1999-2000 (average annual growth rate of 6.7 per cent).
• Sector employment in 2006-07 was made up of 41 per cent full-time, 34 per cent part-time and 24 per cent casual.
• The wage gap between social workers employed by NFP and government providers in similar positions was estimated to be up to 25 per cent (after adjusting for Fringe Benefit Tax concessions).

Income and expenditure

• NFPs' income was $76.6 billion in 2006-07. $38 billion (49.6 per cent) was self-generated income and $7.2 billion (9.4 per cent) was from philanthropic sources.
• Proportion of total funding from governments increased from 30.2 per cent in 1999-00 to 33.2 per cent ($25.5 billion) in 2006-07 (including government funded services).
• Philanthropic giving increased (in real terms) by 8 per cent per annum over 1997-2005 to $7.7 billion (comprising donations of $5.7 billion and another $2 billion raised through charity gambling or support for events).
• Australian giving (0.69 per cent of GDP in 2004) was significantly lower than in the US, and slightly lower than the UK and Canada (1.67, 0.73 and 0.72 per cent respectively) but higher than in New Zealand (0.29 per cent in 2000).
• Labour costs made up 43 per cent of the total expenditure of $70.7 billion in 2006-07. New capital expenditure including land was $8.7 billion, with surpluses from current operations (61 per cent) being the main source of funding.

Taxation concessions

• As of June 2009, 52 149 NFPs were registered as tax concession charities. 40 per cent were also endorsed as Deductible Gift Recipients (DGR).
• There are 26 123 NFPs with DGR status, of which 19 212 are also charities.
• Australian taxpayers claimed $1.8 billion for deductible gifts in 2006-07, increasing around 11 per cent per annum from $863 million in 2000-01.
• Fringe benefit tax concessions amounted to around $1 billion in tax expenditures for 2008-09.
• State payroll tax concessions for NFPS are greater than $800 million per annum.
• Concessional tax benefits on gaming machines in clubs are worth over $700 million per annum.

Wide Ranging Reforms Needed to Strengthen the Not-for-Profit Sector

There is a need for wide-ranging reforms to remove unnecessary burdens and costs faced by the not-for-profit sector and improve its accountability. This is the key message of a research report released today by the Productivity Commission. Better regulation, improved funding arrangements and enhanced opportunities for innovation would improve outcomes for the community and the public's confidence in the sector.

Putting the Commission's case for reform, Presiding Commissioner, Robert Fitzgerald, said 'the proposed reforms would directly address concerns about the multiplicity of regulatory requirements, poor collaboration between the sector and governments and emerging capacity constraints. They would thereby create a much stronger foundation for this expanding sector'.

To consolidate regulatory oversight and enhance transparency, the Commission proposes a 'one-stop shop' for Commonwealth-based regulation in the form of a Registrar for Community and Charitable Purpose Organisations. An Office for Sector Engagement should also be established to drive reform and policy development at the Commonwealth level.

Associate Commissioner, Dennis Trewin, said 'Australia has 600 000 not-for-profit organisations which contributed $43 billion to Australia's GDP, growing at an annual rate of 7.7 per cent since 2000. If you count the contribution of 4.6 million volunteers, with an imputed value of $15 billion, this would make it a similar contribution to the retail industry'.

The report makes a number of other recommendations aimed at:

• building a better knowledge base, through a national measurement framework and a Centre for Community Service Effectiveness to act as a clearinghouse to promote best practice evaluation
• smarter regulation, including a more coherent endorsement process for tax status, to be administered by the proposed Registrar, and a new definition of charities
• promoting giving through broader scope of gift deductibility, the promotion of planned giving and nationally harmonised fundraising regulation
• facilitating innovation and sector development through a variety of initiatives
• reforming government purchasing and contracting arrangements.

The research report was submitted to the Australian Government at the end of January 2010.

• Preliminaries
  Cover, Copyright, Foreword, Terms of reference, Disclosure of interest, Contents, Abbreviations, and Glossary
• Overview - including key points
• Recommendations
• Summary of Recommendations
• Chapter 1 Introduction
  1.1 What the Commission has been asked to do
  1.2 Context for the study
  1.3 What are not-for-profit organisations?
  1.4 The Commission’s approach to the study
• Chapter 2 Not-for-profit organisations
  2.1 Are not-for-profit organisations different?
  2.2 Implications for efficiency and effectiveness
  2.3 What drives sector growth and development?
• Chapter 3 A measurement framework
  3.1 Why measure the contribution of the sector?
  3.2 How do not-for-profits contribute to wellbeing?
  3.3 The proposed measurement framework
  3.4 Techniques for valuing the contribution
• Chapter 4 Trends and perspectives on the not-for-profit sector
  4.1 What information is available?
  4.2 What does the sector look like?
  4.3 Measuring direct economic contribution
  4.4 Employment
  4.5 Volunteers
  4.6 Funding sources
  4.7 Not-for-profit expenditure
  4.8 Other information on the sector
  4.9 What can be learned?
• Chapter 5 Improving the knowledge base for the sector
  5.1 Populating the framework for 'macro' measurement
  5.2 Improving approaches to evaluation
• Chapter 6 Regulation of the not-for-profit sector
  6.1 Is the current regulatory environment working?
  6.2 Is a single national regulator needed?
  6.3 Are legal forms for not-for-profit organisations adequate?
  6.4 Reporting requirements for not-for-profit organisations
  6.5 Fundraising regulation
  6.6 Responsibility for determining concessional tax status
  6.7 Self-regulation
  6.8 A way forward
• Chapter 7 Taxation, philanthropy and access to capital
  7.1 Taxation arrangements affecting not-for-profits
  7.2 Philanthropic support by individuals and business
  7.3 Access to capital
• Chapter 8 Competitive neutrality issues
  8.1 Why is competitive neutrality important?
  8.2 Which concessions to not-for-profit organisations raise competitive neutrality concerns?
  8.3 Fringe benefit tax concessions — hospitals
  8.4 Clubs and mutuality
• Chapter 9 Promoting productivity and social innovation
  9.1 Are NFPs fully productive?
  9.2 What can be done to stimulate productivity growth?
  9.3 Is social innovation constrained?
  9.4 What can be done to stimulate social innovation?
• Chapter 10 The not-for-profit workforce
  10.1 Volunteers and volunteering
  10.2 Can not-for-profits attract and retain employees?
  10.3 Building the leadership capacity of not-for-profits
• Chapter 11 Direct government funding
  11.1 What should government fund?
  11.2 How does government fund the sector?
  11.3 Improving the funding relationship between government and not-for-profit organisations
  11.4 Funding not-for-profit organisations for service delivery: is change required?
  11.5 Minimising the costs of funding processes
• Chapter 12 Delivery of government funded services
  12.1 What are the trends in the delivery of human services?
  12.2 What concerns has the not-for-profit sector raised?
  12.3 What needs to change?
  12.4 Maximising the contribution of NFPs to the delivery of government funded services
• Chapter 13 Building relationships with business
  13.1 The nature of business engagement with the sector
  13.2 Are there barriers to collaboration?
  13.3 Is there a role for government?
• Chapter 14 Implementation
  14.1 Institutional change is necessary
  14.2 Sequencing of reforms
  14.3 Cultural change is needed for long-term success
  14.4 State and territory governments need to commit to implementing the government-sector reforms
• Appendix A Conduct of the study
• References

Please note: The following appendices are only available online and are not in the printed copy.

• Appendix B Techniques of social evaluation
• Appendix C Data on the sector
• Appendix D Survey of government agencies engaging not-for-profit organisations in the delivery of government services
• Appendix E Tax concessions
• Appendix F Definition of charity: charity law
• Appendix G Taxation treatment of charitable giving
• Appendix H The impact of extending deductible gift recipient status to all charities
• Appendix I A case study of social housing
• Appendix J Not-for-profit sector feedback: government funded services
• Appendix K Recommendations from previous reviews