This Annual Report covers the 2015–16 financial year, and discusses the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission’s (ACNC) performance against our key performance indicators. These are set out in the Treasury Portfolio Budget Statements 2015–16, under the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) outcome and program structure. The priorities set out in our ACNC Strategic Plan 2015–2018 are also addressed.
The ACNC Strategic Plan 2015–2018 draws its vision, mission and priorities from our foundation legislation, the ACNC Act. It is central to our governance and reporting framework. The strategic plan sets out the activities that will enable us to achieve the objects of the ACNC Act:
- enhance public trust and confidence,
- support the sustainability of the not-for-profit sector, and
- ease the regulatory burden on charities.
In 2015–16, we continued with a number of projects to ensure the completeness and accuracy of the ACNC Charity Register, to remove inactive charities and to review the information submitted by charities in their Annual Information Statements.
We also released a landmark research report analysing charity financial information, made it easier for charities to transact with us online and made significant progress in reducing red tape for charities.