ACNC Charity Self-Evaluation Tool — A Useful Governance Check

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ACNC Charity Self-Evaluation — A Useful Governance Check

As CCMS is a registered charity, another useful resource available to us is the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) Self-Evaluation for Charities.

The ACNC has developed this tool to help charities look at their own governance arrangements and ask a fairly simple question:

Are we doing what we should be doing, and are there areas where we could improve?

It is not an investigation or an audit. It is a self-assessment tool intended to help charities identify possible weaknesses before they become larger problems.

What Does the Self-Evaluation Look At?

The ACNC asks charities to consider matters including:

the charity’s purpose and activities;

who is involved in the organisation;

how decisions are made;

the skills and experience of the people responsible for governing it;

the risks relevant to its activities;

record keeping;

reporting and notification obligations;

the use of charitable income and assets; and

compliance with the ACNC Governance Standards.

The tool asks not only whether the charity believes it is complying, but also what practical steps, policies and procedures demonstrate that compliance.

What Happens If a Weakness Is Identified?

The purpose is not simply to produce a pass or fail result.

The ACNC recommends that, where areas for improvement are identified, the charity develops an action plan setting out what needs to be improved and how it will be addressed.

The completed self-evaluation is kept by the charity. It is not normally sent to the ACNC.

Why Might This Be Useful for CCMS?

Rather than waiting until a governance issue arises, CCMS could periodically work through the ACNC self-evaluation and ask:

Do we have the necessary policies and procedures?

Are they actually being followed?

Are our records adequate and easy to locate?

Are members given reasonable opportunities to raise questions and concerns?

Are responsibilities clearly understood?

Are important decisions properly documented?

Are there areas where our Constitution, policies or procedures need updating?

This could provide the Management Committee and members with an objective checklist based on guidance from the organisation responsible for regulating Australian charities.

It Is About Improvement, Not Finding Fault

One useful feature of the ACNC approach is that answering “no” to an individual question does not automatically mean that a charity is doing something wrong.

Instead, it is a prompt to examine the issue and consider whether some improvement may be appropriate.

For a volunteer organisation such as CCMS, that seems a particularly sensible approach.

No organisation is likely to have every procedure perfect, and circumstances change over time.

A regular self-evaluation could therefore help us identify gaps, improve our processes and demonstrate that CCMS is being governed responsibly and transparently.

Perhaps this is something the incoming Management Committee could consider completing periodically and reporting the resulting improvement actions to members.

For anyone interested, the ACNC provides the Self-Evaluation tool for Charities and a number of other governance tools on its website. The link is here. https://www.acnc.gov.au/for-charities/manage-your-charity/governance-hub/governance-standards/self-evaluation-charities

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