Run, manage and administer your PAF, charity or NFP

Keep the obligations handled so the organisation stays about the cause.

An organisation that is registered has to stay registered. That means an annual statement to the charity regulator, distribution obligations if you are a Private Ancillary Fund, governance standards the board has to actually meet, and ATO endorsements that can be withdrawn. We take the reporting and governance work on so it happens on time and in the right form. Your board gets to spend its meetings on grants instead of deadlines.

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Reporting that runs on time

Your annual statement and distribution obligations are tracked against the dates they actually fall due.

Trustees who know their exposure

Directors and trustees understand what they are personally responsible for before a decision tests it.

Time back for the mission

The administrative load sits with us, so board meetings are about grants rather than paperwork.

What does ongoing management of a PAF, charity or NFP involve?

Registration is the start of the obligations, not the end of them. A registered charity lodges an Annual Information Statement with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission each year, and must keep meeting the governance standards that apply to how it is run and who runs it. A Private Ancillary Fund carries its own distribution obligation, with a minimum paid out annually to endorsed recipients by a set date. ATO endorsements are not permanent and can be withdrawn if the conditions stop being met. Responsible persons carry duties personally, which is the part most boards discover late.

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What are the charity governance standards and how do they apply?

They are a set of minimum requirements about how a registered charity is run: its purposes, the conduct of its responsible persons, and compliance with Australian law. Every registered charity has to meet them, and the regulator can act on registration if they are not met. Most boards meet them in substance but can’t show it, which is a documentation problem rather than a governance one.

What are the distribution requirements for a Private Ancillary Fund?

A PAF must distribute a minimum share of the market value of its net assets to endorsed organisations each financial year, subject to a minimum dollar amount, and it has to be paid by the date the guidelines set rather than at any time in the year. The rate has been under review, so the figure applying to your fund this year is worth confirming rather than assuming. We will tell you the current rate and date, and track the payment against it.

What personal liability can directors or trustees of a charity face?

Responsible persons can be personally liable if they breach their duties, misuse the organisation’s assets, or let it operate outside its charitable purpose. The protection people assume the entity gives them depends on those duties actually being met, and being documented. Clear policies and a board that can show what it decided and why are what make that protection real.

How often does a registered charity need to report?

Once a year, through the Annual Information Statement. Medium and large charities also lodge financial statements, and the thresholds turn on revenue. We will tell you which category you fall into and prepare what goes with it.

Not sure whether your governance and reporting are where they need to be?

Before we take anything on, let us look at where the organisation currently stands. Most boards find one or two obligations they didn’t know applied to them.

Five years in, is it still doing the thing you started it for?

Running a registered charity or a PAF means an annual statement, a minimum distribution, governance standards and an endorsement that can be withdrawn, all of it falling due whether or not anyone has been watching. The work isn’t hard so much as constant, and it lands on people who joined to do something else. What nobody says out loud is that the administration quietly becomes the organisation.

We will review your current governance, reporting and endorsement position and tell you where the gaps are.
We will write the policies and board procedures the governance standards require, in a form your board can follow.
We will prepare your annual reporting and track the dates it falls due.
We will advise your trustees and directors on what they are personally responsible for.

You set this up to do something, not to report on it

The fund or the charity has been running a few years. The board is volunteers, or it is you and two family members, and the annual statement gets done in a hurry by whoever has capacity. Nobody is confident the governance policies are current, and nobody wants to be the one to ask. The distribution was made last year, though not by a date anyone can now name with certainty.

What's included in your PAF, charity or NFP management service

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A review of your current governance, reporting and endorsement position.
Policies and board procedures written against the charity governance standards.
Preparation of your Annual Information Statement and supporting reporting.
Distribution monitoring and advice on the timing your fund has to meet.
Advice to directors and trustees on their personal duties, available through the year.

Losing endorsement costs more than the work of keeping it

The way this fails is rarely dramatic. An annual statement is late, then late again, and the regulator starts corresponding with the organisation instead of leaving it alone. A Private Ancillary Fund misses its minimum distribution in a year the investments did badly, which is precisely the year it was hardest to pay. Governance policies written at setup are never revisited, so the board isn’t meeting standards it believes it is meeting. If endorsement is withdrawn, donors lose their deduction, grant eligibility goes with it, and the responsible persons discover their duties were personal all along. The organisation then spends two years fixing its administration instead of funding anything.

How we keep the obligations off your board's agenda

We start with an honest look at where the organisation actually stands, which usually turns up one or two obligations nobody had been tracking. The policies then get written against the governance standards in language a volunteer board can follow, rather than a document that is filed and never read again. We take on the annual reporting and hold the dates, including the distribution timing if you are a Private Ancillary Fund, so the deadline is our problem rather than a recurring scramble. Your directors and trustees get told plainly what they are on the hook for. What changes is the meeting itself: the board stops managing the organisation’s paperwork and goes back to deciding where the money goes.

Three steps to an organisation that runs properly

Find the gaps, close them, then keep them closed.

Find the gaps

We review your governance, reporting and endorsement position and tell you plainly what is not currently being met.

Set the framework

We write the policies, board procedures and reporting calendar the organisation needs, sized to how it actually operates.

Keep it current

We hold the reporting dates, prepare the annual statement, and stay available for the governance questions that come up during the year.

Support from people who hold the dates so your board does not have to

Nobody joins a charity board for the reporting. The people carrying this are usually volunteers, or a family, and the administrative load arrives on top of whatever else they do.

We have taken on the annual reporting and governance work for organisations at exactly this stage, and the pattern is the same: the gap is almost never unwillingness, it is that no one person owns the calendar. We have a Chartered Tax Advisor with The Tax Institute, which counts when an endorsement is at risk. We are also ISO 9001 accredited, so the reporting cycle runs against a defined process rather than against whoever remembered.

Our great lawyer guarantee

Six principles we hold to, whatever you bring us and however long it takes.

Take the time

We listen carefully to understand what you want to achieve, then step you through the advice and the documents.

Share our knowledge

We pass on as much as we can, so you can make your own informed decisions.

Stick to our knitting

We only do what we are good at, so you never pay for our learning.

Work as one team

Someone is always available to answer your question or point you the right way.

Fair pricing

A fixed or capped quote for advice and documents, so you do not carry the price risk.

It is your show

We are in it for a front row seat to witness your success, not for our egos.

Ready to hand the compliance work over?

The obligations don’t get smaller and the board doesn’t get more time. Tell us how the organisation is running now, and we will take the reporting and governance work off it.

Speak to a lawyer 1300 654 590