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Charities operating overseas must comply with ACNC External Conduct Standards. These are a set of standards that govern how a registered charity must manage its activities and resources outside Australia.

External Conduct Standard 4 focuses on the specific requirements for protecting vulnerable people – those who are those aged under 18, or other people who might not be able to take care of themselves or cannot protect themselves from harm or exploitation

Around six percent of charities registered with the ACNC have operations overseas. Often, due to the work these charities conduct overseas or the location they operate in, risk levels are elevated.

There are several factors the ACNC considers when determining risk levels, and several measures the ACNC may request from charities to demonstrate they have addressed these risks.

While Basic Religious Charities are not required to meet the ACNC's Governance Standards, they still have various other governance and reporting obligations, including obligations outlined in the External Conduct Standards if they operate overseas.

As part of secrecy reforms for the ACNC's work, we are publishing further information about our regulatory activities within the sector. The ACNC has received Federal Government funding for this work.  

The information we will publish through this work relates to our regulatory and compliance activities. And in the context of our registration activities, this information will be published in the form of ‘de-identified registration decision (DRD) summaries'.

Under certain circumstances, the ACNC can disclose information about charity investigations. This may include the fact that the ACNC is carrying out an investigation, and information relating to an investigation.

The ACNC has a number of official forms for a charity to notify of changes, complete reporting requirements and make requests. Most forms are online in the Charity Portal, some are downloadable as PDFs.