About the organisation
An organisation applied for charity registration with the subtypes of ‘advancing health’, ‘advancing education’ and ‘Health Promotion Charity’ (HPC).
The organisation offered a range of pre and post-natal support for families, including wellbeing support and tools to build capability in new and expecting parents.
About the application
In describing its purposes, the organisation used positive and uplifting language. It outlined the ways in which its work contributed to positive long-term health outcomes.
It was important for the ACNC to understand that holistically, the organisation’s activities were in line with their charitable purposes.
Section 14 of the Charities Act 2013 (Cth) states that the purpose of advancing health ‘includes the purpose of preventing and relieving sickness, disease or human suffering’.
The organisation’s governing document did not use the traditional language of ‘advancing health’. Instead, it used more modern, empowering language.
It is not necessary for an organisation to use the language from the Charities Act in describing its purposes in its application or governing document. It’s best that they use their own language to explain their purpose.
When organisations do adopt this language, it can help the ACNC determine the organisation’s purpose. However, the Commissioner acknowledges that many organisations prefer to use inclusive, empowering and strengths-based language and we will assess purposes holistically.
For example, an organisation may say that its purpose is to improve health outcomes by empowering and equipping new parents, rather than say its purpose is to assist those experiencing suffering and distress due to sickness.
About the registration process
In reviewing the programs in more detail, it was evident that the organisation’s principal initiatives aimed to prevent and relieve physical and mental health conditions in new and expecting families. The organisation aimed to accomplish this through:
- providing treatment, mental health support and wellbeing support before and after birth to parents and infants with birth related health conditions and complications
- providing education to prevent birth-related health conditions
- promoting healthy family practices
- building resilience in new parents.
As the organisation’s principal activities promoted prevention and control of clinical diseases related to birth, this meant that they also met the criteria for registration as an HPC.
Not all health-related charities are HPCs.
The description of an HPC is narrower than the description of a charity with the purpose of 'advancing health’. This is because an HPC must promote the prevention or control of disease or diseases, it cannot advance health generally.
Examples of HPCs include organisations that:
- research treatments for diseases, or methods of disease prevention, or
- work to raise awareness of diseases.
Charities that advance health, that are not HPCs might include:
- aged care organisations
- community health services
- private hospitals.
An organisation that wishes to be registered as a charity with the HPC subtype must show that its ‘principal activity’ meets the description of an HPC. This means its primary activity – the activity which 'takes up a greater share of the organisation’s time and money than each of its other activities' – must be directed towards promoting the prevention or control of diseases.
Other initiatives of the organisation had a clear education focus. This included structured programs to equip parents with the skills needed to navigate the early years and programs to educate expecting parents about the different stages of childbirth.
Outcome
In gaining a deeper understanding of the breadth of the organisation’s offering, it was clear to us that the initiatives that took up the most time and resources were those related to the prevention and control of diseases. All other activities aligned with the additional charitable purposes identified in the organisation’s application.
The ACNC registered the organisation with the subtypes 'advancing health', 'advancing education' and as an institution whose principal activity is to promote the prevention or control of diseases in human beings (HPC).