About the organisation
An organisation applied to the ACNC for registration as a charity.
Its governing document outlined its objects, which related to the rescue and care of animals.
This governing document – as well as the organisation’s registration application form – also described its current activities. They centred on rescuing sick or injured native wildlife, providing the animals with veterinary care if necessary, and releasing them back into the wild.
The organisation stated that only properly trained and qualified staff carried out its rescue and veterinary work.
About the application
The organisation applied to the ACNC for registration as a charity with the charity subtypes of:
- advancing the natural environment, and
- preventing or relieving the suffering of animals
Advancing the natural environment’ includes efforts aimed at:
- preserving native flora and fauna
- rescuing and caring for native animals
- preserving or rehabilitating habitats
- protecting, preserving, caring for and educating the community about the natural environment.
Examples of charities that aim to advance the natural environment include land care and environmental education groups, as well as conservation organisations.
‘Preventing or relieving the suffering of animals’ includes:
- promoting benevolence and preventing or suppressing cruelty towards animals
- providing animal sanctuaries
- providing veterinary care and treatment, and
- caring for, and re-homing, animals that are abandoned, mistreated, or lost.
Activities that charities with this subtype may carry out include:
- providing temporary care for domestic animals whose owners can no longer look after them
- permanent homing or re-homing of domestic animals
- provision of a vet clinic to help pet owners unable to afford treatment for their pet.
The organisation’s governing document contained clauses requiring it to operate on a not-for-profit basis, and to provide surplus assets to a charity upon winding up. Both it and the organisation’s application demonstrated compliance with the ACNC’s Governance Standards.
The organisation’s application also detailed some of its activities. It was these activities that saw the ACNC move to seek more information.
About the registration process
The ACNC contacted the organisation to ask about its present and intended future activities – as well as about the types of animals it helped.
In response, the organisation informed the ACNC that while it currently helped wild native animals, future activities would aim to also help rehome neglected native animals.
With this information at hand, the ACNC needed to determine whether the organisation was eligible to be registered under the subtypes it had applied for.
An important part of our engagement with organisations during the registration process is to gain enough information to adequately understand their work.
Doing so not only helps us evaluate if they are eligible for registration as a charity, but also helps us register them with the correct subtypes.
But as a charity develops, its activities and work may change. This means the subtypes with which it is registered may also need to change.
We encourage charities to change their subtypes when necessary through the ACNC Charity Portal. If there is a change to a charity’s purposes, this needs to also be reflected in its governing document.
Before approving any changes to a charity's subtypes, we will need evidence of the change in purposes.
Outcome
Based on the organisation’s application, as well as information we gained from the organisation as a follow-up to its application, the ACNC approved its registration as a charity with two charitable subtypes:
- Advancing the natural environment – in line with the organisation’s work with native animals
- Preventing or relieving the suffering of animals – because the organisation planned to help domesticated native animals.
Charities are engaged in purpose work – doing activities for a purpose. This case illustrates that one activity – caring for native animals – can further more than one charitable purpose.