Sweet Charity

Well, the financial year has come and gone, and you may have received emails or phone calls or postage from any number of charities calling for tax-deductible donations. The not-for-profit sector makes up 11% of the economy, employing around 1.4 million Australians. Indeed, a glimpse at the sector in 2019 paints a rosy picture of a broad industry made of large businesses and smaller volunteer outfits, a sector growing in donations, assets and government support. But this was before the pandemic where operations were shuttered and volunteers were sent home while at the same time, demand for services increased. To discuss a sector under pressure, I was joined earlier by Dr Bronwen Dalton, Head of the Department of Management at the UTS Business School and co-ordinator of the Masters of Not-for Profit and Social Enterprise Management and Tim Costello, Chair of the Community Council for Australia.