Charities

Fundraisers registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC) must comply with the National Fundraising Principles while fundraising in Victoria. Find more information about the National Fundraising Principles.

Where your charity is registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for–profits Commission (ACNC) and intends to fundraise in Victoria, you can benefit from reduced reporting and renewal requirements.

Fundraisers already registered with Consumer Affairs Victoria can also benefit from these reduced reporting and renewal requirements.

If you have notified us via myCAV of your charity registration with the ACNC, you are not required to:

• apply for fundraiser registration
• renew your fundraiser registration, or
• lodge an annual statement

with Consumer Affairs Victoria.

All fundraisers that are registered charities continue to have ongoing responsibilities to Consumer Affairs Victoria and the Victorian public.

You can check if you are a registered charity with the ACNC by searching the ACNC charity register. To find out more about the requirements of charities in Victoria, visit Regulation of charities in Victoria - ACNC.

Existing registered fundraisers must notify us of charity registration

If you are a currently registered fundraiser with Consumer Affairs Victoria, to benefit from the reduced reporting and renewal requirements you must notify us of your charity registration with the ACNC via myCAV.

To notify us, the Fundraiser Responsible Person must:

• go to your myCAV homepage
• select ‘View registration details’ (under ‘Licenses and registrations’) for the relevant fundraiser registration
• select ‘Notify of charity registration with ACNC’ (under ‘I want to’).

Only the Fundraiser Responsible Person for that fundraiser is able to notify us.

Sign-in or create your myCAV account

New fundraisers must notify us of intent to fundraise

You must notify us via myCAV of your intent to fundraise in Victoria.

To notify us, you must:

• go to your myCAV homepage
• select Fundraising (under ‘Apply for a licence or registration in myCAV’) and
• select ‘Apply for fundraising registration or notify of intent to fundraise’.

If you don’t have a myCAV account, you can create one at any time. For more information, go to About myCAV.

If you are not a currently registered fundraiser, you cannot fundraise in Victoria until you notify us via myCAV of your intent to fundraise.

If you are an incorporated association

If you manage an incorporated association that is a registered charity and conducting fundraising in Victoria, you can receive the same reduced fundraiser reporting and renewal requirements by notifying us via myCAV of your charity registration.

We currently maintain two myCAV systems:

• one for Incorporated Associations only, and
• another for all other registration and licensing schemes, including all fundraisers.

This means that you will need to manage separate myCAV accounts for your incorporated association activity and any fundraising activity.

To notify us of your charity registration status, please use the myCAV account related to your registered fundraiser.

Note: The reduced fundraiser reporting requirements for charities does not affect your reporting requirements for managing an incorporated association. For more information on those requirements, go to Lodging an annual statement  –  incorporated associations.

Loss of charity status with the ACNC

If your deemed registered fundraiser has lost its charity status with the ACNC, go to Change in charity status.

Conditions on registration

We can still apply conditions to your organisation’s registration. For more information, go to  Conditions on fundraising registration.

Follow the National Fundraising Principles

Charities registered with the ACNC must follow the National Fundraising Principles while undertaking fundraising appeals in Victoria. Eligible fundraisers that follow the principles may be exempt from certain prescriptive requirements of the Fundraising Act 1998 (Vic).

Ongoing responsibilities

Charities registered with the ACNC, and who notify us, will have reduced reporting and renewal requirements. However, they will continue to have the following responsibilities.

Keep accurate financial records

All charities registered as fundraisers have a responsibility to keep accurate financial records.

While fundraising

You must prepare a primary set of financial accounts in line with Part 3 of the Fundraising Act.

At the end of the fundraising

You must prepare a summary set of financial accounts:

• within three months of the end of the fundraising, or
• if fundraising runs for more than 12 months, within three months of the anniversary of the start of the fundraising.

The information for the summary financial accounts is taken from the primary accounts.

Both financial accounts must contain details of:

• all funds and assets received from the fundraising
• what happened to those funds and assets
• the amount spent on the fundraising and how it was distributed
• amounts spent on assets, wages, salaries, commissions and other remuneration for the fundraising
• administrative expenses for fundraising
• other expenditure on fundraising; and the dates the fundraising started and finished
• if a corporation, incorporated association or unincorporated body was authorised to fundraise; the name of the responsible person for that body
• the name and address of all beneficiaries.

Failure to prepare primary or summary financial accounts may incur a penalty. For more information, go to Fines - fundraisers.

Request for inspection of summary accounts

The summary financial accounts are available to the public.

Within  21 days of receiving a written request for inspection of the summary accounts in line with section 33 of the Fundraising Act, you must provide a copy to that person or organisation.

You can be fined if you fail to provide the summary accounts.

National fundraising activity

If the fundraising was part of a national fundraising activity, you do not have to prepare summary accounts specific to Victoria.

Notify us if registration details change

You must notify us via myCAV of any of the following changes within the time shown.

Change or event	Notify us within
Remove a fundraiser who is: found guilty of a disqualifying offence, or becomes insolvent, or becomes a represented person under the Guardianship and Administration Act 1986 because of an injury, illness or disability.	28 days
Retain a commercial fundraiser or new agreement with a commercial fundraiser	28 days from the date the agreement is entered
Change of fundraiser responsible person	7 days

Clearly identify collectors

Collectors in public places must wear clearly visible identification badges which show:

• the fundraiser they are representing, and
• if they are a paid collector or volunteer.

Find our Sample identification badge for collectors (PDF, 28KB).

Collection containers

These must be properly secure and consecutively numbered. They must have labels showing the:

• fundraiser name, or who is conducting it, and
• beneficiary.

Telephone employees

Employees paid to seek donations by phone or electronically (for example, email), must state:

• that they are employed to do so
• the name of their employer, and
• the beneficiary’s name.

Search for a registered fundraiser

You can search registered fundraisers by:

• Fundraiser name
• Registration number
• Beneficiary name

Search the public register

Please note: not all fundraising organisations are required to register. If an organisation is exempt from registration, it might not appear on the register. Exempt types of organisations and activities are listed on Exemptions from registration.

Also, there may be limited information available on the register for fundraisers that have informed us that they are a registered charity with the Australian Not-For-Profit Commission. For more information, search the ACNC charity register.