About this organisation
Summary of activities
Our work at Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) Alliance is underpinned by our vision to build a mature, diverse, viable, efficient and sustainable Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) market that enables the provision of excellence in SDA housing. In our third year of operation, our primary focus has been to build on and leverage off the solid foundations we established in our first two years, effectively engaging with members in order to inform and influence real change, in very challenging conditions, through our strong relationships with national SDA decision makers. Ongoing member consultation processes have continued to be effective, which has supported the development of essential policy responses. Our main aim is to constructively engage with governments and other key stakeholders to support the growth of a mature, diverse and sustainable NDIS Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) market. This has been achieved through SDA Alliance participation in many key national SDA initiatives, including: • Membership of the: o NDIS Ministerial Roundtables on SDA o NDIA-led Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) Reference Group o NDIA & Independent Advisory Council-led Home & Living (H&L) Advisory Panel o Department of Social Services (DSS)-led Young People in Residential Aged Care (YPIRAC) Stakeholder Reference Group o NDIS QS Commission-led Industry Consultative Committee (ICC) Submissions and supporting communications to key SDA decision making bodies include: o Numerous submissions to the NDIA, including policy submissions relating to Supported Independent Living, Support Coordination and Home & Living Policy. o Communications with the Minister for the NDIS (the Hon. Stuart Robert and now the Hon. Linda Reynolds) and key staff o Communications with key staff of Commonwealth DSS and NDIS QS Commission o Submissions to the Royal Commission on Violence, Abuse and Exploitation of People with Disability regarding Group Homes & other housing, and related communications with DRC staff o Submission to the Robertson Review and later related consultations o Submission to the Australian Board Code Board (ABCB) on the Consultation Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) on mandating accessibility for housing and later related support for outcomes as a member of the Building Better Homes campaign. As a growing organisation, we have been effective in our advocacy resulting in the Commonwealth government providing further clarity via enhanced market information and SDA data, and updated policy, guidelines and planning processes that will ultimately lead to improved access to appropriate accommodation for people with a disability.
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Outcomes
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Programs and activities
Name: Improving the provision of high quality SDA
Classification: Housing for people with disabilities (Human services > Shelter and residential care > Supported housing > Housing for people with disabilities)
Beneficiaries:- Adults - aged 25 to under 65
- Families
- People with disabilities
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Finances
What is this?
This graph shows how much revenue (money in) and expenses (money out) the charity has had each year over the last few years. Charities have many sources of revenue, such as donations, government grants, and services they sell to the public. Similarly, expenses are everything that allows the charity to run, from paying staff to rent.
What should I be looking for?
First off, this graph gives a general indication of how big the charity is - charities range in size from tiny (budgets of less than $100,000) to enormous (budgets more than $100 million). You're also looking for variability - if the charity's revenue and expenses are jumping up and down from year to year, make sure there's a good reason for it.
Unlike companies, charities and not-for-profits aren't on a mission to make money. However, if they spend more than they receive, eventually they will go into too much debt and run into trouble. As a very general rule, you want revenue to be slightly above expenses. If expenses is reliably above revenue, the charity is losing money. If revenue is much larger than expenses, it means the charity might not be using its resources effectively. It isn't always that simple, however, and there's a lot of reasons a charity might not follow this pattern. They might be saving up for a big purchase or campaign, or they might have made a big one-off payment. If you're worried, always look at the annual and financial reports to understand why the charity is making the decisions it is.
What is this?
If a charity receives more money than it spends, that's a surplus (in business, it would be called profit). If it spends more than it receives, that's a deficit. This chart shows surpluses and deficits for the charity over the last few years.
What should I be looking for?
Unlike companies, charities and not-for-profits aren't on a mission to make money. However, if they spend more than they receive, eventually they will go into too much debt and run into trouble. As a very general rule, you want a charity to make a small surplus on average. A deficit means that charity lost money that year, which may indicate poor financial management or just a series of bad circumstances. If the charity always has a huge surplus, it means the charity might not be using its resources effectively. It isn't always that simple, however, and there's a lot of reasons a charity might not follow this pattern. They might be saving up for a big purchase or campaign, or they might have made a big one-off payment. If you're worried, always look at the annual and financial reports to understand why the charity is making the decisions it is.
What is this?
This chart compares the amount the charity receives from various sources, including donations (i.e. money given by the general public or philanthropy), goods and services, government grants, and other sources.
What should I be looking for?
Donations are an important source of revenue for some charities. Others rely more heavily on government funding, or on revenue from other sources. This is an indication of how much they need donors to accomplish their mission. Note that there is no 'good' or 'bad' amount of donations for a charity to have. It might be interesting to look at values over time - are they going up or down? A charity that gets less donations every year may be in trouble.
What is this?
Assets are things that the charity owns that are worth something. This could be anything from a car to investments. Similarly, liabilities are debts or obligations that the charity owes to someone else, like a loan or an agreement to pay for something.
What should I be looking for?
Firstly, in general a charity should have more assets than liabilities. If it doesn't, it implies that the charity might not be able to pay its debts, and you should look very closely at the charity's annual and financial reports to make sure they are taking steps to remedy this. Current assets should generally be above current liabilities - that means the charity can easily pay off the debts that are coming due soon. Beyond that, look for a large stockpile of assets. While a charity should have enough assets to keep it afloat in hard times (a 'buffer') if that stockpile gets too large the charity could be using that money more effectively. As always, if you have concerns check the annual and financial reports.
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