About this organisation
Summary of activities
People find themselves vulnerable for all sorts of reasons: financial hardship, mental health issues, family breakdown, or simply as a result of growing older. The breadth of our service offering allows us to be flexible in how we respond to these social issues, so we can find a way to help people cope with lifes challenges, whatever their circumstances.We work with people of all ages and backgrounds, in New South Wales, and Queensland. We create positive social change on the ground by delivering quality community services.We influence social policy nationally through our research and advocacy work.Building stronger families and resilient children and supporting older people and people with a disability are our main areas of focus. This includes child protection, early intervention, building community capacity and home care and support services. We also provide services that offer pathways to better mental health and wellbeing, including programs to address domestic violence and drug and alcohol addiction. We continue to provide counselling and support for people affected by adoption, which has national reach through online networks.Everything we do is underpinned by the skills of our workforce, the passion of our volunteers and our generous donors, corporate partners and funders. The Benevolent Society employs 904 staff, the equivalent of 775 full time staff throughout New South Wales and Queensland.Approximately 658 volunteers are involved in our community services and in roles supporting our corporate services teams. We also partner with a wide range of nonprofit agencies, academic bodies and government departments.
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Group membership
This charity is part of a group: Benevolent Society_ACNC GROUP. Other members of the group include:
Benevolent Australia - Disability Services Limited The Benevolent Society
Outcomes
Outcomes are self-reported by charities
Programs and activities
Name: Aged Care In Home Support and Care
URL: https://www.benevolent.org.au/services
Classification: In-home aid and personal assistance (Human services > Family services > In-home aid and personal assistance)
Beneficiaries:- Adults - aged 65 and over
- People with disabilities
Name: Disability Services
URL: https://www.benevolent.org.au/services
Classification: Family disability resources (Human services > Family services > Family disability resources)
Beneficiaries:- Adults - aged 25 to under 65
- Adults - aged 65 and over
- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
- People with disabilities
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: Family Support
URL: https://www.benevolent.org.au/services
Classification: Family services (Human services > Family services )
Beneficiaries:- Adults - aged 25 to under 65
- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: Intensive Family Support
URL: https://www.benevolent.org.au/services
Classification: Child welfare (Human services > Family services > Child welfare)
Beneficiaries:- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: Social Rights & Advocacy
URL: https://www.benevolent.org.au
Classification: Social rights (Human rights > Social rights)
Beneficiaries:- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Adults - aged 25 to under 65
- Adults - aged 65 and over
- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
- People from a culturally and linguistically diverse background (or people from a CALD background)
- People with disabilities
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: Foster Care
URL: https://www.benevolent.org.au/services
Classification: Out-of-home care (Human services > Family services > Child welfare > Out-of-home care)
Beneficiaries:- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
Name: Early Education & Support
URL: https://www.benevolent.org.au/services
Classification: Early childhood education (Education > Primary and secondary education > Early childhood education)
Beneficiaries:- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
Name: Early Years Centres
URL: https://www.benevolent.org.au/services
Classification: Child development (Human services > Family services > Child welfare > Child development)
Beneficiaries:- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
- Financially disadvantaged people
- People from a culturally and linguistically diverse background (or people from a CALD background)
- People in rural/regional/remote communities
Name: Adoption & Post Adoption Services
URL: https://www.benevolent.org.au/services
Classification: Adoption (Human services > Family services > Child welfare > Adoption )
Beneficiaries:- Adults - aged 25 to under 65
- Adults - aged 65 and over
- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: National Disability Gateway
URL: https://www.benevolent.org.au/
Classification: Human services information (Human services > Human services information)
Beneficiaries:- People with disabilities
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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Scoring detail
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