Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Assistant Minister for Charities Andrew Leigh says efforts are underway to make it easier to hold fundraisers, recruit volunteers and increase donations to charity groups in the NT

Transcript

Assistant Minister for Charities Andrew Leigh says efforts are underway to make it easier to hold fundraisers, recruit volunteers and increase donations to charity groups in the NT · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Joining me on the line right now to tell us
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  Speaker 1: about a bit of a town hall meeting that happened
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  Speaker 1: a little earlier this morning is Andrew Lee, the Assistant
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  Speaker 1: Minister for Competition, Charities and also Treasury.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to your minister.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie. Great to be with you.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, good to have you on the show.
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  Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit more about this meeting that
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  Speaker 1: took place earlier this morning.
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  Speaker 3: Well, look, Gothing and I got together in Tea Charities
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  Speaker 3: this morning to talk about some of the big challenges
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  Speaker 3: facing the sector. Over the last generation, we've seen a
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  Speaker 3: drop in the share of Australians joining community organizations, donating money,
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  Speaker 3: participating and sporting activities or volunteering their time, and so
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  Speaker 3: what we wanted to do is to get together some
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  Speaker 3: of those remarkable in tea charities to talk about how
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  Speaker 3: we turn this around. We had people there from religious organizations,
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  Speaker 3: animal welfare organizations, disability support organizations and it was really
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  Speaker 3: valuable sharing the ideas and getting a census to what
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  Speaker 3: we can do to build a more reconnected Australia.
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  Speaker 1: And so what are some of the cans concerns that
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  Speaker 1: they were raising at that meeting this morning.
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  Speaker 3: One of the big ones is the stability of funding.
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  Speaker 4: We saw under the previous government a nine year long
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  Speaker 4: war on charities, which left many organizations feeling that if
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  Speaker 4: they spoke out and advocated for the people they cared about,
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  Speaker 4: that they might lose their funding.
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  Speaker 3: And it's important for charities to know that those gag
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  Speaker 3: clauses are gone and people don't need to fear that
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  Speaker 3: they will have their funding cut off just because they
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  Speaker 3: add advocate in the public debate. We also saw concerns
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  Speaker 3: about sustaining a volunteer base, so COVID's really taking the
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  Speaker 3: two before too volunteering. We need to do more to
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  Speaker 3: ensure that organizations have a stable volunteering base.
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  Speaker 1: So what really can be done, you know with that
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  Speaker 1: in terms of making sure that there is that stable
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  Speaker 1: volunteer base, because it can be really difficult to actually
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  Speaker 1: run an event and make sure that you've got all
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  Speaker 1: the volunteers you need.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. One of the things that organizations are
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  Speaker 3: doing quite successfully is trying to allow people to tick
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  Speaker 3: two boxes to offer an event which which fulfills a
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  Speaker 3: couple of purposes. I actually think you're run with that
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  Speaker 3: event is there is a classic example of this, so
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  Speaker 3: it raises money for prostate cancer. It allows people to
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  Speaker 3: stay fit, but it also gets men talking about prostate cancer.
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  Speaker 3: So those kinds of events where people are able to
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  Speaker 3: fit something into their busy schedules because they know they're
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  Speaker 3: serving multiple purposes. I think the way of the future
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  Speaker 3: for many volunteer organizations.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and we all hope so, you know, we always
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  Speaker 1: want to make sure that you know that you've got
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  Speaker 1: plenty of volunteers, because it takes an army to put
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  Speaker 1: on a charity event, and I guess that's the tough part.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the bigger the event gets for some of
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  Speaker 1: our wonderful Northern Territory charities, sometimes the harder it gets
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  Speaker 1: if you can't sort of you know, if you can't
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  Speaker 1: find those volunteers. Is there ways that you know that
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  Speaker 1: for some of those different charities you can link up
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  Speaker 1: as well with some of the bigger organizations around the place,
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  Speaker 1: and maybe organizations could be slightly more generous in terms
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  Speaker 1: of maybe giving people a you know, half a day
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  Speaker 1: to volunteer for a charity.
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  Speaker 3: It's a great point, Katie, And one of the things
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  Speaker 3: we're trying to do is to work in with big
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  Speaker 3: corporates as to how the corporate volunteering works, because the
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  Speaker 3: worst of corporate volunteering is a team building exercise and
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  Speaker 3: a Friday afternoon where everyone goes down the paint of
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  Speaker 3: fence of a charity. The best of it is when
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  Speaker 3: you're tapping into the expert skills of organizations, having tradees
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  Speaker 3: help me, helping out using their expertise, or getting accountants
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  Speaker 3: to do the books of a charity. So being, one
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  Speaker 3: thing I want to do with the assistant NURST of
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  Speaker 3: a charity is to be a better breach between corporate
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  Speaker 3: Australia and our fabulous volunteering sector.
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  Speaker 2: And so where to from here?
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  Speaker 1: Following on from the town hall meeting this morning, you know,
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  Speaker 1: obviously there's been some concerns raised or some of the
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  Speaker 1: different things that.
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  Speaker 2: They're they're grappling with the charity. So where to from here?
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  Speaker 3: We really want to create in Australia in which the
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  Speaker 3: next person who wants to set up a run with
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  Speaker 3: Data event is easier able to do it where they
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  Speaker 3: have the mentors, the access to donations and the volunteer base.
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  Speaker 3: So that's our starting point. We've got an ambition to
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  Speaker 3: double Australia's philanthropy levels by twenty thirty. We're working with
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  Speaker 3: states and territories to streamline the fundraising process, and we're
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  Speaker 3: engaging with volunteering groups to make sure that people who
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  Speaker 3: want to give more time are able to easily find
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  Speaker 3: an opportunity. And the Volunteering SA and NT has a
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  Speaker 3: great website, So any of your listeners who want to volunteer,
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  Speaker 3: I'd urge them to jump on that website and they'll
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  Speaker 3: be able to search through the database and find a
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  Speaker 3: good volunteering of events for them.
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  Speaker 2: All good stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Well, Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury, Andrew Lee,
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  Speaker 1: We really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much
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  Speaker 1: for having a.
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  Speaker 2: Chat with us.
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  Speaker 3: Pleasure. Always great to chat to a fellow runner.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: Although it's a bit hard at the moment, it's very
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  Speaker 1: hot it is.
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  Speaker 3: I went for a swim in parap pool this morning.
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  Speaker 4: I decided it was braver than going running. I'm gonna
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  Speaker 4: pay my running and want to get back to Camboro.
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  Speaker 2: Probably a good plan. Good on your minister, Thank you,
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Catty, thank you