Western Australia’s Not-for-Profit Landscape Report 2020: The Second Report on WA Charities

12/04/2021

Date of Publication:  October 2020

Authors:                     David Gilchrist and Tom Emery

Published by:             The University of Western Australia

The Not-for-Profit UWA Research Team has released its latest WA Not-for-Profit Landscape Report. This publication illuminates key workforce and economic trends in WA’s Not-for-Profit sector; the 2020 report is the second report in the series (the first report was in 2017).

The 2020 report highlights the Not-for-Profit sector’s significant economic contribution. This sector is the second highest employing sector in WA (after retail; before mining). The Gross Value Added of the Not-for-Profit sector rose by 8% in 2018/19 compared to a 3% rise in mining.

There were four main findings:

  1. There was a net increase in the number of charities of 10.5% or 356. 743 charities wound up and 1,099 were established, with a loss of 9,356 employees by head count.
  2. Services are likely contracting as evidenced by:
  3. a) The service mix contracted by 45% - charities provide less service types.
  4. b) The beneficiary mix contracted by 53%.
  5. Job quality has reduced as aggregate full- and part-time jobs have fallen in total by 1,136 or 1.33% while casual employment is up 21.39%.
  6. Aggregate profitability has fallen by 49% highlighting funding levels are likely insufficient to recover costs of service delivery.

Income to the sector has risen by 2.7%, but costs rose by 7%, and many charities are now operating at a loss. There are fewer profitable charities in the WA Not-for-Profit sector now than in 2015. These numbers confirm that substantive structural changes are occurring and will impact the types and numbers of services being delivered in the WA Not-for-Profit sector.

Despite a lack of resourcing, the Landscape Report demonstrates the significant economic value of the WA Not-for-Profit sector and argues for increased state and federal government investment to maintain the strong efficiencies and economic contributions provided by this sector.

The full report is available here.