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:
- 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.
- Services are likely contracting as evidenced by:
- a) The service mix contracted by 45% - charities provide less service types.
- b) The beneficiary mix contracted by 53%.
- 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%.
- 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.