Why this matters: The full breakdown

In general, people are less likely to donate when their donations are not tax deductible.

In addition, organisations without DGR status are often locked out of major fundraising channels, including:

-Workplace and corporate fundraising,

-Facebook and Instagram fundraisers, 

-PayPal Giving Fund, 

-Other third-party fundraising or crowdfunding platforms.

Animal protection charities that lack DGR status are also excluded from both private ancillary funds (‘private giving funds’) and public ancillary funds (‘public giving funds’). In the 2022–23 financial year alone, public giving funds distributed $487 million ¹  in grants to Australian charities, while private giving funds distributed nearly $800 million ¹ ². However, animal protection organisations without DGR status were excluded from receiving any of this funding. 

Government funding makes up a large share of income for charities in Australia overall, but that is not the case for animal charities.

Fig 1. All charities’ revenue sources by charity size (Source: ACNC charity data explorer: Revenue and expenditure)

Fig 2. Animal charities’ revenue sources by charity size (Source: ACNC charity data explorer: Revenue and expenditure)

Donations and bequests make up:

99.52% of the World Animal Protection’s income (DGR status)

99.12% of Four Paws’ income (no DGR status)

97.88% of the Australian Alliance for Animals’ income (no DGR status)

94.01% of Animals Australia’s income (no DGR status)

It is clear that animal charities are extremely reliant on donations to operate. 

It is also clear that many Australians care deeply about animal protection and donate their hard-earned money to both animal charities with DGR status, and without. 

A third fact is also true: The Productivity Commission found that “the tax deduction increases giving”. Expanding the DGR scope to include animal advocacy charities will increase their revenue, and allow them to innovate, employ more people, and help more animals. 

The expansion of DGR scope has been recommended by:

-The Department of Social Services’ ‘Not-for-profit Sector Development Blueprint’ report, which includes the initiative to “broaden and simplify the deductible gift recipient (DGR) system”.

-The Productivity Commission’s ‘Future foundations for giving’ inquiry report, which found that the current DGR status coverage is “piecemeal and ad hoc” and states that the recommended reforms would “expand access to DGR status for charities that prevent disadvantage, charities that promote human rights or reconciliation, animal welfare charities, charities focused on injury prevention, and public interest journalism.”

-The expansion of the DGR scope was also recommended by the Stronger Charities Alliance, who stated that “advocacy for a charitable purpose is itself a charitable purpose”.

The Productivity Commission found that people are more likely to donate to charity if their donation is tax deductible.

The Productivity Commission (p. 173) also found:

-“The DGR system is not fit for purpose as a mechanism for determining which entities should be eligible to receive indirect government support through tax-deductible donations. There is no coherent policy rationale for why certain entities are eligible for DGR status and others miss out.”

-“the DGR system is poorly designed, overly complex and has no coherent policy rationale. This creates inefficient, inconsistent and unfair outcomes for charities, donors and the community".

Andrew Leigh MP announced in 2023, “The Australian Government is committed to collaborating with the philanthropic, not‑for‑profit, and business sectors to double philanthropic giving by 2030.”

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