Response to Future Foundations for Giving Draft Report

SVA’s response to the Future Foundations for Giving draft report builds on earlier feedback provided to the Productivity Commission about the most effective ways to grow philanthropy in Australia.

The document provides additional detail to an earlier submission on the Productivity Commission’s draft report on Future Foundations for Giving:

• strongly supports finding 5.1: The deductible gift recipient (DGR) system is poorly designed, overly complex and has no coherent policy rationale support the proposal that activities to further educational equity should retain eligibility for DGR. Inequality in education is a key driver of disadvantage, and donors and charities should not be disincentivised from supporting efforts to increase equity
• support the proposal that eligibility for advocacy activities should be expanded, given the importance of robust public debate from informed voices to our democratic process and the potential to generate public benefit through improved policy, which can also be crucial to increasing equity
• propose that childcare and early childhood education services should be considered as a subset of education activity, and applying the same carve-outs as proposed for primary and secondary education to minimise the use of tax deductions for private benefits
• strongly supports a managed transition to the new system for those losing DGR eligibility, as outlined in the Commission’s report. Our work on the financial viability of charities has shown that many Australian charities operate on thin margins.