Australian Philanthropic Services (APS), a non-profit organisation that inspires and supports philanthropy, became independent of Social Ventures Australia (SVA) on 1 July. This was a planned move, reflecting the growth and success of APS.
SVA supports fledgling social purpose organisations that are developing innovative wide-scale solutions, and APS is proud to be one such example. Since its inception, APS has grown to become the largest provider of private ancillary fund (PAF) services in Australia and now sets up more than 30% of all PAFs each year. It also offers a public ancillary fund, the Australian Philanthropic Services Foundation, in which people can open a named sub-fund.
Up until 15 years ago, Australia didn’t have tax efficient philanthropic structures comparable with those in the US and UK. The introduction of private ancillary funds (originally called Prescribed Private Funds, or PPFs) in 2001 provided people with the ability to tax-effectively donate to a trust of their own, and then disburse funds to a range of eligible charities.
The idea behind APS began in 2009 when Chris Cuffe AO commissioned SVA to undertake a research project looking at why more wealthy Australians weren’t engaged in structured philanthropy. He found the experience with his family’s PAF very rewarding, but was frustrated by the low awareness, lack of expertise and poor quality of service that was available at the time. The research showed that there were many barriers preventing people participating in structured philanthropy.
With Chris Cuffe’s initiative, and the support of Michael Trail (then CEO of SVA), SVA’s Private Ancillary Fund Service was launched in September 2010. The service offered to set up and manage private ancillary funds for individuals and families, and to support wealth advisers to help their clients do the same. It also provided a grantmaking and evaluation service to assist clients plan their giving more effectively.
The idea took off and, with proven demand for a service that is low cost, non-profit and independent, Australian Philanthropic Services launched in April 2012 as a subsidiary of SVA.
Five years since its launch, SVA is pleased to see APS taking this step to full independence.