Vital support: building resilient charities to support Australia’s wellbeing

Vital support: building resilient charities to support Australia’s wellbeing is the fourth report in the Partners in Recovery series from Social Ventures Australia and the Centre for Social Impact.

The report reviews the state of the charity sector, more than a year on from the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, and investigates what support charities need from government and others to be effective partners in Australia’s recovery. We found that charities faced significant disruptions to their service delivery, finances and workforce. New analysis has found that more than half of charities faced some form of temporary closure, and more than 80% made some shift towards at least partial online service delivery.

There is a clear case for government support for the resilience and productivity of the charity sector. The report presents six recommendations for action, including a Resilient Charities Fund that would support charities to develop more impactful and efficient ways to operate in a ‘with-Covid’ and ‘post-Covid’ environment. The report also presents insights developed from our work with the Paul Ramsay Foundation Sustaining Our Partners Taskforce, which worked with 80 social purpose organisations through 2020 to ensure they remained financially viable, built their resilience, and, where possible, captured new opportunities.

The Partners in Recovery research series from Social Ventures Australia and the Centre for Social Impact explores the unique social and economic contribution charities make to Australian society and how they are affected by the confluence of service disruption, falling income, rising demand and higher operating costs.