The not-for-profit sector has as much to offer governments as the other way around, in terms of policy advice, service delivery advice, research into community needs and concerns, and innovative ways of responding to these needs and concerns. The relationship should enhance government policy as much as it provides life to the not for profits. In Australia, the relationship with the community sector is still fairly one-way. Community organisations seek funding, they offer comment on policy, are sometimes consulted in sectional ways about specific issues. The challenge is to build a more co-operative debate and exchange.
This mutuality should apply in the relationship between not for profits and business as well. The benefits to business of partnerships with community organisations are being documented, although more research is needed. In Australia, there have been some inspiring examples of business/community partnerships. The relationship between The Body Shop and the Brotherhood of St Laurence is developing an employment program for young people is one example. The partnership between Rio Tinto and the environmental group, Earthwatch, is another.
Emerging Policy Supports
In 1997, the Australian Government established a Round Table, including representatives of business, philanthropy and the welfare sector, to advise it on ways of developing partnerships between business and the community. A government-bestowed award has been established to acknowledge innovation in such partnerships. The Government has also implemented changes to the taxation system to remove some of the disincentives to philanthropic giving. This was a direct outcome of recommendations made by the Taxation Sub-Committee of the Round Table. This model could be a useful on to build upon in focussing on three-way partnerships, and to establish a more permanent consultative body directly representing the broader not for profit sector.
The Round Table has now been converted into a standing body called the Community Business Partnership Board, which is serviced by a full time secretariat. As mentioned previously, the Government, in partnership with a private philanthropic trust, has established the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal to assist the growth of community foundations and community-initiated development initiatives.
Finally, the Government has agreed to establish an inquiry to examine the role and scope of charities, with particular emphasis on finding a more appropriate and contemporary definition of Public Benevolent Institutions (PBIs); bodies that receive tax deductions. We currently still operate on the basis of an English statute dating back to 1601. While it sounds quaint to have maintained such a continuous link with that part of our history that is British, this outdated definition has a very real impact on the ability of many not for profit organisations to receive important private funding. Most tax laws in Australia, which determine not only whether an organisation is tax exempt itself but also whether it can receive tax deductable donations, are based on the purposes of the organisation and whether or not those purposes fit into a rather narrow and outdated definition.
Organisations which focus on prevention, economic development, advocacy or are peak bodies rather than direct service delivery bodies, fall outside the required rulings. For example, a marriage guidance and counselling service failed in an application to obtain PBI status because its primary purpose was prevention of marriage breakdown, rather than a service to those who had already suffered trauma.
