CharityGuide Transparency Methodology v1.0
We score every registered Australian charity on five dimensions, computed from public data published by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC). Scores are derived facts — they are not financial or professional advice.
Weighting
| Dimension | Weight |
|---|---|
| Financial Health | 30% |
| Governance Transparency | 20% |
| Regulatory Compliance | 20% |
| Impact Reporting | 15% |
| Scale & Longevity | 10% |
Dimensions
1. Financial Health (30%)
- Program Expense Ratio — share of expenses going to programs (≥75% A,
- Fundraising Efficiency — fundraising costs as a share of donations
- Operating Reserve Months — net assets ÷ monthly expense run-rate
- Liabilities-to-Assets Ratio — solvency proxy.
2. Governance Transparency (20%)
Whether the AIS has been filed in the most recent two financial years, whether responsible persons are publicly listed, and whether the charity has a website with verifiable contact details.3. Regulatory Compliance (20%)
Clean registration status, no active enforcement action (revocation, warning, direction, undertaking), and current AIS submission record.4. Impact Reporting (15%)
Evidence of outcome reporting in the AIS — programs documented with beneficiaries, locations, and outcome statements.5. Scale & Longevity (10%)
Years registered with ACNC and revenue size band — a proxy for stability, not for impact.Grade bands
| Score | Grade |
|---|---|
| 80+ | A |
| 65–79 | B |
| 50–64 | C |
| 35–49 | D |
| <35 | F |
What this score is not
It is not a recommendation. It is not a measure of how good the cause is. It is not a measure of cost-per-outcome. Many vital causes (advocacy, emergency response, research) are difficult to score on financial-ratio grounds alone — the score should be read alongside the charity's own reporting and your own due diligence.
Source data
All charity data on this site is sourced from the ACNC Charity Register and Annual Information Statement datasets, published on data.gov.au under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. We refresh the dataset weekly.