Organisations need a licence to conduct charitable collections in Western Australia.
Your organisation’s licence may end in different ways, depending on if your organisation has:
- a WA charitable collections licence or
- has a deemed licence as a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC).
Your organisation’s licence may end if:
- you ask to cancel your organisation’s licence (surrender your licence)
- your organisation stops running charitable collections for a period of 12 months
- the Commissioner revokes your organisation’s licence
- your organisation is no longer registered with the ACNC (for a deemed licence)
Surrendering a WA charitable collections licence
You can surrender your organisation’s WA charitable collections licence if it no longer needs it. For example your organisation has closed or stopped conducting charitable collections in Western Australia.
You can download the application form and submit it by email if you cannot apply online.
You must provide financial returns up to the date of the licence cancellation.
Organisation has not run a charitable collection in 12 months
You must tell us if your organisation has not run a charitable collection in 12 months.
Your organisation must give up (surrender) its licence if it does not plan to run a charitable collection again.
Your organisation may be able to keep its licence if it plans to run a collection within the next 12 months. You must tell us about your organisation’s collection plans.
Your organisation’s licence may be cancelled (revoked) if it does not run a collection within the following 12 months.
When Consumer Protection can cancel a licence
Consumer Protection may cancel (revoke) a WA charitable collections licence if your organisation:
- does not follow its licence conditions
- does not follow the code of conduct
- does not comply with the requirements of the Charitable Collections Act 1946 (WA)
Consumer Protection may also cancel your organisation’s licence if it:
- does not use the money or goods collected for charitable purposes
- does not use enough of the money or goods collected for charitable purposes
- pays people too much from the money or goods collected
- has stopped carrying out its charitable purpose
- has not run a charitable collection for a continuous period of 12 months.
When your organisation is no longer registered with ACNC
A deemed licence is only valid while you are ACNC registered. Your organisation will not be allowed to conduct charitable collections in WA without a current ACNC registration.
Keep collecting
To keep collecting in WA, you must:
- tell Consumer Protection about the change in registration
- apply for a WA Charitable Collections licence.
- since your last submitted report
- for the last 12 months before the licence ended if you have not previously reported
- another timeframe if asked for by the Commissioner.
Your organisation will need to submit annual financial reports as part of its ongoing requirements.
Stop collecting and no longer need registration
You should notify Consumer Protection using the online change of circumstance forrm.
Final collection records
You must send your final collection records to Consumer Protection within six (6) months of your organisation’s licence being surrendered or cancelled.
The records you need to provide depend on when you last reported. You may need to provide the collection records:
Need help?
You can notify us or ask for help by contacting:
Charitable collections branch
Ph: 1300 30 40 54
Email: charities@lgirs.wa.gov.au