The primary function of the Firefighters Charity Fund is to accept tax deductible donations from its contributors, and then distribute those funds to a variety of other charities.
For background, the FFCF is a public ancillary fund covered by Item 2 of the Australian Tax Office Deductible Gift Recipients code. In simple terms, an Item 2 charity does not perform charitable work directly. Instead, it supports Item 1 charities in the work they do in their respective areas.
Importantly, any recipient charities need to meet certain criteria for the Fund to be able to donate to them.
How to know if a recipient charity is eligible?
Below is a step by step process to help you confirm if a recipient charity would be eligible to receive funds from the FFCF. It’s straightforward, doesn’t require you to register your details, and can be done in just a couple of minutes.
Confirm ACNC status
Search for the charity on the ACNC website, and view the details page. Pay special attention to the name or published ABN to make sure it’s the intended charity.
Click through to the details page, and at the top of the page you will see the charity’s current registration status.
If this is present the charity is current and registered with the ACNC. Next you will need to check the charity’s DGR status on the ATO website.
Confirm DGR status
While still on the ACNC website look to the top right of the page for a convenient link to the ATO details for the charity.
Follow that link, and then scroll to the bottom of the page looking for the Deductible gift recipient status section.
In there the key words you are looking for are:
It is covered by Item 1 of …
If that phrase is in present, then in conjunction with the ACNC registration above, the FFCF is permitted to make a donation to that charity.
If that phrase isn’t present, unfortunately the FFCF is unable to donate to that charity. This doesn’t in any way reflect the Fund’s opinion of that particular charity. It is solely a product of Australian Tax law that the Fund is required to comply with.