Registering a charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission is not a form-filling exercise. The ACNC has to be satisfied that the organisation has a charitable purpose, that it is not-for-profit, that its governing document actually says so, and that the people running it meet the governance standards. Most refusals and most long delays come down to the same thing: the written case did not match the evidence.
Connect Australia prepares that case. We work through the purposes, the activities, the governing document and the supporting material, put them into a single coherent application, and manage the correspondence that follows.
Who this is for
- New organisations seeking charity registration for the first time.
- Groups whose application has been refused, withdrawn or stalled in requests for further information.
- Existing entities restructuring, merging or changing purpose in a way that affects registration.
- Boards that have been asked by a funder, a department or a bank to hold registered charity status before a deadline.
What we do
Map the purposes against the subtypes
The ACNC registers charities against defined charitable purposes and subtypes. The starting point is always the same question: what does this organisation actually do, and which purpose does that honestly sit under? We work from your activities outward rather than picking a subtype and writing backwards to it, because an application that overreaches on subtype is the one that attracts scrutiny.
Read the governing document against the application
Constitutions and rules are the most common failure point. The clauses that matter are the objects, the not-for-profit clause, the winding-up or dissolution clause and anything dealing with member benefit. We identify where the document does not support the application and set out precisely what would need to change. Drafting or approving those amendments is legal work, and it goes to your lawyer.
Build the evidence schedule
Assertions do not carry an application; documents do. We assemble the supporting material — activity records, budgets, plans, policies, minutes, publications, program descriptions — into a schedule that maps each claim in the written case to the evidence behind it, and we tell you plainly where the evidence is thin.
Write the application and manage the correspondence
We draft the written case, complete the application content, and then stay with it. Requests for further information have deadlines, and a slow or partial answer is how a straightforward registration turns into a six-month one. We prepare those responses and keep the board informed at each step.
How an engagement runs
- Fit check. A short confidential conversation about the organisation, the deadline and the immediate risk. No documents required.
- Readiness review. We read the governing document and the available evidence and give you a written plan, a gap list and the questions that need qualified advice.
- Build. Purposes mapped, written case drafted, evidence schedule assembled, contributors chased.
- Lodge and respond. The application goes in and we manage every request for further information through to decision.
What you receive
- A written case that a delegate can assess without hunting for the answer.
- An evidence schedule linking every claim to a document.
- A governing-document issue list, written so your lawyer can act on it directly.
- Correspondence handling through to a decision.
- A record of the application that survives a change of staff or committee.
Where our work stops
Connect Australia does not provide legal, tax or financial advice and is not a law practice, tax agent or financial adviser. We work with your preferred provider or, with prior disclosure, can introduce an independent partner for you to assess and choose. We do not provide legal opinions on eligibility, draft or settle constitutional amendments, or give tax advice about endorsement consequences. Those questions go to your solicitor or registered tax agent, and we coordinate that work rather than replace it.
Common questions
How long does ACNC registration take?
The ACNC publishes its own processing timeframes and they move. What we can influence is the part that is inside your control: a complete application with a coherent written case and organised evidence does not generate the rounds of further-information requests that add months to the process. We do not guarantee a timeframe or an outcome, because the decision is the regulator’s.
Our application was refused. Can it be revisited?
Often, yes. A refusal usually identifies what the delegate was not satisfied about, which is far more useful than a blank page. We start by reading the decision closely, separating the issues that are fixable through better evidence and drafting from the ones that would require a genuine change to the organisation, and we tell you honestly which is which before you spend anything further.
Do we need to be registered with the ACNC before applying for DGR?
For most DGR categories the ATO requires ACNC registration, and the two applications are usually planned together. Which category applies to your organisation is a tax question, so the eligibility opinion comes from your tax adviser while we build and coordinate the evidence and the applications themselves.
Can you work with our existing lawyer and accountant?
That is the normal arrangement. Connect Australia coordinates the facts, documents, contributors and deadlines around the advisers you already trust. If you would rather we introduced an independent partner, we disclose the relationship and scope first, and you remain free to assess them and choose someone else.
What does it cost?
The application readiness review is $2,750 + GST. ACNC registration support starts from $6,500 + GST. Both are quoted against an agreed scope before work starts, and fees are paid in advance by phase. External legal or tax costs are quoted separately and always need your approval.
Start with a confidential fit check
The first conversation is short and costs nothing. We want to understand the decision you are facing, the deadline attached to it and whether this is work we should be doing at all. You do not need to send documents at that stage.
If the matter is a fit, the next step is usually the $850 initial strategic consultation, which includes up to one hour of pre-reading and a one-hour meeting.