New campaign to put a human face on Australia’s
$239 billion charity sector
Community Council for Australia launches #AusWeWant / #ImagineAustralia, calling on charities and not-for-profits to tell their own stories
Australia’s charities and not-for-profits employ more people than retail, turn over more than the construction industry and hold over $500 billion in assets — yet the sector remains one of the least understood parts of the national economy. From today, the Community Council for Australia (CCA) is asking the public to help change that, launching a national storytelling campaign designed to show, community by community, what the sector actually does.
The campaign, #AusWeWant / #ImagineAustralia, will invite charities and not-for-profit organisations across the country to share stories and photos illustrating the difference they make — either by submitting them directly to CCA or by posting on social media and tagging the organisation.
CCA CEO David Crosbie said the campaign responds to a data and awareness gap that is holding the sector back, despite its scale.
“Charities are 11 per cent of Australia’s workforce. They turn over more than $239 billion a year — 8 per cent of our GDP — and hold over $500 billion in assets. They employ more people than retail, and are bigger than the construction industry, and yet we know so little about them,” Mr Crosbie said.
According to CCA, the sector employs 1.6 million people and spends $128 billion a year on staffing alone, supported by 3.9 million volunteers. Workforce numbers have grown 40 per cent since 2017, but Mr Crosbie said there is still no national workforce plan and only limited data on who the employees are, their conditions, qualifications or diversity.
The funding relationship with government is similarly under-documented. Almost half of all charity income — more than $100 billion — comes from government, but Mr Crosbie said there’s no clear picture of contract lengths, reporting burdens, organisational autonomy, or whether funding covers the full cost of delivering services.
“We can’t say, with evidence, what value the sector contributes back to communities across Australia. We know it does good, but what does that mean in human, environmental and economic impact?” he said.
Mr Crosbie said the absence of data leaves the sector unable to model the impact of policy changes in the way other major industries can.
“Other comparable major industries like primary producers, construction, tourism, and so on can model the impact of a policy change before it lands. There is no modelling in the charities and not-for-profit sector because there isn’t the data to inform the modelling.”
Access to capital is another gap. Unlike small businesses, which can borrow against future revenue, charities are largely locked out of finance that would let them smooth out short- term government funding cycles and invest in their own capacity, Mr Crosbie said.
Combined with funding cycles that rarely run beyond one or two years, the result is a sector permanently managing cash flow rather than building for the future.
Mr Crosbie also pointed to a cultural barrier within the sector itself: charities exist to serve their cause rather than their own organisation, and that instinct runs deep enough that collective advocacy for the sector’s sustainability can feel self-serving. As a result, little money, time or priority is attached to building sector capacity.
“None of this is fixed by another roundtable or another set of recommendations that go nowhere,” he said. “It starts with data: a proper workforce plan, transparency on government contracting terms, and a genuine effort to measure the value charities create. It continues with access to capital — even modest lines of credit — so organisations aren’t rebuilding themselves from scratch every funding cycle. And it requires charities to accept that investing time and money in the sector’s own advocacy isn’t a distraction from the mission. It’s what makes the mission possible.”
Research from the Community Compass, cited by CCA, found many Australians don’t have a clear picture of what the charity and not-for-profit sector is, the contribution it makes, or even how to engage with charities and community groups in their own neighbourhood.
“If we don’t tell our story and engage people with our value, no one else will,” Mr Crosbie said.
#AusWeWant / #ImagineAustralia is intended to close part of that gap by putting a human face on the sector’s impact. The campaign is built around the aspiration of a just, fair, safe, inclusive, equal-opportunity, creative, confident, optimistic, authentic, united, kind, generous and compassionate Australia — the future Mr Crosbie said the sector works toward every day — and invites the public to help make it tangible.
