Charity websites and ACNC registration obligations

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission does not directly mandate what a charity’s website must contain, but its governance and reporting obligations shape what an accurate charity website needs to say, and its public Charity Register means much of a charity’s own reported information is independently checkable by anyone, including a donor deciding whether to give.

This page describes the general regulatory framework. It is not a statement about any specific charity’s registration status or compliance position, and current ACNC guidance should be checked directly for anything specific to a particular charity.

What the ACNC actually regulates for a registered charity’s governance

The ACNC is the independent national regulator for charities, responsible for registration, maintaining the public Charity Register, and administering the ACNC Governance Standards — a set of minimum requirements covering matters such as remaining charitable, operating lawfully, and being run in an accountable and responsible way, including requirements around the charity’s governing body (“Responsible People”).

Basic Religious Charities are a genuine exception to charity registration, not an edge case to gloss over

Most registered charities must comply with the ACNC Governance Standards, but Basic Religious Charities — a defined category under the ACNC’s rules — are exempt from the Governance Standards in full, not partially. That exemption does not remove every other obligation: a Basic Religious Charity still must submit an Annual Information Statement, notify the ACNC of specified changes, and comply with the External Conduct Standards if it operates outside Australia. A charity’s website describing its governance or reporting position should reflect which category it actually falls into. The two categories carry meaningfully different obligations, not a single uniform standard.

Annual reporting, Responsible People, and governing document changes most donors can actually check

Registered charities must submit an Annual Information Statement to the ACNC, generally due within six months of the end of the charity’s reporting period, and (subject to some size-based reporting tiers) may also need to submit financial reports. Charities must also notify the ACNC of changes to specified details, including changes to Responsible People and to the charity’s governing document. Much of this information becomes part of the public Charity Register, meaning a donor can independently check whether a charity’s website claims about its size, activities and governance are consistent with what has actually been reported — a mismatch between a website’s public claims and its ACNC filings is a checkable, specific risk rather than an abstract one.

What a website commonly needs to get right about its charitable activities, once registration is confirmed

A registered charity’s website should describe its charitable purpose and activities consistently with what is registered with the ACNC, avoid overstating its size, reach or financial position beyond what its reported figures support, and be accurate about its governance structure if it makes any public statement about that structure. None of this is a website-specific ACNC rule as such — it is the general principle that public claims should be consistent with what has actually been reported to the regulator, applied to the medium most donors will actually read.

Deductible gift recipient status, and why it should not be assumed

Not every registered charity holds deductible gift recipient (DGR) status, which is what allows a donor to claim a tax deduction for a gift, and DGR status is a separate endorsement from charity registration itself, administered through the Australian Taxation Office. A website inviting donations should state its DGR status accurately, since implying tax-deductibility that does not apply is a materially misleading claim to a donor deciding how much to give and on what basis.

Fundraising regulation for a registered ACNC charity sits outside the ACNC itself, and that boundary matters

Charitable fundraising activities are regulated separately, at the state and territory level, rather than by the ACNC, and a charity fundraising online — including through its own website — may need to consider fundraising rules in the states and territories where it solicits donations, distinct from ACNC charity registration itself. This is genuinely changing. State and territory treasurers have agreed to a set of nationally consistent fundraising principles, intended to streamline what was historically a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction registration burden. Queensland has already moved from separate registration to a lighter notification process for charities already registered with the ACNC, which the ACNC’s own published guidance confirms.

Western Australia is a different, and currently unsettled, case. As at the time of writing, the ACNC’s own published WA guidance still describes a Charitable Collections Licence as required to collect for charitable purposes there — this has not yet changed in practice. Separately, Western Australia’s Parliament has passed the Charitable Collections Amendment Act 2025 (assented 4 December 2025), which is understood to move toward a deemed-licence-via-notification model rather than removing the licence requirement outright — a charity would still hold a licence, triggered by notification rather than a separate application. This site could not confirm the amendment had commenced as in force, and the ACNC has not yet published updated guidance reflecting it. Treat Western Australia as still requiring separate authorisation to fundraise until the ACNC’s own page says otherwise, and check that page directly rather than assuming the Queensland pattern has already extended there.

Whether a specific state still requires separate registration, a notification, or neither for a specific charity is a live, changing question that needs checking against current ACNC and state guidance rather than assumed from an older, more burdensome picture of the requirement, or from a reform that has passed but not yet commenced.

What genuinely needs the ACNC or advice for your organisation, not this page

Whether a specific organisation qualifies as a registered charity, or as a Basic Religious Charity specifically. What a specific charity’s current Annual Information Statement and financial reports actually show, and whether the website is consistent with them. Whether a specific charity holds DGR status. What state-based fundraising registration a specific charity needs for a specific fundraising activity. Each of these is answered by the ACNC’s own published register and guidance, the ATO for DGR status, or the relevant state fundraising regulator, not by a general information page.

Why a website redesign is a common point where this drifts

A charity’s website content is often written once at launch and then updated piecemeal — a new program added, a figure refreshed — without anyone revisiting whether the whole picture still matches the charity’s current ACNC filings. A redesign, or a significant content refresh, is a natural point to check. Check every factual claim about size, reach, governance and tax status against the current public register entry. Do not just carry old claims forward into a new design unchanged.

What to do next

If your organisation is a registered charity, check that your website’s description of your activities, size, governance and (if claimed) deductible gift recipient status is consistent with your current ACNC public register entry before publishing it, and confirm any online fundraising activity against the fundraising registration rules of every state or territory you solicit donations in. Where the practical build questions specific to a not-for-profit website are covered — separate from this regulatory framework — is on what a not-for-profit website has to reconcile.