According to Samuel Wilson, Australian Charities lie “at the heart of our social ecosystems”. Yet a post-pandemic world holds a myriad of challenges for the charity sector ranging from financial sustainability, a declining volunteer workforce and a growing concern regarding the wellbeing of employees and volunteers.
Consequently, a question emerges, what is the state of leadership in the Australian charity sector? The Australian Leadership Index presents their findings on how Australian’s view the integrity, competence and contribution of charities in their recent report.
Key findings include:
- Leadership for the greater good: 71/100 (+7 points above the national benchmark)
- Integrity: 71/100 (+8 points above the national benchmark)
- Contribution: 72/100 (+7 points above the national benchmark)
- Competence: 71/100 (+4 points above the national benchmark)
‘…charities are widely regarded as among the stewards of public interest and as demonstrating strong leadership for the greater good’.
Samuel Wilson, founder of australian leadership index
The results reveal how charities fall within the “golden quadrant’, in that they have good intentions and the means to achieve these intentions, demonstrating that the sector is held at a high regard by the public.
Future focus areas for the sector
The only metric in which the perceptions of the charity sector were significantly lagging behind the National benchmark was in technological innovation. Although the sector is well aware of the difficulties in staying up to date with the latest technology, implementing strategies to overcome this issue is an essential step.
About this report:
- Recognising that leadership for the greater good is fundamental to all institutions, the Australian Leadership Index (ALI) tracks a range of institutions across the government, public, private and not-for-profit sectors.
- ALI track key leadership metrics for twenty-five institutions across all sectors. These include three government institutions, four public sector institutions, twelve private sector institutions, and four not-for-profit institutions.
- The ALI is designed to measure public opinion regarding various types of social institutions (eg. charities), rather than an individual organisation. Therefore, results are presented as relating to charities in general, not specific organisations.
- This report draws on survey results obtained between October 2021 to December 2022. The data collected is based on each participant’s perception of leadership in the charities sector across this period, in accordance with ALI’s metrics.
