Fund-raising for foreign charitable purposes

Response to parliamentary question on the waivers for 80:20 fund-raising rule for fund-raising for foreign charitable purposes

1. Mr Speaker, I note that the honourable member had also asked a PQ on the same topic last year, at the 8 of March 2022 Parliamentary sitting.  So I also kindly ask him to refer to our reply given then, as it remains relevant.  
2. In the past five years, the Commissioner of Charities (COC) has, on average, granted about 70 waivers of the 80:20 fund-raising rule each year. More than 70% of the waivers were granted for private appeals such as within schools, churches and other organisations to support charitable work in other countries such as school programmes or missionary work. The majority of the remaining appeals granted waivers were for disaster and humanitarian relief efforts. For example, in 2022, there were 56 waivers granted for private appeals, while 16 permits granted with waivers were for humanitarian relief, such as for the crisis in Ukraine, and natural disasters such as the Pakistan floods and earthquakes in Afghanistan and Indonesia. More recently, waivers were also granted for appeals supporting relief efforts for the Türkiye – Syria Earthquake.