Deductible gift recipient status – community charities

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Community charity DGRs can engage in activities across all DGR categories.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) may endorse an entity with broad purposes as a DGR under the community charity DGR category, provided it meets all the eligibility criteria.

A community charity may be a trust or incorporated body. It must also be a registered charity and have eligible purposes.

The ATO cannot endorse your charity as a DGR under this category unless the minister has specified the entity in a ministerial declaration.

The minister decides which entities are specified in the ministerial declaration.

Being specified in the ministerial declaration does not automatically grant or guarantee DGR status.

Visit the Federal Register of Legislation to see subdivision 30-B of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA) for community charities

Community charity DGR process

Getting your community charity endorsed as a DGR will require engagement with Treasury, the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission and the ATO.

You will need to be successful in each of these steps to become a community charity DGR.

  1. submit your proposal to be specified in the ministerial declaration to the minister
  2. register as a charity with ACNC (if you haven’t already)
  3. apply to ATO for endorsement
  4. maintain your endorsement

Prepare your proposal

Before you submit your proposal to the minister make sure you:

Understand the rules

You need to read and understand the rules for establishing and maintaining community charities as DGRs.

These are set out in the Taxation Administration (Community Charity) Guidelines 2025 (guidelines).

Visit the Federal Register of Legislation to view the guidelines

Seek legal and financial advice

You should seek your own legal and financial advice to consider whether being endorsed as a community charity DGR is right for your entity.

Decide on your charity type

To gain DGR status as a community charity, your entity must be either a:

  • community charity trust as defined in section 426-117 of the Tax Administration Act 1953 (TAA) or
  • community charity corporation as defined in section 426-118 of the TAA.

Visit the Federal Register of Legislation to view the definitions in the TAA

Meet eligible purposes

Mandatory purposes

Your community charity must have the mandatory purposes set out in section 30-110 of the ITAA. This means you:

  • provide money, property or benefits to a DGR (other than to ancillary funds or other community charities) for their DGR purpose and
  • are engaging in activities or purposes that are the same as a DGR (other than an ancillary fund, community charity or specific listing).

Visit the Federal Register of Legislation to view the ITAA

Other purposes

Your community charity may also establish one or more DGR entities, other than another community charity or ancillary fund.

You will need to set out the purposes of your community charity in its governing rules.

Submit your proposal to be specified as a community charity

We recommend you include the following information in your proposal to the minister.

Information to include

  • entity information:
    • legal name
    • Australian Business Number
    • trust deed or constitution (as applicable)
    • certificate of registration or incorporation (for constitutional corporations or body corporates, as applicable)
  • entity purpose:
    • purpose or purposes description, supported by references in the governing documents
  • governing documents:
    • compliant winding up clauses
    • compliant liability clauses
    • minimum annual distribution requirements
    • confirmation that your entity is operating in Australia
    • if the entity is a trust
      • confirmation that the trustee of the proposed community charity is a constitutional corporation through a clause to this effect in the governing document for the trust and
      • provide the governing document for the corporate trustee, if available.
  • donation estimates:
    • an estimate of donation amounts you expect to receive annually for the next 5 years if granted DGR status
    • include the source of the funds as line items, whether individuals, businesses or ancillary funds.
  • philanthropic character:
    • entity activity details
    • public benefit to the community
    • links to the entity’s website or annual reports, if available.
  • contact details:
    • name and telephone number, of a main point of contact for your proposal.

Registered charity status

If your entity is a registered charity include this information in your proposal.

Your entity doesn’t have to be a registered charity to be included in the ministerial declaration, but it must be registered before you are endorsed by the ATO as a DGR.

Visit the ACNC website to register your charity

Other information

The minister does not decide on whether your governing documents are compliant with the guidelines. We request this information to give assurance to the minister that your entity is ready for DGR endorsement.

Submit your proposal

Email your community charity status proposal to dgr@treasury.gov.au

Proposal outcome

You will be notified in writing of the outcome of your proposal.

Successful proposals

If your proposal is successful, your community charity will be named in the Taxation Administration (Community Charity Trusts and Corporations) Declaration 2025 (ministerial declaration).

Visit the Federal Register of Legislation to view the ministerial declaration

The government may choose to impose conditions on a community charity.

Unsuccessful proposals

If your proposal is unsuccessful, you can submit a new proposal at any time.

Being named in a ministerial declaration is not an administrative decision. It is a policy decision of the government.

Merits review is not available.