Funding Equity: Who Gets What
The most disadvantaged communities get 12.8% of charity funding. The least disadvantaged get 46.0%. For the first time, we connected SEIFA disadvantage data to charity financial records to measure the gap.
Source: 35,428 charities matched to 2,643 SEIFA IRSD postcodes. ABS Census 2021 disadvantage index. ACNC Annual Information Statement financial data.
Funding by Disadvantage Decile
Every postcode in Australia is assigned a SEIFA IRSD decile (1 = most disadvantaged, 10 = least). We matched each charity's registered postcode to its decile and summed their financial data.
| Decile | Charities | Total Income | Govt Revenue | Donations | % of Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1← disadvantaged | 2,500 | $5.7B | $3.2B | $450.2M | 3.5% |
| 2← disadvantaged | 2,466 | $4.5B | $2.5B | $181.2M | 2.8% |
| 3← disadvantaged | 3,064 | $10.4B | $5.8B | $551.6M | 6.5% |
| 4 | 4,697 | $24.6B | $12.1B | $1.9B | 15.4% |
| 5 | 3,495 | $12.9B | $7.1B | $634.6M | 8.1% |
| 6 | 3,070 | $18.5B | $8.7B | $793.4M | 11.5% |
| 7 | 2,451 | $9.9B | $5.4B | $840.2M | 6.2% |
| 8← advantaged | 4,174 | $27.5B | $11.1B | $2.2B | 17.2% |
| 9← advantaged | 4,457 | $18.4B | $8.2B | $1.2B | 11.5% |
| 10← advantaged | 5,054 | $27.8B | $13.0B | $2.1B | 17.4% |
| Total | 35,428 | $160.2B | $77.1B | $10.8B | 100% |
What the Numbers Mean
Fewer charities where need is greatest
The most disadvantaged 30% of postcodes have just 8,030 charities (23% of total). The least disadvantaged 30% have 13,685(39%). The places that need the most help have the fewest organisations.
Government funding follows wealth
Average government revenue per charity: $1.4M in disadvantaged areas vs $2.4M in advantaged areas. Government money flows 65% more per charity to wealthy postcodes.
Donations are the most skewed
Total donations to disadvantaged postcodes: $1.2B. To advantaged postcodes: $5.5B. That's a 4.6x gap. Private giving concentrates in areas that are already well-served.
The structural explanation
Large national charities are headquartered in affluent metro postcodes (Sydney CBD, Melbourne inner suburbs) but serve communities nationally. Their income inflates the “advantaged” postcode totals. This doesn't invalidate the pattern — it IS the pattern. Money pools where power is, not where need is.
Indigenous-Serving Charities
Charities that list Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as beneficiaries. The funding gap is even wider than the sector average.
Indigenous-serving charities in disadvantaged postcodes earn 2.7x less than those in advantaged postcodes. Government funding per charity is $1.9M vs $5.0M — a 2.7x gap. The organisations closest to community receive the least.
Political Donations & Government Contracts
Cross-referencing 312,933 AEC political donation records with AusTender federal procurement data. When donors also receive government contracts, the relationship between money and power becomes visible.
| Donor | Donated | Parties | Govt Contracts | Contract Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Australian Electoral Commission ABN 21133285851 · 60,032 donations | $81.0B | 86 | 3 | $71K(0x) |
Australian Taxation Office ABN 34190894983 · 327,318 donations | $42.0B | 185 | 79 | $30.5M(0x) |
Westpac Banking Corporation ABN 33007457141 · 167,053 donations | $29.9B | 109 | 48 | $72.2M(0x) |
Commonwealth Bank of Australia ABN 48123123124 · 177,210 donations | $21.0B | 126 | 70 | $247.9M(0x) |
National Australia Bank ABN 12004044937 · 50,339 donations | $4.3B | 90 | 45 | $599.0M(0x) |
NSW Electoral Commission ABN 94828824124 · 5,346 donations | $2.3B | 12 | 3 | $359K(0x) |
ATO ABN 51824753556 · 14,486 donations | $1.9B | 77 | 85 | $79.2M(0x) |
Woolworths Limited ABN 88000014675 · 2,898 donations | $1.2B | 28 | 29 | $2.8M(0x) |
ANZ Banking Group Ltd ABN 11005357522 · 5,826 donations | $856.6M | 35 | 35 | $80.5M(0x) |
Wesfarmers Limited ABN 28008984049 · 10,850 donations | $843.0M | 35 | 2 | $181K(0x) |
Department of Finance ABN 99593347728 · 2,942 donations | $760.6M | 11 | 28 | $49.3M(0x) |
NSW Branch ALP ABN 96079246304 · 2,876 donations | $659.4M | 21 | 4 | $87K(0x) |
Thiess Pty Ltd ABN 87010221486 · 18,388 donations | $581.4M | 54 | 3 | $196.3M(0x) |
Slater & Gordon Ltd ABN 93097297400 · 4,567 donations | $564.9M | 30 | 5 | $85K(0x) |
Santos Limited ABN 80007550923 · 57,370 donations | $534.7M | 75 | 1 | $12K(0x) |
Australian Hotels Association (NSW) ABN 37008426793 · 36,913 donations | $505.4M | 72 | 4 | $560K(0x) |
Jones Lang LaSalle ABN 69008585260 · 2,001 donations | $459.1M | 9 | 1,546 | $2.7B(6x) |
Goldman Sachs Australia Pty Ltd ABN 21006797897 · 3,455 donations | $415.3M | 42 | 1 | $6.5M(0x) |
PricewaterhouseCoopers ABN 26563812149 · 91,128 donations | $381.6M | 87 | 1 | $353K(0x) |
Coles Myer Ltd ABN 11004089936 · 35,116 donations | $366.2M | 75 | 10 | $642K(0x) |
ABN-based matching between AEC Transparency Register and AusTender procurement data. 5,361 donor entities resolved to ABNs via normalised name matching against ASIC and ACNC registers. 279 donors also hold government contracts. Ratio shows contract value per dollar donated. Correlation does not imply causation, but transparency demands the question be asked.
Methodology
Disadvantage index: ABS SEIFA IRSD (Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage), 2021 Census.2,643 postcodes scored. Decile 1 = most disadvantaged 10% of postcodes nationally.
Charity financials: ACNC Annual Information Statement data (most recent reporting year). Charities matched by registered postcode to SEIFA decile.
Political donations: AEC Transparency Register (312,933 records, 1998-2025). Donor ABNs resolved via normalized name matching against 2.1M ASIC company records and 64,000 ACNC charity records. Cross-referenced with AusTender procurement data to identify donors who also hold government contracts.
Postcode coordinates: 12,141 Australian postcode centroids from Matthew Proctor's open-source database, with SA2/SA3/SA4 geographic hierarchy and remoteness classification.
Limitations: Charity postcode reflects registered address, not service delivery area. Large national charities headquartered in affluent postcodes inflate those deciles. This is itself a finding: institutional power concentrates geographically.
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