The Australian Charities & Not-for-Profit Commission was created by the Labor government in late 2012. The ACNC then weathered attempts by the Abbott government to abolish it.

The ACNC regulates over 50,000 charities. Of that number, nearly 1 in 4 charities record a main activity as religion and enjoy tax breaks denied to secular organisations.

Education plays a big role in funding to Australian charities. Australian universities are among our 'wealthiest' charities due to HECS, assets and research grants/tenders received.

Religious schools also dominate government funding as one in three children are now educated in the private system. However it is important to note that comparisons between funding of privately owned charities such as schools and hospitals must be compared with funding to comparative government institutions in order to properly understand the system.

Government organisations can not be registered charities so funding to public schools and hospitals is not in the charities data. School funding is a program in the Commonwealth budget project available from the top menu.

Religious charities are also prominant in social services including aged care, private hospitals and relief of poverty due to their historical role in these functions.

This project aggregates financials across multiple variables, providing snapshots of the financial health of registered charities by their declared main activity, number of welfare recipients and federal electorate.

The project also links ABN with Commonwealth grants, tenders and DGR data, providing a wealth of information on individual charities.

The level and scope of this analysis is not available elsewhere.