9 June 2026
In a May 2026 piece for the Institute of Community Directors Australia, SCGV’s Founder & CEO Paul Ronalds welcomes new guidance from the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) — Australia’s national charity regulator — on the responsible investment of charity assets. But Paul argues it falls short. By treating impact investment as an optional add-on rather than a core governance expectation, the guidance leaves trustees without the nudge they need to stop treating their balance sheets as a reservoir of future grants and start deploying capital purposefully in service of their mission.
Drawing on examples including SCGV’s own Generation Empowerment Fund and the Paul Ramsay Foundation’s total impact approach, Paul sets out why the assumed trade-off between financial returns and impact is more nuanced than many trustees believe, and what it would take for charities to shift from passive portfolios to purposeful capital — a question relevant well beyond Australia’s charity sector.
