Rural Aid Governance Statement
Rural Aid provides critical support to primary producers and rural communities during and after natural disasters (drought, fire and flood).
Rural Aid was founded in 2015, and experienced massive growth from June 2018 when media coverage of the drought increased as the severity spread across many regions. In 2019, the ACNC, as part of its regular review of charities, requested information from Rural Aid to ensure its governance standards were in accordance with regulatory requirements.
In July 2019, Rural Aid appointed a new Company Secretary and independent Board (https://www.ruralaid.org.au/board/). It also engaged a nationally recognised Governance organisation to undertake a review of its processes.
The ACNC and Rural Aid worked together to ensure that initiatives to improve the charity’s governance practices would support its future growth and delivery of its critical support to primary producers and rural communities.
The Chairman of Rural Aid, Alex Hutton, said that Rural Aid has demonstrated its commitment to strong corporate governance practices and that the charity has finalised the implementation of the high-priority initiatives to improve its governance.
An ACNC spokesperson acknowledged the significant progress that has been made through the cooperative effort of Rural Aid and the ACNC, noting that it is evident that the charity is committed to ensuring its governance practices support its large-scale operations now and into the future.
Contact: CEO Sarah Hunter, 0412 943 683