How your money is used

As an organisation run entirely on voluntary contributions, we sincerely thank our generous supporters for their powerful commitment to UNICEF Australia’s work for children around the world.

We are honoured to receive ongoing support from those who donated either as a monthly Global Parent, as a subscriber to Paddington’s Postcards, or as a responder to an emergency appeal. We also received support from those who donated after reading our regular stories from the fields and from individuals who left a gift in their Will.

No matter how you chose to have an impact for children, thank you from all of us at UNICEF Australia.

Financial Statements

With the generous support of our donors and supporters, UNICEF Australia was able to help slow the spread of COVID-19 and minimise its impact on children and families around the world. This included the provision of life-saving health supplies and the delivery of water and hygiene facilities. UNICEF worked to help keep children and young people connected to education, while continuing its commitment to long-term development programs

As a registered charity under the Australian Charities & Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), UNICEF Australia is committed to transparency and accountability. Our charity details, programs and financial reporting is publicly available on the ACNC Charity Register here: Australian Committee For UNICEF Limited | ACNC

How we spend your money

Thanks to our supporters, we’ve been able to contribute funds to international and Australian-based programs, as well as local program support costs and community education which informs and educates Australians on children’s rights.

Here are some of the key highlights

• In 2021 our contribution to children represented 82 per cent of overall expenditure, excluding non-monetary costs and amounts funded by UNICEF grants.
• UNICEF Australia's overall contribution to global programs more than doubled to $21.4 million.
• $8.8 million was sent to support UNICEF's COVID-19 response in India through which 4,650 oxygen concentrators and 40 oxygen generation plants were installed and more than 41 million children and women accessed primary health care services.
• Together with generous public donations, and the support of UNICEF Australia's COVID Vaccination Alliance, a further $3.1 million was contributed to the global COVAX mechanism for procurement and equitable distribution of life-saving COVID-19 vaccines.
• With the support of the Australian community and the Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), UNICEF Australia contributed $9.1 million to Priority Programs across the East Asia and Pacific region and has advanced a further $3 million in prepayments to continue these programs in 2022.

Specifically, for Australia

Consistent with our aim that all Australian children and young people have a fair chance to achieve their potential, UNICEF Australia invested $1.1 million in domestic programs focusing on early childhood education within Indigenous communities and skills development for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students entering adulthood.

UNICEF Australia is also supporting the development of the Family Friendly Workplace recognition framework, which guides employers on best practice to help employees meet their work, family, and wellbeing needs.

Fundraising and Administration Costs

Fundraising costs reduced by $1.7 million across 2021 as we prioritised high-performing activities and reduced investments elsewhere. Fundraising costs are funded through a combination of UNICEF grant funding (2021: $4.2 million; 2020: $3.2 million) and UNICEF Australia resources (2021: $5.4 million; 2020: $8.2 million).

Accountability and administration expenditure is required to efficiently run UNICEF Australia. It includes items such as staff costs for finance, human resources, and administration as well as audit fees and insurances. Amid growing revenues and programmatic activity, accountability and administration costs increased by $0.3 million but decreased to 6 per cent of overall expenditure.

How do we use each dollar donated?

• 82¢
  last year, 82 cents went directly to program expenditure and community education, including long-term development and emergency response work.
• 12¢
  last year, 12 cents covered the essential costs of raising public awareness and fundraising to generate more support for UNICEF’s work.
• 6¢
  last year, 6 cents were spent on UNICEF Australia’s accountability and administration.

UNICEF

UNICEF Australia works in cooperation with UNICEF, supporting humanitarian and development programs around the world. UNICEF is a signatory to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) and publicly discloses information on programmes and operations on its Transparency Portal. The portal also has links to a growing number of corporate documents such as organisational policies, operational guides, supply and logistics, country programme documents, evaluations, audit reports, and annual programme results reports.

UNICEF Transparency Portal