As a Public Benevolent Institution FTH achieves Donor Gift Recipient Status

Feed The Hungry and Deductible Gift Recipient Status

What is Deductible Gift Recipient status?

Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) status means that an organisation may receive gifts which are tax deductible. This means that your gifts to Feed The Hungry are now tax deductible. This endorsement was issued on the 9th November 2017 and back dated to 11th May 2017.

What is a Public Benevolent Institution?

A PBI is a type of charitable institution whose main purpose is to provide benevolent relief to people in need. PBI’s are recognised by the ACNC and ATO as a subtype of charity.
Click here for a PBI factsheet from the ACNC.

What is a ‘main purpose of benevolent relief’?

Benevolent relief includes working for the relief of poverty or distress (such as sickness, disability, destitution, suffering, misfortune or helplessness). Feed the Hungry’s main purpose is to provide relief to diseased, sick, infirm destitute, impoverished or starving persons and has been accepted as being a main purpose of benevolent relief.

Does this mean that Feed the Hungry can only provide benevolent relief?

No, as long as Feed the Hungry’s main purpose is benevolent, it can also have other non-benevolent purposes that are incidental.

Feed the Hungry has been providing benevolent relief for thirty years. Why has it only now obtained DGR status?

In essence, the ATO’s interpretation of the law has changed.

For many years, the ATO’s position was that a PBI had to provide relief directly and its work had to be in Australia for it to receive DGR status. As Feed the Hungry primarily raises money to send to its partners overseas for the relief of hunger in other countries, it was not considered to be a PBI.

The ATO’s position was challenged and the Federal Court found that the meaning of a PBI is broad enough to include an institution which raises funds for provision to associated entities for use in programs for the relief of hunger in the developing world.

Therefore, the ATO changed its position and Feed the Hungry has now obtained DGR status.