You should read this if… you are interested in an evidence-based view of whether Australia’s charity sector is building balance sheets or converting revenue into service delivery. This post uses publicly available ACNC data (covering over 49,000 charities, with annual datasets available back to 2013) to examine sector “wealth” and balance‑sheet health, and finds that most Australian charities raising revenue from the public in 2019 appeared financially healthy, with assets and liabilities broadly proportionate to sector revenue. It notes that charities holding land and property tend to have larger balance sheets and that property value increases—particularly in metropolitan areas—have supported balance‑sheet strength, while revenue growth did not appear to be disproportionately used to inflate balance sheets; it also argues that adding cashflow data to ACNC reporting would enable a more complete assessment

Innovation is a tricky beast. It's not always clear that the risks outweigh the rewards. For those of us in for-purpose organisations, getting the business case right to fund innovation is critical; uncertainty can be a roadblock, but it doesn't have to be.

The best response to the turbulence and uncertainty being faced by the not-for-profit sector is to focus on delivering long-term value. This means having a 5 to 10 view of how the world is changing and how your organisation will respond to, exploit, or mitigate these changes. This is not about the prediction of the future, a futile activity, but rather about being ready for what might happen next.

You should read this if… you are a leader in business who wants a clearer way to strengthen planning and decision‑making in an uncertain, fast‑changing environment. This article introduces two simple but powerful frames for planning: understanding that every plan is built on a mix of knowledge and assumptions, and recognising that real‑world outcomes are shaped by how plans collide with reality. It explains how making assumptions explicit, testing them with foresight tools, and planning for shifting conditions helps leaders design more adaptable strategies—reducing surprise, improving execution, and increasing the likelihood that plans deliver impact and future growth even as circumstances change.