| Last Updated: | 28 March 2024 |
| Purpose: | Outlines Mary MacKillop Today’s approach to managing non-development activities. |
| Additional Authority: | ACFID |
| Scope: | Any Representative of Mary MacKillop Today. |
| Responsible Party: | International Programs and Quality Director |
Mary MacKillop Today is committed to ensuring that we accurately represent our activities through the separation of development activities from non-development activities in our operations, and to ensuring that funds and other resources designated for the purpose of aid and development will be used only for those purposes.
Given our mission, Mary MacKillop Today is committed to supporting the most vulnerable and marginalised in communities. At times, this may require a compassionate response that, whilst supporting the inherent dignity of people, may not change their situation nor contribute to alleviating poverty in the long-term. This assistance provided instead might aim to temporarily reduce the burden of poverty and provide short-term relief to recipients. Therefore, Mary MacKillop Today does undertake some non-development activities, including welfare and community support.
Mary MacKillop Today does not undertake any faith-based activities or activities designed to promote a particular religious adherence as outlined below. Mary MacKillop Today does not support activities that promote a particular political party or candidate.
There are activities supported by Mary MacKillop Today where people are given direct assistance and these fall under the category of welfare. Mary MacKillop Today currently supports some welfare projects. These projects are supported on the basis that short-term relief may, at times, be necessary in order to keep people alive.
Mary MacKillop Today’s community support projects are oftentimes projects within which the most vulnerable in communities are being supported and cared for. These projects do not typically meet all the criteria for development projects (i.e. they are not self-sustaining). Mary MacKillop Today understands that these projects will not bring about long-term change and, as such, are not considered development programs. These projects are not funded out of tax-deductible funds.
Funds raised for Mary MacKillop Today’s programs will not be used to promote a particular religious adherence, nor to support a political party or to promote a candidate or organisation affiliated to a particular party.
Mary MacKillop Today defines the promotion of religious adherence as “unduly benefitting community members who adhere to the Catholic, or any other, faith at the exclusion of others or using our projects as a tool for the evangelisation of the Catholic or any other faith”. This includes encouraging conversion from one faith to another or between denominations or sects of a faith, or excluding participation in projects based on religious adherence or practice. Mary MacKillop Today is committed to not promoting a particular religious adherence, and our programs are not intended to promote a particular religious adherence.
Mary MacKillop Today defines the support or promotion of a particular political party as any explicit or implied alignment between Mary MacKillop Today, our partners or our projects with a particular political candidate, party or ideology. This includes using Mary MacKillop Today personnel or resources (such as cars, stationary or office space) to aid in a political campaign. Mary MacKillop Today is committed to not promoting
political parties, organisations or candidates through its programs or using raised funds for this purpose.
Mary MacKillop Today achieves this commitment by:
- Making the distinction between ‘development’ and ‘non-development’ clear in fundraising, program documentation and other activities, in public communication and in reporting including expenditure reports and annual reports.
• Providing donors with the choice of contributing to development activities in fundraising solicitations that include references to both development and non-development activities.
• Documenting the separation in fundraising, programs and other activities, in public communication and in reporting.
• Reviewing all communications materials to ensure this separation is clear prior to publication.
• Ensuring funds raised for non-development activities are tracked, managed, reported and accounted for separately to those raised for development and humanitarian components. - Ensuring the separation of development and non-development activities in our programs.
• Appraising all project design documents to determine whether they include non-aid and development components, and including potential risk areas in the project risk analysis.
• Monitoring policy implementation through regular project site visits and by advertising Mary MacKillop Today’s Feedback and Complaints Policy (2.3) to ensure primary stakeholders have an avenue to report a breach of the Non-Development policy. - Ensuring partners are aware of the distinction between ‘development’ and ‘non-development’ activities.
• Ensuring this separation of funds and activities is clear in our annual signed Partnership Agreement with partners and country offices, and providing partners with a copy of this policy.
• Undertaking partner capacity assessments which identify whether the partner is engaged in non-development activities, and, if so, how it is able to manage and account for them separately to aid and
development activity.
• Ensuring Partnership Agreements include a clause on clear separation (through policy and guidelines) between aid and development and non-aid and development objectives and activities.
• Maintaining an ongoing dialogue with partners to reinforce the definitions of development and non-development activities and the need for distinction between development and non-development activities.
Representative:
Any person acting on behalf or under the name of Mary MacKillop Today including Board Members, volunteers, contractors, consultants, partners and staff.
Development and Humanitarian Initiatives:
Activities undertaken in order to reduce poverty and address global justice issues. In the non-government organisation sector, this may occur through a range of engagements that includes community projects, humanitarian response and emergency management, community education, advocacy, volunteer sending, provision of technical and professional services and resources, environmental protection and restoration, and promotion and protection of human rights.1
Non-Development Activity:
An activity undertaken to provide welfare, promote a particular religious adherence, or to support a particular party, candidate or organisation affiliated to a political party.2
1 ACFID, Good Practice Toolkit: General Definitions, ACFID Code of Conduct, 2024, https://acfid.asn.au/good-practice-toolkit/definitions/general-definitions/
2 Ibid, 2024
