Nambucca Valley Relief Fund - Rules

One: Nambucca Valley Council has set up the Nambucca Valley Relief Fund to take donations from members of the public with the aim to assist disaster impacted and necessitous circumstances residents and/or property owners, while ensuring that all monies donated are used solely on assisting residents and/or property owners within the Nambucca Valley.

Two: Disbursement of monies from the Fund are for the recovery and reconstruction efforts of disaster impacted and necessitous circumstances residents and/or property owners, for the relief of persons who have suffered injury, loss or damage as a result of disaster and necessitous circumstances.

Three: Monies are allocated in a fair manner, which take into account the following principles:

  • Monies provided to people in necessitous circumstances are gifts from the community, not a form of compensation;
  • Monies provided may complement or recognise other forms of assistance received by those affected, including any insurance payments, government grants, other gifts from public donations or other sources of known support;
  • Monies may be provided irrespective of the insurance status of the recipient;
  • An application form in order to ascertain an applicant’s eligibility under necessitous circumstances may be required.  Council will endeavour to share application forms which demonstrate an applicant’s eligibility with other government agencies and charities to avoid unnecessary duplication.

Four: All funds received will either be:

  • Allocated by the Committee directly to those residents and/or property owners adversely affected by disaster or necessitous circumstance via specific grant or program;
  • Contributed to a community group or third party providing a support service/disaster recovery activity. Note: with these funds community groups or third parties can only provide assistance to those people who fit the necessitous circumstances criteria; or
  • Donated to Australian charities who will manage the distribution of donated monies to residents adversely affected by disaster or under necessitous circumstances on behalf of the Fund. The funds will only be distributed to registered Nambucca Valley based charities.

Five: The Fund will utilise a separate bank account to manage all funds receipted. Means of payment allowed will include credit and debit cards via Council's online donations portal and cash and cheque payments to the Nambucca Valley Council.

Six: Council will set up a trust fund within its general ledger and manage all funds received through this trust.

Seven: The fund will operate on a non-profit basis. Council will not use any funds donated for any administration or other non-charitable purposes, and all funds donated will only be used for the purposes as detailed in Rule Four (4) above.

Eight: Council will activate the Fund as required following a local disaster or necessitous circumstance and collect monies through the Fund for an allocated timeframe as agreed by the Fund’s governing Committee. Once the timeframe has elapsed the Fund will be deactivated until any subsequent local disaster occurs.

Nine: Monies collected through the Fund for any one particular event will be distributed within two years from the commencement of the event. Should a secondary event or more occur within that timeframe a separate tally of donations to each event will be kept.

Ten: If the Fund is wound up or if endorsement of the Fund as a deductible gift recipient is revoked, any surplus assets of the Fund remaining after the payment of liabilities attributable to it, shall be transferred to a fund, authority or institution to which income tax deductible gifts can be made.

Eleven: The Fund will have a gift fund that will be used to only accept:

  • Gifts of money for the principal purpose of the Fund,
  • Contributions made in relation to an eligible fundraising event held for the principal purpose of the Fund,
  • Money received by the organisation because of such gifts and contributions. The gift fund operates through the trust account set up by Council.

Twelve: Reconciliations and accounts will be prepared for the Fund on a minimum yearly basis or as required.

Thirteen: Receipts issued in Nambucca Valley Council’s name with the statement ‘Donations of $2 or more to the Nambucca Valley Relief Fund’ are tax deductible.’

Fourteen: The Fund will be managed by the Local Recovery Committee, made up of responsible persons who have a degree of responsibility to the general community. The Local Recovery Committee will identify the areas of greatest need for financial assistance in helping our residents and/or property owner recover from disaster and necessitous circumstance.

Fifteen: The ATO will be notified of any changes to the fund rules within twenty one (21) days.

 

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