About this organisation
Summary of activities
Bush Heritage s vision of healthy Country, protected forever is powered by its supporters and their generous donations. During the 2023-2024 financial year, we received our second highest recorded revenue, enabling us to rise to the challenges posed by the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Guided by the three focus areas of our 2030 Strategy, we are protecting and building resilience into our ecosystems and deepening and doubling our impact. We acquired two new nature reserves. Significantly, Evelyn Downs on the lands of the Antakirinja Matu-Yankunytjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people in the Painted Desert of South Australia. This is our largest reserve to date and was purchased off the back of our largest ever fundraising campaign. At 235,000 hectares, it protects swathes of rocky outcrops and creeks lined with Coolabahs and River Red Gums. Sanstrom Reserve on Dja Dja Wurrung Country in Victoria protects intact Box-Ironbark woodlands, Heathy woodlands and Grassy woodlands. At 159 hectares, it is comparatively small but connects two existing reserves and is a vital area of habitat in a heavily cleared region. It provides a corridor for species to move between the nearby Kara Kara National Park and Dalyenong Conservation Reserve. These reserves add to the total of 21.6 million hectares that we helped protect and contribute to the management of this year. Across this land, we submitted applications for four Special Wildlife Reserves in Queensland to provide national park level of protection. We undertook five landscape rehydration projects to help water flow as needed through diverse ecosystems, and we planted 310 hectares in biodiverse revegetation projects. We deepened our commitment to our 27 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partnerships by investing in our staff across the country, so that our Aboriginal Partnerships Managers can connect more deeply with Traditional Custodians and support shared aspirations for Country. Our work growing and sharing knowledge with other Indigenous Ranger groups led to the finding of new populations of the endangered Night Parrot, beyond Bush Heritage s Pullen Pullen Reserve. In agricultural partnerships, an emerging focus area of our work, we developed a four-phase framework that can be applied to small-scale family farms or large-scale pastoral properties. We were engaged in baseline biodiversity assessments and advice across 9.8 million hectares where we found a diverse mix of ecosystems and threatened species. This reinforced our need to work at landscape scale, beyond our reserves boundaries, in the 58 percent of the country that is managed for agriculture. We also supported 62 emerging conservationists through our Seeding the Future Program and published 76 research projects. Our strategy is strong. Our people are generous and proactive. We are in a robust position for 2024-2025 to give nature the fighting chance it deserves for the benefit of all life on earth.
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Outcomes
Outcomes are self-reported by charities
Programs and activities
Name: Buying & Protecting Land For Conservation
URL: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/what-we-do/our-priorities/buying-land
Classification: Environment (Environment)
Beneficiaries:- Animals
- Environment
- General community in Australia
Name: Protecting Native Species
URL: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/what-we-do/our-priorities/species
Classification: Environment (Environment)
Beneficiaries:- Animals
- Environment
- General community in Australia
Name: Conservation Science
URL: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/what-we-do/our-priorities/science
Classification: Environment (Environment)
Beneficiaries:- Animals
- Environment
- General community in Australia
Name: Engaging with Traditional Custodians
URL: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/what-we-do/our-priorities/aboriginal
Classification: Environment (Environment)
Beneficiaries:- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Animals
- Environment
- General community in Australia
Name: Climate Change Mitigation
URL: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/what-we-do/our-challenge/climate-change
Classification: Climate change (Environment > Climate change)
Beneficiaries:- Animals
- Environment
- General community in Australia
Name: Impact Measurement
URL: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/what-we-do/our-impact/measuring
Classification: Biodiversity (Environment > Biodiversity)
Beneficiaries:- Animals
- Environment
- General community in Australia
Name: Agricultural Partnerships
URL: https://www.bushheritage.org.au/what-we-do/our-priorities/agriculture
Classification: Biodiversity (Environment > Biodiversity)
Beneficiaries:- Animals
- Environment
- General community in Australia
Finances
What is this?
This graph shows how much revenue (money in) and expenses (money out) the charity has had each year over the last few years. Charities have many sources of revenue, such as donations, government grants, and services they sell to the public. Similarly, expenses are everything that allows the charity to run, from paying staff to rent.
What should I be looking for?
First off, this graph gives a general indication of how big the charity is - charities range in size from tiny (budgets of less than $100,000) to enormous (budgets more than $100 million). You're also looking for variability - if the charity's revenue and expenses are jumping up and down from year to year, make sure there's a good reason for it.
Unlike companies, charities and not-for-profits aren't on a mission to make money. However, if they spend more than they receive, eventually they will go into too much debt and run into trouble. As a very general rule, you want revenue to be slightly above expenses. If expenses is reliably above revenue, the charity is losing money. If revenue is much larger than expenses, it means the charity might not be using its resources effectively. It isn't always that simple, however, and there's a lot of reasons a charity might not follow this pattern. They might be saving up for a big purchase or campaign, or they might have made a big one-off payment. If you're worried, always look at the annual and financial reports to understand why the charity is making the decisions it is.
What is this?
If a charity receives more money than it spends, that's a surplus (in business, it would be called profit). If it spends more than it receives, that's a deficit. This chart shows surpluses and deficits for the charity over the last few years.
What should I be looking for?
Unlike companies, charities and not-for-profits aren't on a mission to make money. However, if they spend more than they receive, eventually they will go into too much debt and run into trouble. As a very general rule, you want a charity to make a small surplus on average. A deficit means that charity lost money that year, which may indicate poor financial management or just a series of bad circumstances. If the charity always has a huge surplus, it means the charity might not be using its resources effectively. It isn't always that simple, however, and there's a lot of reasons a charity might not follow this pattern. They might be saving up for a big purchase or campaign, or they might have made a big one-off payment. If you're worried, always look at the annual and financial reports to understand why the charity is making the decisions it is.
What is this?
This chart compares the amount the charity receives from various sources, including donations (i.e. money given by the general public or philanthropy), goods and services, government grants, and other sources.
What should I be looking for?
Donations are an important source of revenue for some charities. Others rely more heavily on government funding, or on revenue from other sources. This is an indication of how much they need donors to accomplish their mission. Note that there is no 'good' or 'bad' amount of donations for a charity to have. It might be interesting to look at values over time - are they going up or down? A charity that gets less donations every year may be in trouble.
What is this?
Assets are things that the charity owns that are worth something. This could be anything from a car to investments. Similarly, liabilities are debts or obligations that the charity owes to someone else, like a loan or an agreement to pay for something.
What should I be looking for?
Firstly, in general a charity should have more assets than liabilities. If it doesn't, it implies that the charity might not be able to pay its debts, and you should look very closely at the charity's annual and financial reports to make sure they are taking steps to remedy this. Current assets should generally be above current liabilities - that means the charity can easily pay off the debts that are coming due soon. Beyond that, look for a large stockpile of assets. While a charity should have enough assets to keep it afloat in hard times (a 'buffer') if that stockpile gets too large the charity could be using that money more effectively. As always, if you have concerns check the annual and financial reports.
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