Why do we take compliance & ethics seriously?
As Not for Profits, the public trust us to do our work with commitment to ethical principles, transparency and accountability. At Good360 we take compliance and ethics seriously when it comes to how we handle our product donations. Our donors have placed their brand’s goodwill in our hands and we strive to protect these brands and safeguard the reputations of our Not-for-Profit recipients as well as ourselves.
Our mission at Good360 is to repurpose things of value by directing them to the Australians who need them most. We bring together the people working to lift up Australian communities, and the spare goods of businesses. We connect surplus with need. But in order to carry out our mission we require the trust of the businesses we work with to ensure their corporate donations are being distributed to the people who truly need them. This gives donors the confidence in Good360 to carry out the vetting and distribution process, ensuring they don’t have to individually screen recipients and allowing us to maximise the amount of people who can benefit from the donation.
It’s in everyone’s best interest to ensure that Good360 product donations are properly received, stored and distributed because, unfortunately, the bad behaviour of just one can jeopardise the benefits for all. If a donor’s product is misused, then there is risk of damage to corporate reputations and may result in Good360 being unable to distribute this product to all of its members.
5 steps we take to ensure compliance
- Strict criteria for Good360 membership:To become a recipient member of Good360, you must be registered with the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission (ACNC) or be a school that holds an ACARA My School registry ICSEA index score of below 1000 or is listed as ‘Special’.
- Review mission and programs:During your registration with Good360, we review your organisation’s mission and programs to ensure they do not conflict with our policies or the requirements of our corporate donors and also to assess whether you have a legitimate need for the products we supply.
- Maintain strict Terms & Conditions:During membership registration and each time you check out on the Good360 website, you agree to our Terms & Conditions that outline our strict product use guidelines. These Ts&Cs require you to store Good360 obtained products at a business location, use them to further your mission by giving the goods to people in need for free or using them to further your programs and not sell, trade, transfer or barter the goods for financial gain, including fundraising in raffles or selling in op shops.
- Implement restrictions on products:You may notice that you have to respond to questions in order to checkout certain goods or that there is a limit as to how many products you can add to your shopping cart. We utilise restrictions in order to minimise the likelihood of product misuse and also to comply with any donor requests for their products to only be distributed to certain cause areas that are important to their corporate guidelines and policies. We may also restrict certain promotions/benefits to organisations that have provided us with regular impact stories detailing how the donations are being utilised in their communities. This is because impact stories build trust between your organisation, Good360 and our donors (who we share the stories with).
- Spot checks/additional vetting:The Good360 compliance team also undertake random spot checks and additional vetting as needed, for example, if an organisation places a particularly large order. We may randomly request extra detail or even conduct visits to organisations to witness programs and how the products are being utilised in their communities. Our team utilises reporting to review ordering activity and will immediately action any suspicious behaviour or investigate any allegations, including taking legal action where necessary.
Given our robust compliance framework and the ethical behaviour of the wonderful organisations that we empower with product donations, violations to our rules are rare. However, when they do occur, we ensure they are responded to swiftly. More often than not, violations are accidental and corrected by ensuring all people involved understand Good360’s guidelines. However, we do have the right to cancel orders, revoke memberships and recover products from organisations that do not follow our rules.
Compliance, trust and ethical behaviour goes to the very heart of what we do here at Good360. We work hard to ensure all donations are used to help those in need and to meet all specific requirements of our corporate donors. Ultimately, it’s everyone’s responsibility to ensure that donations are being used correctly and we encourage the reporting of any misuse you might come across. We trust our recipients to operate with the utmost integrity in their programs to ensure we can continue to get brand new goods in the hands of the people who need them most.
Jessica Cameron
General Manager & Company Secretary
