SITREP #6: Registered
Subject: Weight of War LTD is now a registered Australian charity, and what that does and does not change
Prepared: 3 October 2026
Status: ACNC registration confirmed. DGR endorsement still with the ATO.
Bottom line up front
The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) has registered WEIGHT OF WAR LIMITED, ABN 44 698 550 999, as a charity.
Three things you should take from that.
It is backdated to day one. Our registration date is 29 May 2026, the day the company was incorporated. Not the day the paperwork cleared.
Donations are not yet tax deductible. Our application for Commonwealth charity tax concessions, which includes deductible gift recipient (DGR) endorsement, has been passed to the Australian Taxation Office. Until the ATO endorses us, a donation to Weight of War is not tax-deductible. We will say so plainly on every donate page until that changes, and we will tell you the day it does.
We are now regulated, and that is the point. Registration brings obligations: annual reporting, governance standards, a public record anyone can inspect. We asked for that scrutiny. A veterans' charity that will not open its books has no business asking you for money.
Two things sit behind this that are worth stating.
It took four months and a formal information request. The ACNC did not wave us through. In September they issued a formal request under section 30-15(1) of the ACNC Act asking us to document our relationship with a commercial provider we buy veteran programme places from. We answered it in twelve pages with a verification table separating what we had checked ourselves from what the provider had asserted. That is the standard we will hold to.
Charity status is a licence, not a trophy. It can be revoked. The obligations below are not a formality we are reporting for show. They are the conditions we keep operating under.
1. What happened
Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
29 May 2026 | Weight of War Limited incorporated. ACN 698 550 999 |
13 June 2026 | Inaugural board meeting. Constitution, financial policy and partner MOUs adopted |
Mid 2026 | Charity registration application lodged with the ACNC |
September 2026 | ACNC issues a formal information request under s 30-15(1) |
5 September 2026 | Response lodged, including an independent verification table |
2 October 2026 | ACNC confirms registration, effective from 29 May 2026 |
Pending | ATO decision on charity tax concessions and DGR endorsement |
Our financial year ends 30 June.
2. What registration actually means
Charity registration in Australia is not a title you adopt. It is a determination by a Commonwealth regulator that an organisation is not-for-profit, that it has a charitable purpose, and that the purpose is for the public benefit.
What it confirms about us:
We are not-for-profit. No profit or asset can be distributed to members or directors. Our directors are unremunerated.
We have a charitable purpose for public benefit, being the mental health, wellbeing and re-purposing of Australian veterans.
We meet the ACNC Governance Standards, the minimum standards for how a registered charity is run and how its board is accountable.
We appear on the ACNC Charity Register, a public database. Anyone can look us up and read our governing documents and, in time, our annual reporting.
What it does not do on its own: it does not make donations tax deductible. That is a separate decision, made by the ATO, under a separate test. See section 4.
3. What changes for you
If you are a veteran
Nothing about access changes. The Weight of War Run stays free to enter for everyone, veteran or not. The weighted vest programme stays free. Programme places with our partner organisations are still bought and allocated the same way.
What does change is the floor under it. A registered charity has to keep records, report annually and meet governance standards to stay registered. That makes the thing more durable than one bloke's goodwill.
If you donate
Right now, your donation is not tax deductible. We are not going to dress that up. Our DGR application is with the ATO and we will announce the outcome either way.
What your money does has not changed. General pool donations are split evenly between our two beneficiary partners after a capped slice retained for public liability insurance, regulatory fees and event compliance, under the retention model in our Financial Management Policy. That policy caps what can be held back and requires dual director authorisation for strategic spending.
If you sponsor us
You are now sponsoring a registered charity, with an ABN, a public register entry and annual reporting obligations. For most corporate partners that is the difference between a conversation and a contract. If your organisation needs our registration details for a procurement or sponsorship process, section 6 has them.
If you are an RSL sub-branch or an ESO
We can now be dealt with as a registered charity for the purposes of joint activity, referrals and grant partnerships. We are actively seeking RSL sub-branch partnerships ahead of the 2026 Run.
4. What has not been decided: the ATO and DGR
This is the open question, so we will put it in its own section rather than bury it.
Charity registration and DGR endorsement are two different things. The ACNC decides whether you are a charity. The ATO decides whether gifts to you are deductible, against its own categories and tests. A registered charity can hold charity tax concessions and still not be a DGR.
Where we sit: the ACNC has passed our tax concession application to the ATO. No decision has been issued to us.
Until the ATO endorses Weight of War as a deductible gift recipient:
Donations to Weight of War are not tax deductible.
We will not describe any donation, sponsorship or raffle contribution as tax deductible.
Our donate page, sponsorship pack and receipts will say so.
If the ATO endorses us, we will publish the endorsement date and the DGR item we are endorsed under, and we will say clearly from which date gifts become deductible.
5. What we now have to do
Registration is conditional and ongoing. For the record, these are the obligations we are now under.
Notify the ACNC of changes. Changes to our address for service, our Responsible People (directors), our legal name or our governing document must be notified. At our current size that is within 60 days.
Report annually. An Annual Information Statement must be lodged each year within six months of the end of our financial year, which for us is 30 June. The ACNC applies transitional due dates for newly registered charities and we will confirm and publish our first due date. We will lodge a financial report even where it is optional at our size.
Meet the Governance Standards. Five standards covering not-for-profit purpose, accountability to members, compliance with the law, the suitability of Responsible People and the duties of Responsible People.
Keep records. Financial and operational records, kept properly, available to the regulator.
Stay eligible. If we stop being not-for-profit, or stop pursuing a charitable purpose for public benefit, registration can be revoked, and the ATO removes the tax concessions that go with it.
Our constitution already contains a DGR revocation clause and an independent mediation clause for board deadlocks. Those were written in before registration, not bolted on after it.
6. Our details, for the record
Legal name | Weight of War Limited |
|---|---|
Entity type | Australian public company limited by guarantee |
ABN | 44 698 550 999 |
ACN | 698 550 999 |
ACNC status | Registered charity, effective 29 May 2026 |
ATO DGR status | Application with the ATO. Not endorsed. Donations not tax deductible |
Financial year end | 30 June |
Contact | info@weightofwarrun.com |
Public register | acnc.gov.au/charityregister |
Directors: Joshua Joseph Atkins (Managing Director and Chair), Ella Jane Berry-Porter, Benjamin Keith Mayfield-Smith. All unremunerated.
7. What Weight of War is asking for
Check us. Search our ABN on the ACNC Charity Register before you give us a dollar. Do the same for every charity that asks you for money.
Hold us to the reporting. Our first Annual Information Statement will be public. If it is late, ask us why.
Register for the Run. Saturday 5 December 2026, in Brisbane, Cronulla, Karratha and Canberra. Free to enter, for everyone.
Sponsor a leg. Local base sponsorship starts at $750 and funds a location.
Wait on the tax receipt. If a deduction matters to your giving, hold until the ATO decision and we will tell you the moment it lands.
8. One last thing
Five years ago in 2021, this was one bloke in a weight vest and a pair of budgy smugglers, having a laugh at his own expense to raise a few dollars and shine a light on a heavy issue.
It is now a registered Australian charity with a board, a constitution, two partner organisations and a Commonwealth regulator reading our paperwork.
The budgy smugglers are not going anywhere.
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