Nudging charities to balance the needs of the present against those of the future

This chapter explains the need for some temporal rules in charity law. It raises the underexamined issue of the point in time at which charities are expected to produce a public benefit from resources that they hold. Timing is critical to identifying which persons will benefit. Will they be members of the present generation that have provided resources or collectively granted concessions to the charity? Will future generations benefit instead?

The temporal issue will impact in different ways depending upon a charity’s purpose and the means it uses to achieve that purpose. The considerations that apply to a bushfire disaster relief charity will diverge from those relevant to a university intended to last in perpetuity. Nevertheless, to remain relevant to as broad a group of charities as possible, this chapter looks in general terms at the gaps in existing constraints and proposes reforms that would better promote an intergenerational balance.