May 4, 2023
Akademos Society is a registered Australian charity. We provide financial assistance to students facing economic and social disadvantage. We currently run three programs: Akademos Scholarship; Kids Off The Streets and Akademos Study Grant. At Akademos, we are committed to our core principles of transparency and accountability. In practice, this means that we keep our donors, supporters and members of the wider community informed about our operations and significant financial matters on a regular basis; that we are open to audit requests from our supporters and relevant community organisations; and that we are fully accountable for our decisions.
In light of the situation in Afghanistan, 2021-22 was a particularly difficult year for Akademos, our partners and program participants in Afghanistan. This severely limited our ability to support students in the country. Owing to the adverse security situation, our Najiba-Akademos Computer Lab and Kids Off The Streets (KOTS) program had to be suspended during the year as our partners closed their offices. Despite the challenges, Akademos continued supporting our tertiary students until the completion of their degrees. This included financial support and the provision of laptops to enable them to further their education online. In early 2023, we also partnered with a school in Afghanistan. Through this partnership, we have now added 20 new students to the KOTS program who will be supported throughout their schooling years.
In financial year (FY) 2021-22, Akademos received $27,845 in revenue and expended $15,361, resulting in a surplus of $12,484 for the year (2020–21: $3,742). The lower expenditure is largely attributable to temporary suspension of programs in Afghanistan, which have now partially resumed. As mentioned, Akademos is already working with the new partners in Afghanistan, and will utilise the surplus towards the expansion of KOTS.
In FY 2021-22, our revenue decreased by 7% from last year — this was driven by a substantial decrease in donations received from community and corporate sponsorship (-84%), partially offset by increase in donations received through one-off donations (+133%), and from regular donors (+50%). The increase in the number of one-off donations is due to resumption of annual fundraising appeal which had been constrained by the COVID pandemic in the previous year. Akademos had nineteen regular donors throughout the year, which is largely consistent with last year’s numbers. 92% of the expenses in 2021-22 were direct financial assistance provided to 31 students in Akademos Scholarship program which increased from 23 to 25 students, and Akademos Study Grant which added three new recipients during the year. This took the total number of grants awarded to six. A detailed breakdown of all revenues and expenses is provided in the Notes to the Financial Report section of this report.
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