Sources and methods

23.98    The NPI satellite account has been compiled from a variety of data sources, including ABS economic and social collections. The sources used to compile the various data contained in the satellite account are outlined below.

23.99    The bulk of the data contained in the NPI satellite account are monetary aggregates. This includes data about income, use of income, capital expenditure and asset stocks, as well as the national accounting measures of output of goods and services and gross value added.

23.100    The main data source for the NPI satellite accounts is the annual Economic Activity Survey or EAS. Over 4,000 NPIs were surveyed in the 2012–13 EAS, almost double the number of NPIs that were included in the 2006–07 survey. The survey covered all employing and significant non-employing non-profit organisations and collected a range of information from a sample of these organisations, including detailed information about their financial performance over the reporting period. The identification of NPIs on the ABS Business Register of organisations was reviewed and improved. This review led to the removal of some organisations, which are not NPIs for the purpose of the NPI Satellite Account, from the EAS and NPI organisation counts for 2012–13.

23.101    Micro non-employing non-profit organisations with turnover below a set threshold were excluded from the scope of the 2012-13 EAS. Information for these organisations was therefore taken from Business Activity Statement (BAS) data as collected by the Australian Taxation Office. Data available from BAS records included in the satellite account relate to sales and service income, labour costs (wages, salaries and superannuation), non-capitalised purchases and capital expenditure. Data for other survey questionnaire items, including transfers and donations paid and received, were not available from BAS records, nor was a suitable imputation method apparent for these items.

23.102    Data in respect of permanent full time, permanent part time and casual paid employees of NPIs were also collected as part of the EAS. Given the nature of the administrative arrangements for deducting tax with respect to paid employees, the ABN based survey frame should cover all employing NPIs.

23.103    The 2006–07 EAS also collected information as to the number of volunteers that each organisation surveyed reported had worked for their organisation during the reporting period. More detailed information on volunteering was available from the ABS publication, Voluntary Work, Australia 2006 (cat. no. 4441.0); estimates from this publication were used for the satellite account. For this reason, the 2012–13 EAS did not collect information about volunteers. Updated estimates on voluntary work will not be available until 2015. Once the voluntary work data are available, the ABS will compile the number and contribution of volunteers to non–profit organisations for 2012–13. These data will be released in a second issue of this publication in June 2015.

23.104    The compilation of data about the value of volunteer services involves taking information on the annual hours volunteered from the General Social survey and assigning a wage rate from the Employee Earnings and Hours publication. As detailed in the conceptual framework appendix, the Handbook on Non–Profit Institutions in the System of National Accounts recommends three alternative methods for estimating the value of volunteer services (see also paragraphs 23.61 to 23.64).