about us

The CMA Standards Council (CMASC)

Our mission is to help build faith and trust in Christian organisations, be they churches, charities, schools or otherwise, to enable them to achieve more effective outcomes.

We believe that the love and teachings of Jesus are vital for our world to experience and understand, and therefore we believe that Christian organisations and churches perform a valuable role in society. Our desire is that these organisations are effective in pursing their mission, and that they govern and account for themselves in a manner that stands up to public scrutiny. Christian organisations should be the standard-setters in terms of impeccable corporate behaviour, and the CMA Standards Council exists to help the Christian sector meet that high standard.

We do this by:

  • Articulating and publishing a set of standards defining accountable behaviour for Christian organisations and churches;
  • Accrediting organisations who are fully compliant with those standards;
  • Publishing details of accredited organisations in our directory;
  • Providing resources, training and assistance to help organisations become more accountable; and
  • Challenging donors and volunteers to favour organisations who are serious about good governance, transparency and accountability.

The idea of the CMASC has been around for a long time, but the implementation is brand new. The CMASC is a ministry of Christian Ministry Advancement (CMA). A Standards Committee was formed in late 2015, and a part time Executive Director commenced in February 2016. Our model is simple, and follows patterns established in the USA and Canada. We invite Christian organisations to commit to our standards, prove their compliance, pay a fee, and cooperate with us in ongoing monitoring. In return, they are permitted to display our 'Accredited' seal on their website and literature, they appear in our 'Give Confidently' directory, and they receive a range of other benefits. For more detail, see our 'Get Accredited' page.

We conducted a 'soft launch' at the CMA Conference in June, 2016, where representatives from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) in the USA were present to sign an MOU signifying a collaborative relationship between the CMASC and ECFA. After conducting a Pilot Program with selected organisations we formally launched the CMA Standards Council at an event at the historic Athenaeum Club in Melbourne on 16 November 2017.