Our commitment to you
We have five core service principles that underpin our commitment to you:
- We are responsive when you contact us
- We are always professional in our dealings with you
- We value your feedback and we listen and are engaged
- We respect your privacy
- We are accessible to you through many different contact channels
If you would like to read our full Service Charter, please click here.
After all, without your support, we would not be able to continue dramatically changing the lives of children around the world.
However, we know that there may be times when we do not meet our own high standards. When this does happen, we want to hear about it, resolve the situation as quickly as possible and put measures in place to stop it happening again.
We take complaints very seriously and we treat them as an opportunity to develop. This is why we are always very grateful to hear from people who are willing to take the time to help us improve.
So, how can you tell us your thoughts?
How to make a complaint
Call
You can call us on 1800 76 00 11. One of our friendly Supporter Care Team will be ready and willing to help. Our phone lines are open Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm.
Outside of these hours, you can always leave us a message and a contact number and someone will return your call within one working day.
Email
You can email us at supporter.care@savethechildren.org.au
Write
You can write to us at:
Save the Children Australia
33 Lincoln Square South
Carlton VIC 3053
Please include your name, address and a contact telephone number in your email or letter so that we can get back in touch with you easily.
How long will the complaint process take?
You will receive an acknowledgement of your complaint within two days of receipt. We will endeavour to respond fully and conclusively to all complaints within ten working days. Wherever possible, we will investigate the matter more quickly. In more complex situations where an immediate response is not possible, we will investigate the matter and get back to you as quickly as we can. In the past, we have found the best way to resolve a problem quickly is by telephone. This way we can make sure that we fully understand the issue and can gather all of the information that we need to resolve the problem in a fast and effective way.
Our approach to resolving complaints
We will work hard to resolve problems, correct mistakes and address concerns to reach a fair and reasonable outcome. When contacting us about a complaint, please feel free to let us know how you think it could be resolved.
We will always treat you with courtesy and respect, listen to what you say, keep you informed about our progress, provide you with a prompt response and tell you who to go to if you want to escalate your complaint further.
From time to time, we receive complaints that do not relate directly to something that Save the Children Australia has done or that we are not able to comment on. We are a charity with limited resources and we must use these in the best way possible. This can mean not engaging in lengthy debates on issues that are unrelated to Save the Children Australia's work.
There may be rare occasions when we choose not to respond to a complaint at all.
These include:
- When a complaint is about something that Save the Children Australia has no direct connection to. We may choose to reply to clear our name but we are not obliged to.
- When someone pursues a complaint that we have already responded to, with no new issues raised. They will be given escalation points but we may choose not to reply again. We will always inform you of our decision to do this.
- When a complainant is being obviously abusive, prejudiced or offensive in their manner.
- When a complainant is harassing a staff member.
- When a complaint is incoherent or illegible. When a complaint has clearly been sent to us and numerous other organisations as part of a bulk mailing or email. In this instance we can choose whether it is necessary for us to reply.
Save the Children Australia cannot respond to complaints made anonymously. However, we can give general information and advice to anonymous callers. We can also investigate the complaint and use the information to improve in any way that we can.
For privacy reasons, we don't collect information about third parties who aren't directly involved in the matter, such as friends, other family members and neighbours.
What if you are not happy with our response?
We hope we are able to resolve your complaint by reaching a fair and reasonable outcome you're happy with. However, if you are dissatisfied with our resolution, you can write directly to our Supporter Care Manager.
Please outline the details of the complaint, why you have not been satisfied with our response up to now, and what you would like us to do to put things right.
Supporter Care Manager
Save the Children Australia
33 Lincoln Square South
Carlton VIC 3053
Email: supporter.care@savethechildren.org.au
If we can't help you
Save the Children Australia is a member of the Fundraising Institute of Australia (FIA) and is committed to the highest standards in fundraising practice. If your complaint is to do with fundraising and you feel that it has not been resolved satisfactorily by us, then the FIA can investigate your complaint.
For the matter to be investigated, you must contact FIA within two months of receiving your response from us.
Fundraising Institute of Australia
PO Box 642
Chatswood NSW 2057
Tel: 1300 889 670
www.fia.org.au
Alternatively, if your complaint is related to another area of our work and you do not feel completely satisfied by our response, then you can contact the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) at the address below:
The Australian Council for International Development
Private Bag 3
Deakin ACT 2600
Tel: +61 2 6285 1816
Email: main@acfid.asn.au
www.acfid.asn.au
If you're part of a DSS-funded program and have feedback or a complaint that Save the Children can't resolve, we encourage you to contact DSS:
Telephone: 1800 634 035
Email: complaints@dss.gov.au
Online Complaints Form
If you need more information
We treat all feedback and complaints as an opportunity to improve. We are happy to acknowledge and apologise for mistakes we have made and then try to prevent them from happening again in the future. Thank you for helping us to provide a better service.
Where you feel unable to raise a concern through the above standard feedback channels because of reasonable grounds to fear reprisal, you may use the mechanisms provided by our Whistle-blower Policy.
To provide effective protection over disclosures, including allowing continuous discussion with anonymous reporters we has chosen to use an external, secure, online service from Whispli.
This is the preferred and easiest mechanism for making a protected disclosure and can be used by anyone with internet access and a browser by going to: https://app.whispli.com/save-the-children-au.