Our impact
What the money entrusted to us has changed for people, communities and the environment across Australia.
Impact is how we measure ourselves
Charity Bank Australia lends only to organisations whose purpose is to improve life for other people. Every deposit we hold is put to work as a loan to a charity, a community housing provider, a school, a shelter or a social enterprise — and we report back on what those loans made possible.
We have made over 1,480 loans worth over A$653 million to organisations working right across Australia
Our impact in numbersImpact highlights
A$96.6 million
approved in new lending to organisations delivering social impact during 2025.
493
charities, community organisations and social enterprises borrowing from us.
5,634
savers whose deposits make that lending possible.
A word from our Chief Executive
“Demand on the organisations we lend to has not eased. Housing waiting lists are longer, food relief is busier, and services that people depend on are being asked to do more with less. Against that, 2025 was a year of real progress: more organisations reached, more green projects funded, and more of our lending going to communities that mainstream finance tends to pass over.”
“None of it happens without our savers. Their money is the whole machine. What we owe them in return is a plain account of where it went and what changed — which is what these pages are for.”
Meredith Okafor
Chief Executive Officer
Our strategy for impact
Strengthen organisations
Fill the gaps other lenders leave, and leave borrowers more resilient than we found them.
Communities and planet
Prioritise organisations serving people who are underserved, and fund work that cuts emissions.
Leading by example
Run the bank the way we ask others to: inclusive, transparent and accountable to the sector.
How a deposit becomes impact
- Savers and investors place money with us. It is not lent to fossil fuels, weapons, gambling or tobacco — it funds the social sector, and nothing else.
- An organisation talks to a lending manager about what it is trying to do. We look at the purpose of the project as closely as we look at the numbers behind it.
- Where we cannot help, we say so early and point to grant funders, other social lenders or readiness support rather than leaving an organisation to work it out alone.
- The loan is drawn, the building is bought or the roof is replaced, and we keep tracking what changed — for the organisation, for the people it serves and for its emissions.
Where our savers’ money goes
Money deposited with Charity Bank Australia is lent to charities, community housing providers, schools, shelters and social enterprises. Savers can see the sectors it reaches and read the case studies behind them, rather than taking an ethical claim on trust.
Savings
How we assess a loan
Every borrower must have impact as a core purpose, sign our statement of values and show evidence that the work is real. We weigh each application against five priorities: diversity, locality, additionality, depth of need and environment.
Impact is then tracked for the life of the loan, through financial monitoring, an annual borrower survey and the relationship manager who assessed the application in the first place.
Loans
The people behind the lending
Impact is reported by the same people who assess the loans, look after the savings that fund them and answer the phone afterwards.
Meredith Okafor
Chief Executive Officer
Meredith has spent her career at the join between banking and the for-purpose sector, leading community finance teams before taking on her first chief executive role. She joined Charity Bank to build a lender that answers to the organisations it serves rather than to outside shareholders.
“A bank is only worth having if the money passing through it leaves communities better off. That is the test I hold us to every year.”
Daniel Nguyen
Director of Lending
Daniel has worked in secured lending for two decades, most of it with charities, community housing providers and social enterprises. He leads the relationship managers who take a loan from a first conversation through to drawdown.
“No two organisations we lend to are structured the same way. Our job is to understand yours properly before we suggest anything at all.”
Priya Raman
Head of Savings
Priya looks after the savings range that funds every loan the bank makes, from personal accounts through to charity, club and credit union deposits. She came to Charity Bank from a mutual, where she rebuilt the way savers were told what their money was doing.
“Savers here want to know exactly where their deposits go. Answering that question clearly is the most useful thing my team does.”
Tom Whitlam
Head of Digital Banking and Crypto
Tom leads the online banking experience and the bank's digital asset services, which are registered with AUSTRAC. He has built payment and onboarding platforms for Australian financial institutions for fifteen years.
“Digital banking should feel calm and obvious. If someone has to read a manual to move their money, we have not finished the work.”
Aisha Hussein
Chief Risk Officer
Aisha oversees credit, operational and conduct risk across the bank and is the team's link to APRA and ASIC. She spent years in prudential supervision before moving to the other side of the table.
“Good risk management is not about saying no. It is about being honest early, so that a loan still works for the borrower in five years' time.”
Liam McCarthy
Head of Impact
Liam measures and reports what the bank's lending actually changes, and works with borrowers on the social outcomes behind each project. He previously ran evaluation for a national community services network.
“Impact is not a nice paragraph at the back of a report. We collect the evidence, we publish it, and we let it steer where we lend next.”
Online Banking 
Savings 
Sources: management information for loans approved and drawn to 31 December 2025, and our 2026 borrower survey. Lending figures are cumulative to date and are shown by sector on our impact in numbers.
Your bank for good
Savers who want their money to do something, and organisations that need finance to do it. Charity Bank Australia exists to put the two together.