# Australian Charities Scraper (`captivating_clarinet/acnc`) Actor

Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) Scraper

- **URL**: https://apify.com/captivating_clarinet/acnc.md
- **Developed by:** [Aly](https://apify.com/captivating_clarinet) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.01 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## ACNC Charity Search

Search the [Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC)](https://www.acnc.gov.au/charity/charities) public charity register by name, ABN, location, and the same filters available on the site — status, size, state and country of operation, beneficiaries, and charity subtype.

For each matching charity you can get either a quick summary row, or the full record: contact details, financials, beneficiaries, countries of operation, responsible persons (directors), and program/activity descriptions.

### What it does

1. Builds the same search request the ACNC website sends when you use the filters on [acnc.gov.au/charity/charities](https://www.acnc.gov.au/charity/charities).
2. Pages through all matching results.
3. For each matching charity, optionally fetches its full public record (one extra request per charity — see **Fetch full charity details** below).
4. Saves one row per charity to the dataset, with a source URL and a UTC capture timestamp on every row.

This is a JSON-API-based scraper (no browser), so it's fast and doesn't require Playwright.

### Input

All fields are optional — leave everything blank to fetch all registered charities (not recommended without also setting a reasonable **Max results**).

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| **Charity name or ABN** | Free-text search, same as the site's main search box. |
| **Charity location** | Free-text suburb or postcode search. |
| **Status** | Registered / Revoked / Voluntarily revoked. |
| **Size** | Small / Medium / Large. |
| **State of operation** | Australian state or territory. |
| **Countries of operation** | Country the charity operates in. |
| **Who the charity helps** | One or more beneficiary groups (multi-select), e.g. "Youth", "People with disabilities". |
| **Charity subtype** | The charity's registered purpose/subtype. |
| **Fetch full charity details** | On (default): fetches each charity's full record — contact info, financials, beneficiaries, countries, directors, and programs — at the cost of one extra request per result. Off: only the basic search-result fields (name, ABN, status, size, suburb, state) are returned, and the run finishes much faster. |
| **Max results** | Caps how many charity records are fetched. Default 5. |

All filter dropdown values are generated directly from the ACNC site's own facet list (`generate_schema.py` + `facets.json`), so the available options always match what's genuinely selectable on the live site.

### Output

One dataset row per charity. Exact fields depend on **Fetch full charity details**:

**With details on (default):**
`uuid`, `name`, `abn`, `status`, `size`, `address_line1`, `address_line2`, `suburb`, `state`, `postcode`, `country`, `website`, `email`, `phone`, `date_established`, `summary_of_activities`, `beneficiaries`, `countries_of_operation`, `responsible_persons`, `program_count`, `programs`, `total_income_donations`, `total_income_goods_services`, `total_income_govt_grants`, `total_income_investments`, `total_expenses_employee`, `total_expenses_other`, `last_reported`, `next_report_due`, `source_url`, `captured_at`

**With details off:**
`uuid`, `name`, `abn`, `status`, `size`, `suburb`, `state`, `source_url`, `captured_at`

`source_url` and `captured_at` are included on every row for traceability back to the exact request and moment the data was fetched.

### Example use cases

- Building a list of registered charities in a given state for grant or partnership outreach.
- Monitoring a specific charity's financials and reporting status over time (re-run periodically).
- Research into which charities serve a particular beneficiary group or operate in a particular country.

### Known limitations

- **Pagination** uses a `page` query parameter, confirmed against a real site request (0-indexed, matches the API's own `pager.current_page`). If the ACNC site changes this, the crawler detects that pagination stopped advancing and halts cleanly rather than looping.
- **`searchTerm`/`location`** map to the `search`/`location` query parameters, confirmed against a real request.
- This Actor depends on the structure of ACNC's public search and entity JSON API, which is not an officially documented/versioned API. If ACNC changes its site, this Actor may need updating.
- Respects the source site's own rate limits via conservative default concurrency (`max_tasks_per_minute=120`).

# Actor input Schema

## `searchTerm` (type: `string`):

Search by charity name or ABN. Leave blank to use filters instead.

## `location` (type: `string`):

Search suburb or postcode.

## `status` (type: `string`):

Charity registration status.

## `size` (type: `string`):

Charity size.

## `operatingState` (type: `string`):

Australian state the charity operates in.

## `countries` (type: `string`):

Country the charity operates in.

## `beneficiaries` (type: `array`):

Select one or more groups the charity benefits.

## `subtype` (type: `string`):

Charity purpose/subtype.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of charity records to fetch.

## `fetchDetails` (type: `boolean`):

Fetch the extensive details of the charities scraped

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "status": "Registered",
  "maxResults": 5,
  "fetchDetails": true
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "status": "Registered"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("captivating_clarinet/acnc").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "status": "Registered" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("captivating_clarinet/acnc").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "status": "Registered"
}' |
apify call captivating_clarinet/acnc --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,captivating_clarinet/acnc"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/F7rf04aja1Bvdz226/builds/4GrBILok6b5pdCWNl/openapi.json