A charity which says it helps children who have fallen behind at school has collected nearly $1 million in donations, but cannot account for how all the money supposedly paid to beneficiaries has been spent.

Care 4 Kids has raised nearly $1 million through its sole method of fundraising, doorknocking. Donations are only taken in cash.

According to audited accounts filed with the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission, Care 4 Kids says it has paid $509,180 to "beneficiaries" since 2011, with the rest of the money going predominantly on wages for doorknockers.

However, after questions from 7.30, Care 4 Kids director Michael Johnston said the money had not been paid directly to beneficiaries, but rather to two private tutoring companies, Numbertaker Australia and Numbertaker Education.

Mr Johnston said Care 4 Kids paid the companies to supply tutors to needy Australian children. The tutors are based in the Philippines and teach the children via Skype.

The ABC has learned the two companies are wholly owned by Michael O'Connor, the son of Care 4 Kids director Edna O'Connor, and pay a consultancy fee of around $10,000 to Mr Johnston.

However, when 7.30 asked Mr O'Connor about Care 4 Kids, he said he had no knowledge of the children it helps.

"Not myself. I don't know exactly who they are," he said.

Mr O'Connor also said he had no knowledge of the financial dealings of the charity.

"I don't know about the finances, I just simply do the mailing."

Mr Johnston's personal financial benefit from the work of Care 4 Kids is listed nowhere in the charity's publicly available documents.

Charity says it has helped '50 or 60' children

The Care 4 Kids Foundation also provides no details of the "50 or 60" children Mr Johnston told 7.30 it has helped in more than two years of operations, or even of the types of programs it offers.

After requests from 7.30 for evidence of the charity's work, Mr Johnston supplied the names and contact numbers of several parents in New South Wales and Victoria whose children have received tutoring from Numbertaker Australia and Numbertaker Education.

All the parents, whose children have been receiving tutoring for between two weeks and 10 months, said they were happy with the lessons, and that their children, many of whom had disabilities, had benefited.

However, repeated requests for evidence of how the rest of the $500,000 allegedly paid by Care 4 Kids Australia to beneficiaries has been spent have been ignored by the charity's directors.

The independent auditor who checked the financial accounts sent to the charity regulator has also not replied to detailed questions from 7.30 about the charity's finances.

Owners previously associated with tutoring companies wound up by ASIC

Mr Johnston and Ms O'Connor have previous experience with tutoring.

In 2006, two companies they were associated with, Tutormaster and ABC Tutoring, were forcibly wound up by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for failing to pay debts.

The pair are currently in the Philippines and declined 7.30's requests for an on-camera interview.

The Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission has been tipped off by a member of the public to concerns about the charity's operations.

Its commissioner, Susan Pascoe, does not comment on individual cases, and would not confirm whether an investigation has begun into Care 4 Kids Foundation.

However, she told 7.30 that any possible financial conflict of interest or personal financial benefit by directors of a charity would raise red flags.

Liz Gillies, a long-time leader in the charitable sector and fellow at the Melbourne Business School, said of Care 4 Kids:

"It is absolutely so inappropriate that a charity would have so little regard to those people that have supported it in providing so little information about beneficiaries, about how it conducts its business, about the manner in which it determines whether it's making a difference to those it's seeking to serve, and I think that raises really significant questions that need to be asked in regards to this particular charity."