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Does your charity know what fraud risks it is exposed to?

Charity Fraud Awareness 2019

Does your charity know what fraud risks it is exposed to?

Could your charity be leaking money to fraudsters, reducing the amount of funds it can direct to its good causes?

This week is International Charity Fraud Awareness Week 2019  and today we are asking charities whether they have undertaken an organisational risk assessment. In addition to fraud this should cover, cybercrime, bribery and corruption, money laundering, terrorist financing, modern slavery and facilitation of tax evasion risks.

What does this mean?

A number of charities we have spoken to have conducted risk assessments on some of the specific charity sector risks such as Legacy and Fundraising Fraud , as well as moving money safely and banking fraud. Those charities have not necessarily considered more general business related fraud such as insider fraud , insider threat to data security. It is also important to refresh the risk assessment on a regular basis to take account of changes to your organisation or emerging risks such as Business Email Compromise Fraud.

Why is this important?

A risk assessment is the staring point to making sure you have effective policies and procedures in place which are proportionate and specific to the risks you face. Every charity is different and therefore its risk assessment will differ both in terms of the identified risks and its response to managing those risks.

Many charities start with writing a policy however this is in our view the wrong approach. A risk assessment should inform your policies and procedures and help identify what training is required across the organisation.

What next?

Our self-serve guidance will help you:

  • Identify the key risks and who is responsible for managing them;
  • Consider the impact of potential frauds;
  • Assess the scale/likelihood of the risk of fraud occurring;
  • Identify/evaluate the adequacy of existing controls to mitigate the risk;
  • Implement revised controls/action plan for the future, and
  • Monitor and Review the impact of actions.

Our free resources include:

  • A Business Area Fraud Risk Assessment Template  to aid your assessment of high risk areas of the business.
  • A Fraud Risk Analysis Template to collate the different fraud risks in each area of the business. Then enter each of the identified risks on your risk register.
  • example Consequence (Impact) and Likelihood Measures

Premium content available includes our unique Taxonomy of Fraud which provides a comprehensive reference point for the different fraud types and key controls.  

For those who prefer face to face consultancy we have various services to provide continued support including assistance with fraud risks assessments or independent audit/review .

We will be liking and retweeting other posts so please join us in keeping #charityfraudout.

Ask us a Question

We want to make sure the advice we give this week is relevant to your needs. We are therefore inviting you to ask us a question and we will provide our response and post these online. Simply complete the form below to submit your question.

Ask us a question about managing financial crime risks including fraud, cybercrime, bribery, corruption, money laundering, terrorist financing, sanctions, modern slavery or facilitation of tax evasion.

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