Charity Fraud Awareness Week 2018

Fraud is an increasing issue within all organisations, including not-for-profits. Given the high levels of public trust in charities, they're often easy targets for fraudsters looking to abuse public generosity and charity goodwill.

Charity fraud can come in all different shapes and sizes, and it is estimated to cost UK charities more than £2bn a year. With reported fraud rising at such a dramatic rate, it is imperative that trustees and charity leaders put the appropriate steps in place to protect their income and assets.

Charity Fraud Awareness Week takes place on 22 – 26 October 2018 and focuses on internal fraud, moving money safely and the importance of due diligence. The main aims of Charity Fraud Awareness week are to raise awareness of the key risks affecting the sector, promote and share good counter-fraud practice, and promote honesty and openness about fraud.

The campaign offers you and your organisation the opportunity to take part in internationally co-ordinated efforts to inform charities and the general public about:

• common types of charity fraud
• how to spot the warning signs
• how to protect charities, donors, funders and beneficiaries
• how to report charity fraud to law enforcement and regulators.

Each day of Charity Fraud Awareness Week is assigned a different theme. On Tuesday (23 October) the focus turns to grant fraud, due diligence and partnership working, Wednesday (24 October) looks at donation and legacy fraud, Thursday’s (25 October) activity centres on insider fraud and the week wraps up on Friday (26 October) with a look at how charities can best move money safely.

The Fraud Advisory Panel have some excellent free resources available for charities to use: fundraising fraud, insider fraud, bribery and corruption, identity fraud and reporting fraud.

Join the conversation at #CharityFraudOut

At Haines Watts, we specialise in giving holistic financial advice to charities. Our expertise stems from years of experience advising a diverse mix of North East not-for-profits. If you’d like to find about more about recognising and preventing charity fraud, get in touch with Gillian Hollier.