Preventing Fraud in NPO’s

Non Profit Organisations can be attractive targets for fraudsters. People who are passionate about their missions are naturally trusting of those who share the same interests as them. Unfortunately NPO\’s are more susceptible to fraud because they do not have the resources to help prevent fraudulent activity from happening within their NPO.

Below are a few ways that you can try to prevent fraud from happening within your NPO.

Background Checks – A-lot can be learned from a person’s work history, credentials, pre-employment drug testing and their criminal background.

Fraud Policy – Put a fraud policies in place and and explain the policy to your employees to make sure that they all understand the consequences of fraud.

Create a whistleblower’s hotline – The reporting system should be anonymous, it has been proven that most fraud tips come from employees, clients, and outside vendors.

Random Audits – Regularly conduct internal audits, do not make them routine as they should happen unexpectedly so that anyone that is in the middle of committing a fraud does not have time to cover their tracks.

Divide Tasks – Dividing the financial duties is a great way to fraud prevention. When one person handles all parts of your NPO’s financial transactions, it leaves your organisation vulnerable to fraud. Ensure that the person depositing funds into bank accounts is not also the person that maintains the records for these accounts.

Taking Leave – Rotate the responsibilities among your staff and ensure that your staff take leave by doing this you will make it challenging for the fraudster to hide their crime as they often need to make ongoing adjustments to cover their tracks.

If you don\’t believe your organisation could be at risk get in-touch with Uphando