You’ve worked hard to build your charity organization. And, it is easier than you might think to protect your assets from theft. The first two factors below are hard to detect, but the third one is in your control.
Need – Someone must have a (material or psychological) need to steal your organization’s money. When you see a change in an employee’s financial situation, for better or worse, this can be a clue.
Justification – This factor is also hard to detect. You can’t tell when someone is thinking, “I could get away with this.” Do people in your office say, “We don’t need to have two people count cash, we trust this person.” Let’s build a culture of trust with accountability.
Opportunity – Now for the the good news: Your organization can control opportunity. The following 12 simple policies and procedures work together to reduce opportunity.
- Check references when hiring, for everyone, even if you have known the individual for years.
- Conduct background checks.
- Check-preparers should not be check-signers.
- Require two signatures on checks over a predetermined dollar amount.
- Include in your procedures that someone oversees financial transactions.
- Reconcile bank accounts monthly.
- Two people count and sign off on cash received.
- Make deposits promptly.
- If you allow credit card use, require receipts and assign and enforce spending limits.
- Board or finance committee reviews each month’s expenses, including bank statements and cancelled checks.
- Keep check numbers in order so people notice if checks are missing.
- Manage, limit online bank account use.
What are your other safeguards? Please share with me, and with each other, in the comments below. Thanks!
I work for you and am hoping for your every success.
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