Fraud fighting website launches to mark Charity Fraud Awareness Week
Melanie May | 25 October 2016 | News
The Charity Commission has launched a website to help charities fight fraud to mark the start of Charity Fraud Awareness Week, which takes places this week (24th-28th October), jointly led by the Charity Commission and the Fraud Advisory Panel.
The Charities Against Fraud site has been launched in collaboration with members of the Charity Sector Counter Fraud Group to provide an initial point of reference for trustees, staff and volunteers who want to find out more about tackling fraud in their charity. It includes guidance, top tips, and case studies, and signposts users to other organisations tackling charity fraud.
Charity Fraud Awareness Week aims to promote awareness of the issue in the charity sector and to get people talking about it. Each day will see a series of prevention tips released, along with practical examples of common scams, and the week ends with the second charity fraud prevention conference on 28th October in London, which will highlight common fraud risks and share best practice in fraud prevention, detection and response. Two regional events will follow in December and January for those not able to attend this week’s conference.
Throughout the week, charities are asked to follow the #charityfraud hashtag, tweet or email fraud-related questions to a panel of experts or share their own counter fraud initiatives, and organise their own fraud awareness week activities. Free resources are available from the Fraud Advisory Panel’s dedicated webpages.
Michelle Russell, director of investigations monitoring and enforcement at the Charity Commission said:
“Fraud can thrive in an environment of weak governance and poor financial management, so we are reminding charity staff and trustees, as part of Charity Fraud Awareness Week, to seek out the good practice guidance that is widely available and to review their charity’s financial controls and procedures. We’re keen to work closely with charities to improve their fraud resilience and hope that the new site will enable charities to access and learn from the best practice that’s already out there.”
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.