News story

Fraud Awareness Week: round up

A summary of activities from the first Charity Fraud Awareness Week.

• From: The Charity Commission
• Published: 2 November 2016

This news article was withdrawn on 22 March 2019

This page has been replaced by a newer version. Go to information about the 2018 charity fraud awareness week.

Protecting charities’ funds: detecting fraud against charities

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Last week saw the inaugural Charity Fraud Awareness Week capped off by the second National Charity Fraud Conference on Friday. The week was a joint initiative between the Charity Commission and the Fraud Advisory Panel to use social media to promote fraud awareness and encourage everyone working within the charity and not-for-profit sectors to discuss the issue. Please see below for a round up of everything that took place throughout the week.

• on Monday the commission launched the new Charities Against Fraud website to support and promote the work of the Charity Sector Counter Fraud Group in tackling fraud
• on Wednesday the commission released its first ever summary analysis of fraud issues reported to the commission via its ‘Reporting Serious Incidents’ regime - a copy of which is available on GOV.UK via the link above and the Charities Against Fraud website
• on Thursday, board member Mike Ashley was interviewed by the Guardian Voluntary Sector Network on the commission’s fraud prevention work
• on Friday, the second National Charity Fraud Conference took place - the event brought together senior figures from the charity and counter-fraud worlds to discuss the fraud challenges charities face, highlight current risks, and share best practice in fraud prevention, detection and response
• the results of the week long social media poll found that 93% of respondents think that fraud is a major risk to charities

To see more comment from throughout the week search for #charityfraud on Twitter.

And finally, don’t forget the commission’s top tips to reduce your charity’s vulnerability to fraud include:

1. Develop a strong counter-fraud culture where staff are encouraged to play their part in the fight against fraud.
2. Have in place and robustly apply internal financial controls.
3. Encourage staff to voice concerns.
4. Have a fraud response plan so that everyone knows what to do and when - stay calm but act quickly when incidents do occur.
5. Ensure you report incidents to Action Fraud and report it to us as a serious incident to the Charity Commission.

Published 2 November 2016