Managing Charity Finances

It’s a common misconception that the responsibility of the charity finances sits with the treasurer. Even if your charity has an expert managing its finances, all trustees have equal responsibility to take steps to make sure that your charity’s money is safe, properly used and accounted for.

Where charities have fallen short of managing their finances correctly, the Charity Commission will interrogate the charity’s internal financial controls and procedures. We therefore recommend that all charities undertake an annual review of internal financial controls to ensure money coming into the charity is secure and recorded, only spent on charitable purposes, and not at risk of theft, fraud or cyber-crime. The Charity Commission has a useful internal financial controls checklist to assist, and we can provide an independent review.