Safe and sound
November 2009
Enhanced awareness of legal obligations for non profits
Trustees now have access to more detailed advice on how to safeguard their charity and its beneficiaries, managing risks and protecting the organisation from potential harm and abuse.
The Charity Commission has launched a new online toolkit – Protecting charities from harm – off the back of their Counter-terrorism strategy which committed to building on good practice already embedded within the sector.
Poor governance and administration, and inadequate risk management procedures can leave charities wide open to abuse by terrorists. The toolkit won’t focus exclusively on terrorist abuse but will clarify legal requirements and aspire to assist non profits in rendering their organisations less vulnerable to a whole host of abuses.
The guidance aims to raise awareness of the risks charities face from terrorism and other financial crime or abuse, explain relevant parts of the legal framework within which charities must operate, highlight examples in good practice in managing these risks and building safeguards and add value to charitable work.
The first chapter, Charities and terrorism, is available online now and contains more detailed advice to help charities assess and manage the risk of links to terrorist activity, or of terrorist abuse. It’s particularly aimed at those charities which, whether working at home or abroad, are likely to be exposed to greater risk of abuse.
Andrew Hind, chief executive of the Charity Commission, emphasised that certain risks charities face aren’t commonplace. ‘Some of the problems highlighted in our new toolkit are rare, but there is no room for trustees to be complacent about managing any risks their charity may face,’ he said. ‘Whatever a charity‘s size, activities or area of operation, the implementation of strong governance arrangements, financial controls and risk management policies and procedures will ensure that it is better safeguarded against a range of potential harm.’
The remaining three chapters, to include information on safeguarding charity funds, their people, property and reputation will be published by March 2010 and over time the toolkit is to be supplemented by real case studies.
The first chapter can be found at: www.charitycommission.gov.uk/investigations/toolkitintro.asp
Author: Claire Shropshall
Claire Shropshall is the editorial assistant for Charity Funding Report, Caritas, and Codicil magazines. Claire has a BA in English Literature and Philosophy from Birmingham University and a Postgraduate Certificate in Periodical Journalism from London College of Communication. She previously worked in Central America as a voluntary reporter for an English-language newspaper.
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