Part 6 of our ongoing Fraud in the Church series. PSK in cooperation with the National Association of Church Business Administration (NACBA) conducted a survey to determine the extent to which churches are attempting to address the problem of church fraud. We asked them to respond to this statement:

Our church requires volunteers responsible for special events to submit written financial reports.

The vast majority of churches have implemented adequate control procedures over the Sunday offerings. However, funds that arrive in the church office from Monday through Saturday are a completely different story. These types of revenues typically consist of offerings dropped off by members, fees for various events and food service revenues and special event revenues under the direct supervision of volunteers, such as fundraisers, banquets, and short-term mission trips.

According to our survey, a full third of the respondents have no reporting mechanism for these types of special events. Theft of special events funds by trusted volunteers frequently pop up in the news media. For example, in the city where I live, a prominent public school coach was relieved of his duties when it was learned that he was in the regular habit of skimming from the receipts his team’s annual fund raiser.

To avoid the headlines, at a minimum, churches should require volunteers to account for tickets and/or products sold and fees collected at fundraisers and special events. As a matter of routine the sales report should be reconciled with the total cash generated and deposited into the church bank account.