U.K. Charities Lose More Than $2-Billion a Year to Fraud, Study Says
January 28, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
Fraud costs British nonprofit organizations nearly $2.1-billion annually, according a new study, Third Sector Online says.
Eleven percent of charities have been victims of fraud in the past five years, and misdeeds take a 2.4 percent bite out of the budgets of nonprofits in the country, the National Fraud Authority, an arm of Britain’s attorney general’s office, says in its 2011 Fraud Indicator report.
The study covers fraud by staff, phony grant applications, and money lost due to the impact of fake charities.
Plus: The global aid charity Oxfam says bogus collections of secondhand goods are a factor in bare shelves at its charity shops in Ireland, reports the Irish Times.
Phony doorstep solicitations as well as the recession have eaten into the supply of books, clothes, CDs, DVDs, and other goods, leaving stores with critically low stocks, said Oxfam, which launched an appeal this week to boost collections.
