Most nonprofit leaders would agree that conducting a risk management or legal audit for their organization would be a great idea, but that this is simply not a priority given current program initiatives, fundraising efforts, and limited staff resources.

Instead, such an audit often only takes place after there is an accident, impropriety or legal problem. Ironically, the circumstances leading to the accident or legal problem could have been identified and addressed by an effective audit! It is unfortunate for the organization, its members, donors and constituencies, that boards or executive staffs do not conduct risk management audits until a significant problem draws the attention of the entire organization, the local community, or hits the national spotlight.

An Alternative to a Costly Audit

David Adams has recently identified an outstanding on-line tool that will create a comprehensive risk management report customized for your nonprofit organization and requires less than two hours to complete.

The application was developed through a generous grant to the Nonprofit Risk Management Center, a Washington D.C. nonprofit established in 1990 to provide assistance and resources for community-serving nonprofit organizations.

The tool, called Nonprofit CARES (Computer Assisted Risk Evaluation System), includes nine modules that apply to virtually every nonprofit:

These nine modules (which ask questions about your organization’s current practices) will take approximately 60-90 minutes (in total) to complete and can be done in one sitting, or spread out over time. At any time you can print off a report that will give your organization a comprehensive risk management report for each or all of the modules.

This report will provide you will outstanding information about the areas your organization may have risk (and legal) exposure and how to address these issues.

If You Use Our Services, We will Reimburse You for the Cost of This Audit

While any person can access this system for free, there is an $89 licensing fee (payable by credit card to the Nonprofit Risk Management Center) to print the final report with the actual findings produced by your answers. This fee entitles anyone in your organization to access the system (including the reporting module) at any time.

If you send David Adams a copy of your report, he will review this for free. If you end up using David’s legal or risk management services to help implement recommended changes, he will subtract $89 (the cost of the report) from your first bill.

If you are a church or religious organization, David will also send you a free risk assessment questionnaire that addresses the common legal and risk management issues unique to churches and not covered in the Nonprofit CARES application.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE Nonprofit CARES website