What is the cost of fraud & theft to animal charities?
NEW YORK, N.Y.– Data gathered by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners and evaluated by four professors of nonprofit accounting indicates that U.S. charities are losing about 13% of their annual income to fraud and theft– more than twice the 6% rate of loss for all organizations, including government agencies and for-profit businesses. The sum stolen, estimated at about $40 billion in 2006, is roughly equal to the sum of all giving by corporations and private foundations, Independent Sector president Diana Aviv told Stephanie Strom of The New York Times. The amount stolen from animal charities, if proportionate to total charitable giving, would be about $400 million: three times the total income of the Humane Society of the U.S., with about half the amount stolen from animal care organizations and the rest from organizations chiefly involved in advocating for wildlife and habitat. Among 58 cases reported to the fraud examiners in a random survey of charities, the typical thief
