If you are collecting money for a nonprofit or for some other charitable cause, you need to make sure that any cash or checks that you collect remain as safe as possible. If you can’t safeguard that money, you’re doing a disservice to both the individuals who gave it to you and also the entity for which you are collecting. You also don’t want to lose any of that money or have anyone steal it because then, there is some risk of people thinking you did something underhanded with it.
You can take certain steps to make sure the cash and checks you collect are safe. Let’s look at how you can take a commonsense approach to this issue right now.
You Can Use a Secure Container When Collecting
Safety matters in everything you do. For instance, if you’re trying to access a computer network, and you want to make sure only authorized individuals can do that, you might use multi-factor authentication. If you were crossing the street, you would look both ways, and so forth.
In fundraising, if you’re going to have to carry around checks and cash, you can make it less likely that anything might happen to that money by keeping it in a secure box with a lock on it. There are portable cash boxes you can get that lock, and as long as you retain the keys for that box and don’t let it out of your sight, that’s going to work a lot better than keeping the money in an unsecured location.
You Want at Least Two Unrelated People Handling the Cash
You should also make sure you assign at least two individuals to handle the organization’s cash during the collection process. If you’re collecting for a nonprofit, for example, you’ll want to arrange for a team to deal with that money rather than just one person.
As long as you trust everyone on that team, this is a better situation than assigning just one individual to handle this significant of a job. This way, one person can go to the bathroom or go get some food while the others watch over the cash. It’s much harder for anyone to lose that money or for anyone to steal it if this is a multi-person effort.
Use a Safe Route When Going to the Bank
Until the money you collect is safely in the bank, there are risk elements involved whenever you fundraise. You’re going to have large cash quantities on you, and that can attract someone who might want to steal it. You’d hope they would think twice about their plans because you’re collecting for a nonprofit and a worthy cause, but some unscrupulous people won’t care about that.
When you’re going to the bank to drop off that money, make sure you go in the daylight and that you take a route with plenty of people along the way who can see what’s happening. Visibility is your friend.
If you take some secluded route to get to the bank, you make it easier for someone to try and rob you. You can avoid this by having as many witnesses around as possible.
Put that Money in the Bank as Quickly as Possible
As long as you have that fundraising money out of the bank, it’s not safe. You want to make sure to get to the bank as fast as possible and drop off that money for your own peace of mind.
You don’t want to leave the cash in your home for days after the fundraising event. Keeping it at home overnight should be okay, but do not delay any longer than that. Once the sun is up the next day and the banks open, make sure to drop off that money before you try to do anything else.
Once you drop off that money, make sure you get a receipt for it as well. You can keep that receipt as proof showing how much money you collected. You will also want to give everyone a receipt who donated. They can write off charitable contributions on their next tax return.
If you follow this approach, you should be able to bank all the cash you collected for your charitable event or nonprofit entity. You run little risk of anyone robbing you or losing any of that money. The charitable organization or nonprofit for which you collected will definitely thank you for it.
