Practical Internal Controls for Nonprofits with Pinion

October 27th and 29th, 1:00-2:15 PM MT

Course Description:

Intended Audience: Executive Directors, finance staff/bookkeepers, board members and treasurers, and leaders of all‑volunteer or small‑staff organizations.

Session One | Tuesday, October 27th

Internal Controls Fundamentals & Fraud Awareness: Why controls matter—and where nonprofits are most vulnerable

Establish a foundation and shared understanding of internal controls and why they are critical for protecting organizations, employees, volunteers, and boards — not just for audits, but for sustainability and trust.

This session will cover:

• What internal controls are (and what they are not)
• Common control breakdowns in small organizations
• Fraud awareness and the fraud triangle (nonprofit‑specific context)
• The five components of internal control, explained in practical terms
• Red flags and questions leadership and boards should be asking

Participants will leave with practical tools and a high‑level framework they can use to assess risk within their own organizations.

Session Two | Thursday, October 29th

Building Practical Internal Controls for Small & Growing Nonprofits: How to design controls that work—regardless of staff size 

This session is more applied and focuses on implementation, showing organizations how to design reasonable, scalable controls based on their size and capacity. It will emphasize “right‑sized” controls — what’s reasonable, what’s expected, and what actually works in practice.

This session will cover:

• Internal controls for all‑volunteer and small organizations
• Creative approaches to segregation of duties using boards, external support, and technology
• High‑risk transaction areas (cash, disbursements, online banking, credit cards, journal entries)
• Scaling controls as organizations add staff and complexity
•  Management and board oversight responsibilities

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