When one person handles all the money, even honest mistakes can look suspicious — and that’s a problem for your club’s reputation.
In rowing clubs, it’s common for the treasurer to wear many hats: collecting dues, depositing checks, paying bills, and recording transactions. It may seem efficient, and in small volunteer-run organizations, it often feels like the only practical option. But from an audit perspective, it’s a red flag — one that can expose your club to serious financial and reputational risk.
When a single person controls the entire cash flow process — from collection to deposit to bookkeeping — there’s no safeguard against errors or misuse. Even if your treasurer is completely trustworthy, the lack of oversight makes it easy for mistakes to go unnoticed and difficult to prove that nothing improper has occurred. In the world of nonprofit financial management, perception matters just as much as reality.
We’ve seen it happen:
- A treasurer accused of mishandling funds simply because no one else ever reviewed the books or bank statements. The treasurer was innocent, but the damage to trust was real.
- Duplicate payments made because no one reviewed disbursements before checks went out — small amounts that quietly added up over a season.
- Revenue shortfalls discovered months later because there was no second set of eyes checking deposits against membership records.
These aren’t hypothetical scenarios. They’re patterns that surface regularly during financial reviews of clubs and nonprofit organizations that grew quickly without updating their internal controls to match.
Why It Matters
Auditors look for control systems, not just good intentions. A well-meaning treasurer is not a substitute for a well-designed process. Weak internal controls can lead to negative audit findings, lost donor confidence, difficulty securing grants, and in extreme cases, fraud or theft that goes undetected for years. Once trust is lost in a volunteer-driven organization, it’s very hard to regain — and membership confidence is the foundation everything else is built on.
It’s also worth noting that inadequate controls can create personal liability for board members. If your club’s bylaws require financial oversight and that oversight isn’t happening, leadership may bear responsibility for any losses that result.
How to Fix It
Strengthening your club’s segregation of duties doesn’t require hiring additional staff. In most cases, it simply means distributing responsibilities more deliberately among existing volunteers or board members:
- Separate duties so one person collects payments, another deposits them, and a third reconciles the bank account.
- Require dual approval for large expenses or checks over a set dollar threshold — typically any amount your board agrees is material.
- Implement a regular review process where bank statements are reviewed monthly by someone other than the person who prepared them.
- Rotate financial roles periodically so no single person controls the same function indefinitely, reducing both risk and dependency on one individual.
- Ensure your club carries fidelity bond insurance, which protects against losses caused by dishonest acts — an added layer of protection that auditors and grant-makers often look for.
These steps don’t signal distrust toward your treasurer. They signal that your club is professionally managed and takes its fiduciary responsibilities seriously.
Bottom Line
In rowing, no single rower powers the boat — the crew works together, each person accountable to the rhythm and direction of the whole. Your finances should operate the same way. With multiple people involved in key financial processes, your club is better protected, more transparent, and better positioned to earn the confidence of members, donors, and auditors alike.