The money talk your group keeps putting off

In short: Almost every volunteer treasurer is honest, and almost every small group runs on trust. But when money goes missing from a small organization, it’s a far bigger share of what the group has, and the weakness behind it is usually the same: one person handles the money and nobody else looks. A handful of habits that cost nothing fix that, and they protect your treasurer as much as your money.

It’s the night after the tournament. The cash box from the concession stand is on your kitchen counter, and you’re counting it alone, for the second time, because the first time you got $412 and this time you got $421. Team fees came in all month: some by card, some through the treasurer’s personal payment app, a few by check, which are in an envelope in your bag. The bank statements go to one person’s email. Nobody else has ever looked at them, because nobody has ever thought they needed to.

Nothing is wrong here. That’s the point. If something were wrong, nothing would look any different.

The conversation nobody wants to start

Most groups never talk about how their money is handled, because it feels like an accusation. The treasurer is a friend. They volunteered for the job nobody else wanted, and they’ve done it faithfully for years. Asking for a second person to count the cash sounds like saying you don’t trust them.

So turn it around: good habits protect the honest treasurer most of all. When the count is off, a check goes missing or a family insists they paid, records and a second person are what clear the treasurer’s name. Without them, an honest mistake and a theft look exactly the same, and the treasurer is the one left explaining.

What the numbers say

The best data on this comes from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. Its latest study, Occupational Fraud 2026: A Report to the Nations, looked at 2,402 cases of fraud committed by people inside organizations. It counts employers, not volunteer groups, so a pack, a team or a PTA won’t show up in it directly. But its patterns travel well:

• Small organizations feel it most. Organizations with fewer than 100 employees made up 22% of the cases, with a median loss of $126,000. Losses didn’t vary much with size, the report says, but at a small organization they “likely represent a much larger percentage of the organization’s revenue.”
• Nonprofits aren’t spared. They made up 10% of the cases, with a median loss of $69,000.
• It goes on for a while. The typical fraud lasted 12 months before anyone found it.
• It’s most often found because someone speaks up. 43% of frauds were uncovered by a tip, more than by any other method.
• Weak controls are behind most of it. In 70% of cases, the main weakness was a lack of internal controls (33%), someone overriding the controls that existed (19%), or a lack of review by someone in charge (18%). And among the organizations studied, only 41% of those with fewer than 100 employees had management reviews in place, compared with 79% of larger ones.

We couldn’t find a national count of money lost from PTAs, booster clubs, youth leagues or scout units. But as a 2016 article for the National Federation of State High School Associations put it, “dozens of cases annually have been reported of embezzlement by booster club officials”, and those are only the cases that were reported.

And losing money isn’t only theft. Cash left in a car, a check that never gets deposited, a refund paid twice, a payment credited to the wrong family: honest mistakes cost small groups money too, and they hide in exactly the same gaps.

How it tends to happen

The pattern tends to look the same, and it’s built from ordinary, well-meant shortcuts:

• One person does everything. They collect the money, count it, deposit it, pay the bills and read the statements. Nobody else ever sees the whole picture.
• Cash with no count. Money from the gate or the concession stand goes home in a box, counted by one person, with nothing written down until later.
• A personal account in the middle. Payments go to a volunteer’s own payment app or bank account “just for now”, to be passed on later.
• Nobody reviews. The statements arrive, and the only person who reads them is the person who wrote the checks.
• Time passes. A year goes by. A new treasurer takes over, and the records are a box of receipts and a spreadsheet only one person understood.

The habits that work, and cost nothing

Organizations that handle a lot of volunteer money publish simple rules for it. National PTA’s and Little League’s come down to a few habits:

1. Two people count the cash, together, and write it down. National PTA recommends that its local units “have two people count the cash and write up the deposit together.” Little League asks for more than one person in every count too.
2. Everything goes into the group’s own account, quickly. “Never deposit any funds (i.e., checks, cash, or money orders) in anyone’s personal account,” says National PTA.
3. No personal payment apps. Utah PTA puts it plainly: “A PTA should never use someone’s personal or business account for PTA purposes,” and an online payment account should be linked directly to the PTA’s bank account. And Washington State PTA noted in 2024 that, as far as it understood, even the nonprofit accounts of a popular payment app had to be tied to a personal phone number.
4. Two signatures, from people who aren’t related. National PTA asks for two signatures on every check, from signers who aren’t related to each other, and, wherever possible, two administrators on every online account.
5. Split the jobs. Little League says the treasurer shouldn’t also be the league’s president.
6. Someone else looks every month. National PTA asks that bank statements and reconciliations be reviewed each month “by someone who does not have access to the bank account or authority to sign checks.” Little League recommends an audit committee of three board members, none of whom is the president, the treasurer or a check signer, to review the books at least quarterly, and ideally every month.
7. A record for every dollar. A receipt for every payment that comes in and every expense that goes out, kept where the next treasurer can find them. Keeping one list of who’s paid, however they paid, makes this much easier.

The hardest part is starting. Bring it up at the first meeting of the year, when nothing is wrong, and make it about protecting people: “Let’s set up the money so nobody ever has to wonder, including whoever’s treasurer.” A good treasurer will usually be glad you asked.

Why we built Grouperly the way we did

We can’t count your cash box for you. But we built Grouperly’s money features so that the second look is part of how money moves, not an extra chore for someone.

• Card payments go to your group, not to a person. Families pay by card into your group’s own Stripe account, which pays out weekly to the bank account you connect. Make that the group’s account, and no volunteer’s personal app ever sits in the middle.
• Every payment has a name on it. Families pay when they RSVP for an event or buy from your group’s store, so each payment is tied to a family and to what it was for, with a receipt. Refunds go back the same way.
• Cash and checks are on the same list. Record cash, checks and payments made through other apps against each family, so one list shows who’s paid, however they paid. Cash and checks are tracked until they’re deposited, so nothing gets lost between the event and the bank.
• More than one set of eyes. Roles carry their own permissions, so the treasurer can handle money without seeing everything else, and your group’s owners and admins see the same money records the treasurer does.
• A report for whoever checks the books. Download the money records whenever you like, and hand them to the person who reviews them each month.

Grouperly isn’t accounting software, and it doesn’t replace your bank statements or your books. It keeps a clean record of what came in for your events and your store, so the person who reconciles the account has something solid to check against. Here’s how cash and checks work.

The talk is easier when it’s not about anyone

Have the money talk once, at the start of the year. Put the habits in writing, make them part of the treasurer’s job description, and keep them when the job changes hands. The next treasurer will thank you, and so will the one doing it now.

Sources

• Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Occupational Fraud 2026: A Report to the Nations (14th edition, 2026), and its press release (May 12, 2026)
• National PTA, Local Leader Kit: Financial Best Practices, Incoming Monies and Paying Expenses
• Little League International, “Treasurer: Local League Role”
• Utah PTA, “Online Payment Collection Systems”
• Washington State PTA, “Ask WSPTA: Can a PTA sign up for a Venmo account?” (January 23, 2024)
• Lee Green, “Booster Club Embezzlement: Legal Issues, Preventive Strategies”, National Federation of State High School Associations (September 12, 2016)