Safeguarding every donation you make

We verify every charity. So you know your giving goes to the right place.

How can you be sure a charity is legitimate? It can be hard to tell – and harder still to know if they’ll use your money for charitable purposes.

It gets even more difficult when charities are based overseas. 

When trust matters, trust CAF

Our expert verification team and risk-based processes make sure your donations are going to legitimate organisations that will use the money charitably.

It’s often the reason donors choose to work with us, especially when donating to overseas charities. 

The stakes are high when you stand up to make a difference. And our standards are just as high. So you can give confidently every time. 

Help us speed up the process

Our approach to verification

Our approach to verification is designed to:

 

• Make sure charitable funds are used for legitimate charitable purposes in line with UK law
• Give donors confidence that their donations are safe and being used as intended
• Facilitate tax-effective UK charitable funds to support the work of charitable partners around the world
• Protect CAF’s reputation as a diligent and safe grant maker
  

Our verification work is shaped by applicable laws and regulations to make sure we distribute funds safely and legally. It is based on three pillars:

 

• To verify the charitable purpose of the grant
• To minimise risk of financial crime. This includes money laundering, terrorist financing, tax evasion facilitation, proliferation financing, bribery and corruption, and sanctions breaches.
• To mitigate fraud risk
  

We carry out regular risk-based monitoring and assurance of the verification work we do. This involves:

 

• Regular quality checks against a range of operational processes associated with verification, grant making and screening of beneficiaries
• Separate reporting lines for our front-office and back-office functions
• Making sure the verification and fund distribution work done by our front office functions are approved or monitored by our back office functions
• Completing regular internal and external audits

Repeat donations 

Repeat donations can normally be made quickly. We’ll check the organisation is still legitimate and that the money will again be put to good use. The timeframe depends on the size of the donation and the circumstances in the country in which the organisation is operating.

Reverifying charities 

We reverify periodically to check the charity is still legitimate and that donations will continue to be put to good use.

Other checks

We verify any partners or organisations that may receive part of a donation. Where there are more risks, we go further and deeper with our checks.

We also carry out post-grant monitoring, except if an organisation is registered as a UK charity. This involves reporting on the use of the grant. If an organisation doesn’t provide this information, we can decide to stop any future grants.