Getting Real About Land Trust Financial Management Risks

Land trusts invest tremendous time, energy and resources to obtain the funds needed to accomplish their missions.

In this training, your organization will learn how to also invest time, energy and resources to prevent mistakes and dishonest acts from draining those resources and damaging your reputation. This practice is often known as having internal controls. If you are an executive director, board member, finance staff member or finance volunteer, your internal controls practice must assess, mitigate and respond to three major risks:

• Misappropriation, or theft of organizational assets.

• Misstatement, or unintentional or deliberate reporting of misleading financial information.

• Corruption, or misuse of your assets to provide private benefit rather than achieve your mission.

During this webinar, Kay Sohl, land trust financial management consultant and trainer, and Allison Rehor, finance and operations director for Colorado West Land Trust present a risk-based framework for internal controls. Through discussion of real-life control challenges that land trusts confront as they grow, you’ll learn cost effective strategies to prevent, detect and correct bad things that can threaten your good work. Here’s a look at what we will cover:

• Tone at the top matters most: why leaders’ action or inaction matters more than words.

• Which risks pose the greatest threats to your land trust.

• Why you may need to ditch the outdated procedures checklist and focus on strategies that address emerging as well as continuing risks.

• How to communicate internal control expectations and make consequences for ignoring them clear and consistent.

• Why waiting for the auditor to find control weaknesses is a bad idea.

• How you can develop effective internal monitoring strategies, no matter how small or large your land trust is.

This webinar is included in the 2026 Online Learning Pass.