Mission

Promoting best practice in internal audit and internal control of charities and not for profit organisations.

Strategy 2021-2025

Chair's Annual Report

The Charities Internal Audit Network (CIAN) was founded in 1994 by a small number of internal audit professionals employed in the charity sector who recognised the benefits of having a Forum through which all Internal Auditors in the sector could come together and share knowledge and learn from each other. Our Network now has over 150 member organisations and offers opportunities for internal auditors in the charity sector to share and develop skills and experience through networking, benchmarking,  CPD sessions, a shared bank of templates and guidance, and subsidised training courses.

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We aim to support members in effective internal audit provision thereby helping charities to achieve their objectives, and to promote the profession of internal audit in the charity sector. Membership of CIAN is free and available to any charitable or not for profit organisation. For more information: click here.

We are an independent charity with the active support of the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors UK and Ireland as well as a number of professional services firms who generously provide CIAN with venues and other in-kind support. You can find out more about our governance and Committee below. 

CIAN Trustees

CIAN is a volunteer-run organisation and a charity in its own right. Our Committee acts as both our executive committee and our Board of trustees. The Committee is responsible for all CIAN activities as well as the strategic direction and governance of CIAN.  

Governance

Chair - Vanessa Clark

Vanessa was appointed as Chair of CIAN in October 2018, having been a Committee member since July 2016.

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She is Senior Internal Auditor at the Wellcome Trust. Prior to joining the Wellcome Trust in early 2016, Vanessa spent five years in KPMG’s Internal Audit Risk and Compliance Services team, providing outsourced and co-sourced Internal Audit services as well as Risk Management to clients in a variety of sectors. She is a qualified chartered accountant.

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Vanessa has a keen interest in charity governance, and is especially passionate about CIAN's work to promote internal audit in the sector. If you are interested in the work CIAN does or want to talk about the value Internal Audit can add in the charity sector, you can contact her at  

Secretary - Angela Oritsejafor

Angela Ortisejafor was appointed Secretary for CIAN in late 2017. She is the Head of Internal Audit at Sue Ryder. A qualified accountant, she has a preference for audit as it means getting out to different places, meeting different people and learning and understanding about new areas; and also gives the opportunity to help and support others in the organisation. Angela also supports Sue and Natasha with managing CIAN's training, events and resources. 

CIAN was initially a 'sanctuary' for Angela when she was a newly appointed Head of Internal Audit. It met her professional needs and allowed her to meet like-minded professionals with similar challenges in the role. It helped build her network and confidence in the role. She joined the Committee to help ensure CIAN can continue to provide this valuable role for others. 

Treasurer - Vacancy: Could this be a role for you? More information on the role of our committee is available here.

If you are interested in joining the CIAN committee, please contact Vanessa Clark at  

Member Relations

Robert Auguste 

Robert Auguste is the Membership Officer for CIAN and has been involved in CIAN for the past 5 years. He looks after new membership requests, membership data and the mailing list. Robert is a Senior Internal Auditor at Barnardos, and is involved in a range of audit related activities. He also takes a lead role on counter-fraud and whistleblowing in the organisation. 

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Beginning his career in the public sector, Robert moved to the charity sector in 2015. For Robert, CIAN has an integral role in the charity sector, providing support, advice, and knowledge-sharing amongst its members but also as a conduit for collaborative working with key interested bodies and partners involved in charities, ensuring continuous improvement in the sector.

 Garry Smith 

Garry Smith joined the CIAN Committee in August 2020. Garry is part of the NSPCC's Internal Audit team. 

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PR & Communications

 Laura Kemp 

Laura has been on the CIAN committee since 2020, promoting CIAN on Twitter (@CharitiesIA) and LinkedIn as the Communications Lead. Laura is also CIAN's Deputy Chair. She has been an Internal Auditor with RSPB since September 2019 and is currently studying for the Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) and IIA Certificate in Internal Audit and Business Risk qualifications. She also has a compliance auditing certificate from the Civil Aviation Authority. 

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Laura has found CIAN to be an incredibly valuable source of information and support because the charity sector faces such unique challenges. The detailed resources provided and the ability to ask for help from colleagues in other charities has been a great comfort, especially during the difficult times we all faced in 2020. She looks forward to helping CIAN raise the profile of Internal Audit in the charity sector and the wider Internal Audit sector because Internal Auditors are needed in charities now more than ever. 

Training, Events and Resources

 Sue Davis

Sue Davis joined the CIAN committee in August 2020. Sue works as Internal Audit Manager at The Orders of St John Care Trust and is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Internal Auditors and an Accredited Counter Fraud Specialist. Sue spent many years as an internal audit professional within local government, police and other government departments, before moving into the charity sector, working both internationally and more recently heading up newly formed internal audit functions within UK based charities.

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Sue is passionate about the value Internal Audit can bring to charitable organisations and joined the CIAN committee to support its work in assisting the many charity auditors out there that have limited resource to access training and best practice guidance.  

Natasha Scott 

Natasha Scott joined the CIAN Committee in December 2017. She works for WaterAid as an Internal Auditor and is a chartered accountant with experience auditing public sector organisations, charities and companies.

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Natasha feels CIAN is extremely valuable to the sector as it provides relevant learning opportunities through the diverse and interesting speakers who present at our network events, and it is a great way to meet people working in the sector.

Special Advisers to the CIAN Committee

Jonathan Orchard

Partner - Sayer Vincent

Sherv Cheung

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Sherv Cheung was previously a CIAN Committee member, working in internal audit at the Donkey Sanctuary and, since leaving charity internal audit, has continued to support CIAN as a Special Advisor, with a focus on communications. 

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Jonathan is a charity sector specialist and authors CIAN's Special Adviser's Update - an exclusive members-only publication that highlights key technical changes and considerations pertinent to the sector.

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Jonathan is a Partner at Sayer Vincent.